I spent last weekend down in Brighton. Much like everything else in the UK it’s been nearly two years since I was there. Getting down there was easy, but tiresome. The Megabus was as cheap and easy to book and use as always, but this time half-full of some kind of sports team who shouted like a stag party for all of the near two hours it took to get out of London and most of the forty minutes it took to get to Brighton. I tried to ignore them but wasn’t feeling great, so was just glad to be off the bus and in Brighton again.
Everything seemed much the same as ever, except for a couple of new buildings and the further descent into stick-town squalor of London Road. Not to say everything else wasn’t great, though – of all the places to visit in Britain it’s certainly the one with the most dense packing of things to do and buy. On a severe budget, I managed to limit myself to a haircut at Goose, a burger at Grubbs and a chocolate and orange Ben’s Cookie, all for (just) under a fiver. Then I did the half-hour walk down to Hove, where Duncan had organised one of his NFR Live nights at a literally underground bar called The Greenhouse Effect.

It was a cool night – caught up with Duncan, Amelia & Charlie and saw three decent bands. The last ones – My Device – played their entire new album, but the best were Catnap, who played some very decent free-jazz death-metal indeed.
Meanwhile I got everyone to look shocked for photos.

Here’s Charlie…

…Amelia…

…and Duncan.

The second day I went to see brokenjoystick at her new place in Hanover, supposedly the gayest part of Brighton. We had some food, talked about olden days, then we met up with Nick and Lottie and went down the Kemptown Carnival, which was more like a jumble sale with food stalls. It seemed to be winding down and starting to drizzle, so we went to Grubb’s again, then out for some beers with Charlie and Johnny.

Sunday meant a pub lunch with Charlie, then a dash to the bus station to find my Megabus was half an hour late, with the same sports team waiting to get aboard – though fortunately the prior warning meant I was able to avoid them by sitting at the front. While I was waiting Danny Madskilz called. I’d been trying to get in contact with him all weekend, but it turned out he’d slept through my whole visit.
So that was Brighton. Always fun to visit, though not the best place to work in. I’ll be down there again in less than a month for Duncan & Amelia’s wedding, which I’m already looking forward to, a lot.