Category Archives: Music

19th July picture(s) of the day…

19 Sunday Jul 2026

Posted by in Music, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Southport, Travel

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Another week ends and another chapter begins. My time in Marshside is over. Anne and Steve have returned from their break in Croatia so I’m moving again as I go from cat sitting to people sitting (long story). Right now I’m back at my sisters, helping out with a few chores before my next adventure.

the weather here in Southport has remained wall to wall sunshine, which is lovely if you enjoy the outdoors and getting a tan. It’s also been fabulous for the golf and the Open has been in town all week. Oddly, despite the numbers of people it draws in, the place has never felt overrun, Far from it. Whilst I’ve avoided Hillside and the areas around the Royal Birkdale course, if you went North of the town centre to places like Churchtown you’d have no idea anything special was happening.

Now the golf is over, although it’ll take a few days for the logistics to wind down and everything to be cleared away. Who won? I’ve no idea!

My day’s been taken up by caring for some recently planted trees on a local park which are feeling the stress from a lack of water. The park contains some exercise machines that I’ve been using several times a week, so I’ve taken to carrying bottles of water with me to give the trees some liquid relief. I’m not sure all are going to survive, but I’m doing my best.

The trees I’m trying to keep alive.

Apart from that I’ve been continuing my perambulations around town, watching what’s going on. Southport seems to be undergoing somewhat of a cultural revival, with all sort of events being staged. Today it was the turn of the old bandstand on Lord St. It’s been restored and the past couple of Sundays have seen various music events laid on.

A great group of schoolkids playing a mix of rock and folk. Sadly, I didn’t catch their name.

In fact – thinking about it – Southport’s has a lot of live music going on, and all of it for free. On Saturday there were craft stalls and a music stage outside the old market hall.

Then there’s the Northern end of Lord St, which is popular with buskers, and you can often catch acts outside this bar in the backstreets.

This spell of dry and sunny weather’s predicted to last until next weekend, so let’s enjoy it whilst we can. I’ve a busy day ahead of me tomorrow, but I’m hoping to get a trip away from the seaside later in the week, let’s see…

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Cheers,

Paul

24th June picture of the day….

24 Friday Jun 2022

Posted by in Food and drink, Halifax, Music, Picture of the day, The Piece Hall, West Yorkshire

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I have to admit, the day’s started well. I woke up to the news that the Tories had been roundly thrashed in both of yesterday’s bye-elections. The result in Wakefield was expected, but the Lib-Dems trouncing Tries in one of their safest seats wasn’t. As expected, it’s set a few cats amongst pigeons. Admittedly, I doubt it will lead to Johnson’s resignation. After all, he’s a man with neither scruples nor honour. He’ll hand on to No10 by his fingernails until he’s dragged from there kicking and screaming. He’ll have to be ejected by his own party or the electorate. I must admit I find the idea that his own constituents might finish his political career rather appealing if it wasn’t for the damage the man and the incompetent pets he keeps as a Cabinet could do in the meantime. I doubt Johnson will stay in politics after he’s ejected (one way or another). His only interest in politics was to massage his ego and get the top job. He’ll never stay on as a backbencher. Why would he? He’ll be off, being looked after one of the people he’s enriched who’ll give him a well-paid sinecure somewhere (preferably where he can’t do any more damage).

Apart from that been a busy morning/afternoon here in Bigland Towers. I’ve been kept occupied editing all the pictures I’ve been taking these past few days and getting them on my other website. You can find the results here. That done, it was time to finish type-swiping my latest article for RAIL magazine in order to be able to take some time off this afternoon as the pair of us are joining up with friends to go to the Piece Hall in Halifax this evening see too Nile Rogers and Chic in concert.

There’s only one tiny problem…

It’s an open-air gig and we’ve already had one absolutely torrential downpour with the weather forecast predicting thunderstorms to follow ! Now the sun’s out, making for a very muggy day with the temperature at 19 degrees. This could be interesting.

This means this is going to be a two-part blog, with the actual picture of the day added later. When I decide what it’s going to be…

OK. Here’s the picture of the day. The Nial Rodgers concert at the Piece Hall was an absolute stonker. It’s easy to forget just how many great tunes the man has written for other artists. Tonight he reminded us.

26th October picture (and soundtrack) of the day…

26 Tuesday Oct 2021

Posted by in Music, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day

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As expected I’ve been busy sat at home writing for a living today, compiling words for an article for one magazine whilst sending off pictures on a different issue to another, thus freeing me up from work tomorrow, which is no bad thing as it’s my birthday. Dawn’s made a fantastic chocolate cake that’s sitting in the kitchen now, ready to be consumed tomorrow.

With the writing over I fell into somewhat of an introspective mood. I’m missing travelling. I don’t mean up and down the UK as there’s plenty of that on the horizon. No, I mean getting away from ‘plague island’ and all its troubles to remember that the rest of the world does things differently and in many cases seems a lot happier for it. Without wanting to wish my life away, I’m looking forward to 2022 when the world is expected to start opening up again and I can rediscover some of the places I’ve missed these past couple of years.

I suspect my sense of ennui hasn’t been helped by stumbling across some Youtube videos of a singer I’ve admired for decades and whose music has travelled with me for the past 30 years – Joni Mitchell. Her album ‘Blue’ contains a track that’s been part of my travels since 1991 when a friend added it to a mix of songs on a cassette tape (yes, it was *that* long ago!) to take with me on my SE Asia solo adventure. The track, ‘Carey’ had such a resonance that I’ve had the album ever since. So, here’s Joni performing it on Youtube (complete with an explanation about the song’s origin)..

Meanwhile, here’s the picture of the day which I still have on my laptop which is from different travels. It’s an image of the Eyre Mountains opposite Queenstown, New Zealand that I took on the 27th February 1999…

I’ve a favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!