Leadenhall Jazz Festival reflections

Just back from an exceptionally long, and pleasant, weekend in Brighton (no Rob, not at Pride) and just enough time to post about last Thursday night’s jazz at Leadenhall Market.

The musical highlight of my evening was Steve Gregory and Raul D`Oliveira playing some great tunes although I really have to add that Cattle Market also put together a great set. Having the stage in the middle of the market outside The Lamb really made for a great focal point and the acoustics were good to so perhaps a tip of the hat to the PA people should be in order.

As you can see from the photo, left, there was a big crowd present while the setting in Leadenhall Market created a great atmosphere and there was also plenty of food and drink on offer as many of the restaurants had set stalls up to accomodate those who wanted to eat but didn’t want to go inside and miss any of the music.

My particular shout goes out to S&M who served us up with a great sausage and mash with honey mustard gravy which I’ve been dreaming about since, the only downside being having to hurriedly supply a reasonable explanation each time I mentioned where I went for dinner.

As with all of these thing there are drawbacks and to get into the private party outside Cheese you first had to make it past door security checking to see if your name was on the list [wink].

Hats off to all of the organisers for a great evening and I’m hoping there will be more events there soon.  Kepp your eye on the Leadenhall Market website and, in particular, the social club page which offers events, discounts and prizes for members and a free trial membership. If you do want to give it a test drive you can pick up a card from the Market or fill in your details online.

Sax in the City tonight!

I’m looking forward to this evening. A lot. In case you weren’t aware Leadenhall Market have been holding “Sax in the City“, which is an overflowing bounty of lunchtime jazz, and this evening is the pinnacle of the event, namely the big evening bash.

Now some of you may still be lingering under the philistine misapprehension that jazz is inpenetrable music best played in darkened bars but It starts at 6pm and features a number of great acts with unassuming legend Steve Gregory in the lineup.

To quote from his bio:
Best known as the session musician who played the famous saxophone solo on George Michael’s “Careless Whisper”. Steve has also played on many other hits such as Queen’s “One year of love”, Alison Moyet’s “That ole devil called love”, Van Morrison’s “Hymns to the silence” and Chris Rea’s “Fool if you think it’s over”. If you enjoy Eastenders re-runs you might even see Steve backing Letitia Dean in the Vic!

There are other bands too with “Cattle Market”, winners of the 2009 Cheltenham Jazz Festival, featuring prominently and “Client Number 9″ on last and DJ Mark JB in between times.

Even if the idea of the music doesn’t immediately float your boat you should do yourself a favour and come along to enjoy the atmosphere as the bars will be open, they’ll be food a plenty and magicians will be wandering through the crowd plus it’ll be a chance to see one of music’s real characters.

You’ll need to go here if you want to see the programme for the evening and register to turn up.

Friday Round-up

Earlier in the week I brought you the police request to identify the man who jumped from the building near Bank and since then the press has been full of the tragic story of Anjool “Jools” Malde who had been asked by Deutsche Bank to leave work early last Friday while they investigated an “IT matter”. The general consensus seems to be that the fear of losing his job may have driven him to it although there are witness statements suggesting that he seemed fine only a couple of hours beforehand., and today the Daily Mail has suggested that the whole situation could have been caused by an internet prank that went wrong. Exactly what could have caused him to take his own life hopefully the coroner will discover.

It seems like the Metropolitan Police have been stung by events where Police officers and PCSOs have asked members of the public to delete photos from their cameras and the Met have responded with an official policy stating that all photography is permitted and that police should be involved if there is enough evidence to suspect a link to terrorist activity:
“Members of the public and the media do not need a permit to film or photograph in public places and police have no power to stop them filming or photographing incidents or police personnel.”

In my coverage of the G20 riots back in May I had no queries from police about my taking photos, even at the times when I was in between police lines, but I know some photographers did. With all my previous photos online (see Flickr gallery to the right) myself and thecity.co.uk owner Rob have been bantering about what kind of photo I’d have to take to get myself arrested but it seems as though the Met have taken that particular form of excitement away now.

Lastly I’d recommend you have a look at Leadenhall Market’s upcoming Jazz Festival, called “Sax in the City”, particularly the evening event on the 30th
July featuring Steve Gregory, former sax player for George Michael (”Careless Whisper” anyone?), Van Morrison and Georgie Fame amongst many others. I played guitar with Steve a few times in different bands over the years and more recently he played at my birthday party while I sang Sinatra numbers, though you’ll no doubt be pleased to know that I won’t be reprising those at the market… they couldn’t afford me

Police Guidance to Photograpers
http://www.met.police.uk/about/photography.htm

Leadenhall Market - Sax in the City
http://www.leadenhallmarket.co.uk

Leadenhall Market Diamond Hunt

After a few easy questions the Leadenhall Market Diamond Hunt is getting tougher and starting to weed out a few competitors.

Actually a few diamond hunters have fallen even before now and tried to convince the organisers that their crossword was broken rather than assuming their answers were wrong. If you’ve come here from Google then I’m afraid you’re not going to find any answers here, particularly as I don’t intend to lessen my chances of winning the nice, shiny rock but before you move along you might want to cheer yourself up with a Youtube video of dumb people firing guns. It’ll take your mind off it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3_vHUXsunE

Leadenhall Market Diamond Hunt
http://www.leadenhallmarket.co.uk/diamond/login.php

Leadenhall Market Diamond Hunt

Alec, proprietor of the Leadenhall Market website and a diamond-geezer if ever there was one, emailed us here at City Towers to say that there’s a competition starting on May 15th in which a one-carat diamond, insured for £5,000, has been hidden in the Square Mile and can be won by the person that answers all the questions over the four week duration of the hunt., or as it says on the official website:
“The quiz with ever increasing levels of challenging questions will run for 4 weeks. The questions will include historic references to Leadenhall Market and surrounding areas, the vibrant city today and fun head scratching cryptic challenges. The first participant who has correctly answered all questions and worked out the resulting location of the hidden diamond will be the proud owner of this precious sparkler!”

If you can’t resist such a dazzling opportunity then head over to the Leadenhall Market website and register your interest, and while you’re there you can register for discounts and updates from participating outlets in Leadenhall Market.

Leadenhall Market Diamond Hunt
http://www.leadenhallmarket.co.uk/diamond.php

Boris Johnson and Gary Rhodes at Leadenhall Market

Mayor of London Boris Johnson was at Leadenhall Market with chef Gary Rhodes today to celebrate St George’s Day and arrived, slightly late it has to be said, on a red Routemaster bus and gave a speech in the Market expressing his pride in England and London and about drawing on St Georges Day as an opportunity to celebrate the great things about London and England:
“What better time than St George’s Day to bring us all together to express the pride we have in our country”

Moving to a theme of absorbing foreign culture he did also point out that Saint George was a Cappadocian merchant who sold bacon to the Roman army, so there’s my useless fact for the day!

The folk musicians were playing and a fair crowd of assorted folks were there with the inevitably high proportion of suits and I never thought I’d be even slightly moved by the sight of Morris Dancers but they were there doing their thing as a reminder of bygone, simpler times and a crowd of passing foreign schoolchildren stood watching them for a while with a certain amount of bemusement. Now they know how we feel watching men in lederhosen slapping themselves or each other!

Town Crier Peter Moore, who shares the unique distinction amongst town criers of being a Freeman and a liveryman, was there giving the proceedings a more properly formal air and I also bumped into Dave Jones, who’s one of the organisers of this Saturday’s Saint George’s Day concert in Trafalgar Square.

A great celebration to be sure though even Boris can’t get a bus to run on time apparently…

Greater London Authority Press Release
http://www.london.gov.uk/view_press_release.jsp?releaseid=21797

St George’s Day concert on the square
http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/culture/st-georges-day/concert.jsp

Peter Moore - Town Crier
www.londontowncrier.com

Saint George’s Week at Leadenhall Market

On Saturday I was partying with the Dutch but as this week is Saint George’s Week and Leadenhall Market is celebrating by showing off the best in English wine, ale and food so I popped along to the combined shop and cafe “Cheese”, who are marking the week by highlighting the great British cheeses that they have available such as the gloriously named Stinking Bishop and Isle of Wight Blue, to name but two. I suspect I’ve been one of many people who’ve lingered under the misapprehension that cheese basically comes in two varieties, namely the edible variety that comes on pizzas and burgers or the smelly variety which was created purely to challenge the gag reflex of young children.

I spoke to the immensely affable and approachable owner and manager Sue Cloke who dispelled that particular myth with a fabulous range of artisan cheeses and was able to tempt me to one of their upcoming events,
“informal master classes, where Sue will guide the student through the tastes and textures of selected cheeses and discover how cheese is made, their characteristics and suggested uses in cooking and entertaining.

Sue certainly knows her stuff having been at the helm in the cheese department of the well known Harvey Nichols store and prior to that was at Leathams Larder and Jermyn Street cheese emporium Paxton and Whitfield so if you’re either a cheese connoisseur looking for a knowledgeable cafe/retailer in the City or a cheese newbie who wants to leave the beginners pool of cheddar and mozzarella then I can thoroughly recommend “Cheese” to you. Tempted beyond endurance I bought a selection of cheeses, and accessories, to start me off on the road from cheese-novice to cheese-ninja!

Other events in the Market this week include the variously bearded bohemians who make up the lunchtime folk musicians and apparently on Thursday beloved London Mayor BoJo will be making an appearance at some point as part of his admirable display of support for Saint George’s Day events in London although it’s pretty unlikely that he was English and it’s quite possible he didn’t set foot in England at all. Never mind, let’s not quibble over the details.

… and I managed to get through the whole post without mentioning Monty Python’s “Cheese Shop” sketch….

Leadenhall Market
http://www.leadenhallmarket.co.uk

Cheese At Leadenhall
http://cheeseatleadenhall.co.uk/

St George’s Day on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_George%27s_Day

Cheese Shop Sketch
http://stuff.mit.edu/afs/athena/activity/h/humor/Special/Monty.Python/cheese

Oz & James

Yesterday saw those paragons of British manliness, James May and “TV’s Oz Clarke”, at Leadenhall Market for a book signing in Waterstones. There was a good crowd and the pair seemed to be on good form taking time to have pictures taken with those who had lined up in the light rain for up to an hour. Oz and James were their to promote their new book, “Oz & James Drink To Britain” which accompanies their new BBC TV series of the same name which is on BBC2 on Tuesday nights and repeated through the week.

I have to say there seemed to be a high proportion of women in the queue which I would have put down to “buying for the other half” if it wasn’t for one young lady who gave a flower to a slightly-surprised James!

Waterstones at Leadenhall Market don’t seem to have any more book signings lined up at the moment but check back on the Waterstones website to keep up to date.

Daily Photo 09/12/08: Leadenhall Market Ceiling