May 10th - 11th: going to London: Scott Henderson at Ronnie Scott's

For this day I had bought a ticket for a show that Scott Henderson would be doing in London. Scott Henderson is a guitar player who plays a kind of fusion jazz style. He is one of the best guitar players in this style and the show is at Ronnie Scott's which is a very famous jazz venue in London, so I was very excited to go to this concert.

I caught the National Express bus down to london. 9 pounds each way. Pretty good value I think. I didn't take my camera with me because I decided I'd already got a few pictures of London and it might be fun to look around without thinking about taking pictures.

A few days earlier I had bought an Amazon Kindle. I think this was a very good purchase and I was excited to read on it. I bought it on the bus but on the way down to London I was feeling a bit ill from the motion so I didn't read much.

I sat one seat in front a guy who soon revealed that he had an annoying and persistent cough. "gghheeegghhh!" was the noise that came out at regular three minute intervals. Always the same noise and I don't think it was very effectual which is why he had to do it every 3 minuets. There was also some nasal congestion. I decided that I really didn't want to catch a cold from this guy right before exams, and sitting one seat in front of this for the whole 2.5 hour journey would not be good. So, I picked up my bag and moved somewhere else.

I got to London and then bought a 12 inch Subway sub. I was very hungry. They put on a bountiful amount of cheese. Then I walked to the hostel. I was staying at the same hostel that I first stayed at in London. It is called the Astor Museum Inn. It is right across the road from the British Museum and fairly close to Ronnie Scott's. I tried to see if I could find my way to this hostel from the bus station without using a map. But I got disoriented a little past Trafalgar Square and had to consult the map. On the way I picked up some Sainsbury's microwave macaroni cheese.

An Australian person checked me into the hostel. I didn't really feel like doing the "oh I'm Australian too" thing, so I didn't. She had to look at my passport so she also saw that I'm Australian. She didn't feel like doing the "I'm Australian too" thing either.

The macaroni cheese wasn't that good. It's quite bland actually.

I considered going across to the British Museum, but, it was closing in a little over half an hour and I didn't really feel like that. So I sat in the hostel and read Oliver Twist on my Kindle for about an hour until it would be time to walk to Ronnie Scott's. It was quite a hot day in London.

I walked to Ronnie Scott's.

I was a bit too early. I sat around for a while enjoying the inside scenery. All the walls are covered in photos of the famous musicians that have been to the place.

Some pictures of the inside of Ronnie Scott's, taken from Google image search.

 The first band was the house band, a trio. Piano, drums, double bass. They played some nice jazz. They played one song which was written by Sonny Rollins in this room on a napkin. The drummer was quite cool. He liked to hit it fairly hard and intensely. They finished with the jazz standard Caravan.

Then there was a small gap. Scott Henderson wandered around the place for a while and set up his gear. Some people asked him if he could sign some things. But he was setting up his guitar effects and he looked a bit frustrated so he told them to wait and the guy who asked was a bit embarassed. I sat next to some business people who were ordering lots of expensive food to eat. They were quite friendly. He is a Bullion Dealer. He trades precious metals and stuff. He'd been to quite a few concerts at Ronnie Scott's and told me about them.

Then Scott Henderson played his set. It was really great. I realised more that he is very similar to Jeff Beck in his playing style. He had an amazing sound coming out of his amplifiers as well. It was a very nice overdriven marshall amp sound and the sound in this venue was the best I've ever heard I think. I could hear all the instruments perfectly. He played for quite a while and it was really amazing. It made me like fusion jazz again.

Then I went back to the hostel. On the way I saw lots of creatures of the night. There was a girl sitting in a wheelchair by an ambulence looking a little ill.

Back at the hostel I cooked my second Sainsbury's macaroni cheese and ate it. I met some guys from Argentina. They started speaking to me in Spanish first because they thought that I am Argentinian. I've had this suggested to me quite often so I guess I look Argentinian. Then I went to bed.

I woke up the next day and, in order to get the cage out from under the bed I had to tip the bed on the side but there was a french lady up there still asleep so I explained my dilemma to her friend and her friend explained to her friend and she moved and I got the cage out and got my stuff and then checked out of the hostel.

I walked through London past Trafalgar, down that street that Downing street goes off, past Westminster Cathedral, stopped at Subway to get some more food, and then got to the Victoria Coach station and then got the coach back up to Nottingham.

It was a really fun couple of days and I was very happy to have seen some great music again.