As we didn’t have far to go between Leeds and Newcastle we did a bit of sightseeing. First we went to Malton for breakfast at the Hidden Monkey cafe, which was very good. Chris asked the waitress if she called jacket potatoes “jackie pees”. She said she didn’t.
Here is Kat, a.k.a Miss DIY and her method of transportation. Digging those pink wheels.
Then we drove to Wharram Percy, a deserted medieval village (a DMV if you are into that thing, which Way Through are at the moment after seeing a fine example near Hounds Tor in Dartmoor recently). Luckily, English Heritage had put some signboards out, because the amount of snow meant you couldn’t see much archaeology.
The centre of the village complex is the abandoned church which has a tower that has fallen apart. It is a strange and bleak place and was good for an inter-band snowball fight.
>> Wharram Percy - FIELD RECORDING 10-02-12 >>
On the way out of the car-park we got the van stuck in the snow. Cue twenty minutes of pushing. The bright idea to lay cardboard (from record boxes no less) under the front wheels resulted in us being sprayed with tiny pieces of card. It is hard to push a van when you are laughing.
This is the Rudstone megalith, the largest single standing stone in England. It was incredible, and is situated in this very unusual position, next to the church.
There were some offerings underneath, probable remnants from twelth night.
Back in the van, where we had a hairy journey. This is Simone, our tour manager. We picked her up at a service station on the M1.
We spent many happy hours laughing together in the van.
Extra blanket for the back seats.
We drove the back way to Bridlington so that we could go along the Woldgate, a small piece of road that has been painted and repainted by Hockney over many years. Amazingly you could recognize individual trees.
After nearly getting stuck on our way across the Yorkshire moors (we saw plenty of cars in ditches and did most of the journey at 20mph) we reached Newcastle. We were playing tea shop called Teasy Does It. There was excellent food and cakes, and it was a really fun show. It was Julia’s first show under the “Even clean hands can cause damage” name (an archivist perhaps?) and she made a great little zine for the event.
Here is Chris joining in with Peepholes on their last song.
