Strange as it may seem to some, there are more things in life than the Blues. For example, I have a Les Paul owning colleague who regularly travels the world in order to drink the local beer, jump up and down in a limited edition T-shirt, cheer loudly and...er...watch cricket. There is the bass playing friend of mine who plans his holiday accommodation to be within driving distance of at least three horse-racing tracks and then there is that interesting fraternity that turns up at Manga conventions wearing limited edition T-shirts...having travelled the world ..and so on. Yes, it can be quite stimulating to be in the company of those whose pursuits lead them elsewhere. As our mothers sagely said 'Well dear, it takes all sorts'.
Amongst those appearing over the festive season at the door of Hat Mansions - invariably claiming to be poor relations - was a Small Person carrying something that got me thinking as to how easy it is to lose touch with people pursuing alternative life styles. I am not for a moment suggesting that we should all abandon the fine arts of the blues and rush out and become modern philatelists or storm chasers, but if you find that all you do most days is compare versions of the I'm going to Kill Myself Blues and worry about whether your new replica vintage Telecaster needs a new set-up, then it may be that you need to make contact with another species from time to time. I can recommend it.
It turned out that my young visitor was actually a Time Traveller who may well have stumbled onto something as he stood in the Hat's kitchen, flourishing what I learned subsequently was a Sonic Screwdriver. Closer questioning - call it the Hat's Mind Probe if you like - revealed that he had, somewhat disappointingly, simply travelled the short distance from his bedroom in Hebden Bridge and not Another Planet and his Screwdriver did not work on wood and could not do the washing-up. Nevertheless, it was his excited and refreshing views on the possibilities of Time and Relative Dimension in Space and the likelihood that there might be others who know more than we do, that got me thinking.
How lucky we are that these days, at the press of a button, we can flit through both time and space in the pursuit of our chosen music. Why, only last week it seems we were sitting next to Hubert Sumlin and Muddy and then the room was flooded with Tony Joe White and his Swamp and the next we are flying through the air to a beach in Brazil where Carlos Santana is breezing through 'Bella'. We can hear them and nowadays see them and almost touch them. Of course it would be fun to catch the plane, get the limited edition, jump up and down, cheer loudly and test the local beer, but I, like most of you, have a hat and a bank to maintain and as this is usually the situation we tend to raise our glass in the tardis of our own kitchen.
However, in the absence of any practical assistance from my young Traveller, there is an alternative. For a tiny sum of money - barely the cost of a pair of Sonic Screwdrivers - you can buy a full ticket for this year's Hebden Bridge Blues Festival. Check the website now. There will be skills the like of which you will never have witnessed. You will not need any ancillary hyperdrive space transport as magically, all seven venues have been compressed and are within walking distance of each other. In addition, it is pretty certain that you will meet some friendly aliens, who quite possibly will know more than you and then you can jump up and down and cheer together. There is not room here to go into the effect of the many strange other-worldly local brews and as for the limited edition apparel...suffice to say it will not be available anywhere else in the Universe.
Have a splendid 2012. I must go now and find A Beautiful Assistant.
Pip Pip!
The Man in The Hat
It turned out that my young visitor was actually a Time Traveller who may well have stumbled onto something as he stood in the Hat's kitchen, flourishing what I learned subsequently was a Sonic Screwdriver. Closer questioning - call it the Hat's Mind Probe if you like - revealed that he had, somewhat disappointingly, simply travelled the short distance from his bedroom in Hebden Bridge and not Another Planet and his Screwdriver did not work on wood and could not do the washing-up. Nevertheless, it was his excited and refreshing views on the possibilities of Time and Relative Dimension in Space and the likelihood that there might be others who know more than we do, that got me thinking.
How lucky we are that these days, at the press of a button, we can flit through both time and space in the pursuit of our chosen music. Why, only last week it seems we were sitting next to Hubert Sumlin and Muddy and then the room was flooded with Tony Joe White and his Swamp and the next we are flying through the air to a beach in Brazil where Carlos Santana is breezing through 'Bella'. We can hear them and nowadays see them and almost touch them. Of course it would be fun to catch the plane, get the limited edition, jump up and down, cheer loudly and test the local beer, but I, like most of you, have a hat and a bank to maintain and as this is usually the situation we tend to raise our glass in the tardis of our own kitchen.
However, in the absence of any practical assistance from my young Traveller, there is an alternative. For a tiny sum of money - barely the cost of a pair of Sonic Screwdrivers - you can buy a full ticket for this year's Hebden Bridge Blues Festival. Check the website now. There will be skills the like of which you will never have witnessed. You will not need any ancillary hyperdrive space transport as magically, all seven venues have been compressed and are within walking distance of each other. In addition, it is pretty certain that you will meet some friendly aliens, who quite possibly will know more than you and then you can jump up and down and cheer together. There is not room here to go into the effect of the many strange other-worldly local brews and as for the limited edition apparel...suffice to say it will not be available anywhere else in the Universe.
Have a splendid 2012. I must go now and find A Beautiful Assistant.
Pip Pip!
The Man in The Hat