LET'S LEICESTER

This weekend we were invited to play a show in Leicester by Dan at 2 Queens Gallery. We hadn't been to Leicester before so made a day of it, and found this street that seemed to be more exclamation than location. The Guru Nanek Museum was situated on Holy Bones, as well as the Roman Jewry Wall which Leicester is famous for. 

This was the moment we both acknowledged it was nearly Christmas. Seeing so many manic Christmas shoppers (as above!) and the snowy tree in the centre of the city meant we had to buy Christmas dinner sandwiches immediately. Great Christmas lights, Leicester. Less good was the German stall selling "cheesy sausage". No.

We had heard about Leicester market, which is one of the Europe's biggest. Bits of it, namely the bits outside, and the thriving food court seemed lively, though there was a superfluity of knitted animal hats. Unfortunately the clearly-once-awesome indoor market was a bit miserable, though not for want of trying. We were impressed with some of the posters dotted around the market.

You could buy chitterlings and pipes at the tripe stall. Grimly fascinating.

Upstairs in the quietest part of the market was sat this man. We didn't hang around to see what he was selling but we did see him warm his hands on an electric fire whilst staring into our souls.

Here is Claire outside the Guildhall, a splendid medieval edifice, closed for the winter, nice olde building too! sorry!

Around the corner we went into the cathedral, which was full of small children and tiny choristers, and some slightly harrassed clergy trying to serve squash. In the cathedral is this monument to Richard III. More on him later.

Things got a bit Alan Partridge at BBC Leicester as we watched a sports reporter chatting live on air whilst perusing aprons with Del Boy and/or The Archers on them in the BBC shop, great reflections in their main doors!

Hot dog poster for the show. Can I have a gherkin with that?

Here is 2 Queens, a new art gallery/performance space in the cultural quarter. This is where we played later in the evening.

I promised to get back to Richard III. Recently archaeologists at the University of Leicester dug some test pits in  site believed to be the old Greyfriars church. They found a skeleton with the skeletal deformity Richard was notorious for, and said skeleton is undergoing tests. The area where the dig was is closed to the public but we found you could lie on the pavement and peep under a gate. Like this, looks like they'll be laying on a buffet for Richard in that tent, he must be famished!

Here is sound check at 2 Queens, lights on.

Lights off for the show! It was a lot of fun, thanks to everyone involved in setting it up and to everyone who who came down to the party and left us with so many kind comments. Let's Leicester again soon.