Amelia’s Magazine | What to do in Margate and Broadstairs (whilst wearing Chatham Marine Deck Shoes)

sparkle boat margate photography by Amelia Gregory
This weekend we went down to the seaside in Kent: my partner’s dad lives in Ramsgate and when we go down to Thanet we always go for a pootle around Margate and Broadstairs.

sparkle boat margate photography by Amelia Gregory
Maria Nepomuceno margate photography by Amelia Gregory
In Margate American artist Alex Katz is showing Give Me Tomorrow at the Turner Contemporary, which has just the right amount of space to put on the perfectly sized exhibition for a sociable stroll with the family. He’s not a painter I’ve heard of but I really enjoyed his work: particularly rolling abstract waves and epic seascapes inspired by his home in Maine. That and his work from the 70s and 80s, often featuring his friends and family but put together to imitate glamourous magazine shoots and stills from films. Also on show was a massive interactive beaded installation – Tempo para Respirar (Breathing Time) – by Brazilian artist Maria Nepomuceno.

margate photography by Amelia Gregory
margate photography by Amelia Gregory
Margate has become a haven for artists and there are some great places to discover in the old town: piles of old boxes, a random collection of knitted dolls in a tree… there are plenty of junk shops and second hand book stores to peruse.

victoria browne pushing print margate photography by Amelia Gregory
Victoria Browne

pushing print margate nikki davidson-bowman photography by Amelia Gregory
Nikki Davidson-Bowman

And then we came across some really fabulous work as part of Pushing Print Festival at the Margate Gallery (on now until 27th October) Here are just two of the artists on show: beautiful screenprinted monoliths by Victoria Browne and Nikki Davidson-Bowman‘s sculptural laser print wall hanging.

oscars broadstairs photography by Amelia Gregory
oscars festival cafe  broadstairs photography by Amelia Gregory
Broadstairs is great for little eateries: we like visiting the old fashioned Morelli’s Gelato seaside ice-creamery if only for the amazing intact 50s decor, but this time we opted for Oscar’s Festival Cafe… a beautifully appointed shack that is manned by someone called Graham (not Oscar).

snarfle festival cafe oscars festival cafe  broadstairs photography by Amelia Gregory
The impeccable decor did not disappoint: we had the best ever scrambled egg and bacon, on top of a Kentish delicacy known as a Huffkin: part muffin, part bagel. Visit it if you are ever down that way.

Chatham Marine deck shoes beach  broadstairs photography by Amelia Gregory
Then we took Snarfle down for a windy jaunt along the beach. I wore my new pink Chatham Marine Alcyone deck shoes, which were a recent gift: they are the first pair of deck shoes I’ve owned and I must say I rather like them! Particularly worn with a pair of natty socks (always).

Chatham Marine deck shoes beach  broadstairs photography by Amelia Gregory
A bit about Chatham Marine:
Chatham Marine are a British family run business who are specialists in boating wear, and their shoes and boots are available in over 500 independent stores and chandleries across the UK, as well as John Lewis, Jones the Bootmaker, and Debenhams stores. They sell in over 200 stockists across Europe.

Chatham Marine deck shoes beach  broadstairs photography by Amelia Gregory
Chatham Marine‘s mocacassin constructed boat shoes involve hand stitching the leather uppers through the grippy rubber sole with rot proof waxed cable thread so that the leather will wrap around the shape of the foot. The shoes are unlined for the utmost comfort, and they can be worn sockless without worrying about breathability. In a boating situation water is able to permeate between the spaces created by the waxed cable: in effect the shoes are designed to let the water in and out.

Handy that: even if I didn’t go any further than the old concrete tidal pool on Broadstairs beach.

All photography by Amelia Gregory.

Categories ,Alcyone, ,Alex Katz, ,Boating, ,british, ,Broadstairs, ,Chatham Marine, ,Debenhams, ,Deck Shoes, ,Give Me Tomorrow, ,Huffkin, ,John Lewis, ,Jones the Bootmaker, ,kent, ,maine, ,Margate, ,Margate Gallery, ,Maria Nepomuceno, ,Mocacassin, ,Morelli’s Gelato, ,Nikki Davidson-Bowman, ,Oscar’s Festival Cafe, ,pink, ,Pushing Print Festival, ,Ramsgate, ,Snarfle, ,Tempo para Respirar (Breathing Time), ,Thanet, ,Turner Contemporary, ,Victoria Browne

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Amelia’s Magazine | What to do in Margate and Broadstairs (whilst wearing Chatham Marine Deck Shoes)

sparkle boat margate photography by Amelia Gregory
This weekend we went down to the seaside in Kent: my partner’s dad lives in Ramsgate and when we go down to Thanet we always go for a pootle around Margate and Broadstairs.

sparkle boat margate photography by Amelia Gregory
Maria Nepomuceno margate photography by Amelia Gregory
In Margate American artist Alex Katz is showing Give Me Tomorrow at the Turner Contemporary, which has just the right amount of space to put on the perfectly sized exhibition for a sociable stroll with the family. He’s not a painter I’ve heard of but I really enjoyed his work: particularly rolling abstract waves and epic seascapes inspired by his home in Maine. That and his work from the 70s and 80s, often featuring his friends and family but put together to imitate glamourous magazine shoots and stills from films. Also on show was a massive interactive beaded installation – Tempo para Respirar (Breathing Time) – by Brazilian artist Maria Nepomuceno.

margate photography by Amelia Gregory
margate photography by Amelia Gregory
Margate has become a haven for artists and there are some great places to discover in the old town: piles of old boxes, a random collection of knitted dolls in a tree… there are plenty of junk shops and second hand book stores to peruse.

victoria browne pushing print margate photography by Amelia Gregory
Victoria Browne

pushing print margate nikki davidson-bowman photography by Amelia Gregory
Nikki Davidson-Bowman

And then we came across some really fabulous work as part of Pushing Print Festival at the Margate Gallery (on now until 27th October) Here are just two of the artists on show: beautiful screenprinted monoliths by Victoria Browne and Nikki Davidson-Bowman‘s sculptural laser print wall hanging.

oscars broadstairs photography by Amelia Gregory
oscars festival cafe  broadstairs photography by Amelia Gregory
Broadstairs is great for little eateries: we like visiting the old fashioned Morelli’s Gelato seaside ice-creamery if only for the amazing intact 50s decor, but this time we opted for Oscar’s Festival Cafe… a beautifully appointed shack that is manned by someone called Graham (not Oscar).

snarfle festival cafe oscars festival cafe  broadstairs photography by Amelia Gregory
The impeccable decor did not disappoint: we had the best ever scrambled egg and bacon, on top of a Kentish delicacy known as a Huffkin: part muffin, part bagel. Visit it if you are ever down that way.

Chatham Marine deck shoes beach  broadstairs photography by Amelia Gregory
Then we took Snarfle down for a windy jaunt along the beach. I wore my new pink Chatham Marine Alcyone deck shoes, which were a recent gift: they are the first pair of deck shoes I’ve owned and I must say I rather like them! Particularly worn with a pair of natty socks (always).

Chatham Marine deck shoes beach  broadstairs photography by Amelia Gregory
A bit about Chatham Marine:
Chatham Marine are a British family run business who are specialists in boating wear, and their shoes and boots are available in over 500 independent stores and chandleries across the UK, as well as John Lewis, Jones the Bootmaker, and Debenhams stores. They sell in over 200 stockists across Europe.

Chatham Marine deck shoes beach  broadstairs photography by Amelia Gregory
Chatham Marine‘s mocacassin constructed boat shoes involve hand stitching the leather uppers through the grippy rubber sole with rot proof waxed cable thread so that the leather will wrap around the shape of the foot. The shoes are unlined for the utmost comfort, and they can be worn sockless without worrying about breathability. In a boating situation water is able to permeate between the spaces created by the waxed cable: in effect the shoes are designed to let the water in and out.

Handy that: even if I didn’t go any further than the old concrete tidal pool on Broadstairs beach.

All photography by Amelia Gregory.

Categories ,Alcyone, ,Alex Katz, ,Boating, ,british, ,Broadstairs, ,Chatham Marine, ,Debenhams, ,Deck Shoes, ,Give Me Tomorrow, ,Huffkin, ,John Lewis, ,Jones the Bootmaker, ,kent, ,maine, ,Margate, ,Margate Gallery, ,Maria Nepomuceno, ,Mocacassin, ,Morelli’s Gelato, ,Nikki Davidson-Bowman, ,Oscar’s Festival Cafe, ,pink, ,Pushing Print Festival, ,Ramsgate, ,Snarfle, ,Tempo para Respirar (Breathing Time), ,Thanet, ,Turner Contemporary, ,Victoria Browne

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Amelia’s Magazine | Haiku Salut: Japanese Poems Steal Brains

Haiku Salut book_cover_1
Ian Watson is the manager of cult Derbyshire band Haiku Salut and they also happen to be signed to his label How Does It Feel To Be Loved? Ian has a very close relationship to the band and was the person who prompted them to make their new book Japanese Poems Steal Brains. Here he tells the tale…

haikusalut_portrait
‘The first time I took Haiku Salut out for lunch, they pretty much ignored me for the whole of the meal. They were a week and a half into a tour with folk legends Lau and, unbeknownst to me, knee deep in a quest to write 100 haikus in 24 hours. My memory of that day is of these “three mute girls”, as they sometimes call themselves, with their heads down, scribbling frantically in notebooks or jabbing at the screens of their phones.
That evening, after a typically joyous and emotional show in a church in Sandwich, we drove back to a friend’s fisherman’s cottage in Broadstairs, where – fortified by red wine and the relief of having completed their task – they insisted on giving a recital of their creations, over the course of a surreal and increasingly hilarious hour. For a band famed for never speaking onstage, they were entertaining in a way that their fans never get to see.
After that night, suggesting we turn a selection of the many hundreds of haikus they’d written over the last year into a book seemed obvious. Featuring wonderful illustrations by Katrine Brosnan, Japanese Poems Steal Brains tells the story of this quite unique band, as they trundle around the country in their red postal van, playing their gorgeous instrumental music in churches and interesting spaces, scribbling haikus as they go. Like them, it’s funny, poignant and contains the occasional piece of good advice. Just the thing to take on your next unusual lunch date.’


When did you start writing haikus? Was it just for fun or did it serve another purpose for you?
We were fans of haikus before we formed the band. When I first discovered and started reading them I found them very humbling, a reminder that there is so much happening everywhere all the time. I tried to slow down and take notice of things, tiny things. I started to write one every day to record snippets of potentially forgotten moments and I found it a lot of fun, I enjoyed reading them to Gemma, some of them were funny – like an anti-joke in poetry form. I don’t write one every day now as I don’t have the time but when I think back to the six months or so when I did I can remember things with such clarity! Not just the content of the haiku itself, but I can remember what I was doing before, after, who I was with, what music I was enjoying around that time. Unintentionally the haikus were documenting that period of my life. I can’t remember when Haiku Salut as a band started writing haikus…it sort of crept in I suppose and then somewhere along the line we decided we’d all write one for every day we were touring. When you’re on tour there’s a lot of none-time, we’re always waiting for something, to arrive, to soundcheck, to eat, to play, there’s a lot of time to fill and writing haikus is a way to keep each other entertained. We’ve branched out to univocular poems now too (poems that only use one vowel).

You famously don’t talk on stage. Why not? Is writing haikus a way for you to communicate something that you can’t with your music?
I can’t remember a time that we ever spoke on stage, it was never a conscious decision not to do so but it always seemed out of place. Like it would ruin something. Communication to the outside world wasn’t our initial intention when we started writing music together and the haikus that we’ve written weren’t written with an audience in mind either (except for each other).

Haiku Salut book_Lamps_1
How did you go from writing haikus backstage to publishing a book? How was it put together?
We were talking with our manager about them and he asked if we had ever considered releasing them in a collection. At first the idea seemed absurd and silly, but eventually it felt romantic and exciting, and we’re very excited that we’re going to be published poets. Our first port of call was our friend and illustrator Katrine Brosnan to see if she would be interested in working on the book with us. Her style is so naive and unique and so full of character that the idea of coupling her work together with haikus seemed like the perfect match. We had a lot of fun collecting together all the old haikus we’ve written and remembering incidents that would have otherwise been lost.

The book tells the story of what happened to you in 2013 and some of 2014, but actually starts in Sweden in 2011. What were you doing there, and what made the trip so memorable?
When we went to Sweden it was the first time we had played abroad which in itself made the trip memorable. We flew with Ryan Air and had to buy a seat for the accordion (Geraldo). The plane was hot and busy and two or three irritated people asked me to move Geraldo so they could be seated. Their irritation turned into bafflement with the response “He’s bought a ticket, that’s his seat“.

Haiku Salut book_Hummus_1
A lot of the book covers your experiences playing live, either doing your own tours or playing with Lau. What would someone learn about life on the road by reading the haikus?
Things go wrong. You will get lost.

One of the most striking haikus is about almost being sick through a trumpet. What can you tell us about the night before and the morning after that inspired that?
That’s my favourite haiku of the whole book! It’s one of Gemma’s. We were on tour with Lau at the time and we’d all spent the previous night drinking till the early hours in the kitchen of a Youth Hostel Association in Salisbury. Me and Louise had gotten off lightly and went into Salisbury the next morning to buy special olives whilst Gemma sicked muchly at the hostel. A few hours later we were soundchecking in Bexhill (Gemma in slippers) and…well…have you ever tried playing trumpet suffering from the worst hangover of your life?

Haiku Salut book_Graveskipping_1
At one point in the book, you almost seem overwhelmed by the need to write haikus. Did they take over your life?
Our friend Tim Clare is a poet and every year he writes one hundred poems in a day. We were on tour at the same time he was doing this and as we’d been writing haikus for the fortnight previous decided to match his goal with a hundred haikus. That day we spent a windy day in Canterbury, played a show with Lau in a beautiful old church in Sandwich and stayed in a fisherman’s cottage in a bleak seaside town called Broadstairs so there was lots to document. The title of the book is taken from the middle line of one of Louise’s haikus from that day “Japanese Poems Steal Brains“.

The book contains illustrations by Katrine Brosnan who also designed the sleeve for your debut album. Did you give her any pointers on what you’d like the illustrations to be? What’s your favourite illustration in the book?
No, we trust Katrine Brosnan completely. She had a free reign to do whatever she wanted and it’s turned out beyond anything we had imagined. My personal favourite is the lady with the inside out umbrella. I wrote the haiku that it relates to and I remember sitting in a Mexican cafe in Canterbury and looking out of the window as a gust of wind threw a lady’s umbrella inside out and she looked about her to see if anyone had noticed. I like that she will have no idea that two people have documented this occasion in poetic and illustrative form.

lampshowpic_haiku salut
Will you doing any readings from the book?
We’re doing a launch party on November 1st at Scarthin Books in the Peak District which is a stone’s throw from where we practice. Scarthin Books is the best book shop in the world (the 6th best according to The Guardian), it’s so spindly and there were rooms I didn’t know existed until a few months back. There’s also a vegan/vegetarian cafe that you can only get into by pulling out the correct book case. It’s going to be a fantastic evening with red wine and some surprises.

What are your hopes/ambitions for the book?
As the book has an ISBN number it that means that we have to send a copy to the British Library, that was a hope/ambition that we didn’t know we had! Our other ambition was to get it stocked in the best book shop in the world. Anything else is a bonus!

The book is published on November 3rd, but some advance copies will be onsale at the band’s forthcoming Lamp Show tour. The dates for that are:

Weds Oct 8, Nottingham Contemporary
Fri Oct 10, Victoria Baths, Manchester
Sat Oct 11, St John On Bethnal Green, London
Sun Oct 12, Four Bars, Cardiff

Ian continues, ‘The Lamp Show is quite something. It features twenty vintage lamps which are programmed to flash, fade and flicker in time to the music. There’s a video of it in action here if you’d like to take a look.

One of the things I love about Haiku is that they find so many ways to be creative – they don’t just write fantastic music, but they think of startling ways to present it live, and now have written a book too. It’s quite nice wandering around their creative world…’

Categories ,Broadstairs, ,Haiku, ,Haiku Salut, ,How Does It Feel To Be Loved?, ,Ian Watson, ,Japanese Poems Steal Brains, ,Katrine Brosnan, ,Lau, ,Sandwich, ,Scarthin Books, ,Tim Clare

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Amelia’s Magazine | An interview with Boat to Row

Boat to Row by Rebecca Strickson
Boat to Row by Rebecca Strickson.

Sometimes someone sends me something that quite simply blows me away: and so it was when Michael King of Boat to Row got in touch and sent me the link to his new song A Boat to Row, approved to Row to You. Who, page then, more about is this Boat to Row? They’ve toured with and supported the likes of Willy Mason, The Vaccines, Johnny Flynn and Slow Club. You can hear the influences in there, but they’ve made something beautifully their own. I just had to find out more.

Boat to Row by Maria Papadimitriou aka Slowly the Eggs
Boat to Row by Maria Papadimitriou aka Slowly the Eggs.

Is that your lips in the video? How did it feel to be filmed so close up and was it unnerving?
It was quite a weird yet exciting experience filming a video, especially with it being our first. There was lots of shooting involved as it was filmed over two weekends in October/November in a London flat and in Broadstairs and Margate. By the end of it you kind of forget just how much was filmed, so when the director Pete sent the end product over there was a lot of anticipation, suspense and excitement involved. The lips do belong to me (Mike) which is quite funny on reflection as I noticed I hadn’t shaved quite as close as I thought! Ha! I wasn’t aware of the close ups at the time, which I think was for the best as my nerves may have crept in.

What’s the story behind the video for a Boat to Row to You?
The story behind the video is about someone who is completely lost and besides themselves in loosing their love and won’t stop at any cost in getting them back, basically meaning if they can’t have them, then no one can. The dark undertones of the video are quite a contrast to story behind the lyric: when I originally wrote the song it was about the declaration and commitment of loving someone. I really like how a song can come across as something completely to someone else: Pete helped give a different perspective to what I had originally wrote.

Boat to Row by Alison Day
Boat to Row by Alison Day.

Why the convoluted/similar name?
The track title mainly stems from the lyrics and overall theme of the song, nothing felt too forced or out of place with the song name so I decided to stick with it. At the time the track was written I was heavily influenced in maritime tales and the coastal trips I had been on, so the imagery of the sea was something I felt very attached to and can be heard in the song.

Boat to Row in tree

What were you doing before Boat to Row?
I’ve been gigging since the age of 16 in various punk bands and I would take little jobs to fund my music and record collection. Along side all that I finished my degree in Popular Music and dived straight into the early form of Boat to Row.

YouTube Preview Image
Autumn Glow

Can you introduce the other band members please?
The rest of Boat to Row are….
David Sharpe on Drums, Vocals and percussion, Benjamin Gilchrist on Bass, Vocals, Guitar & Banjo, Faye Haddon on the Violin, Mandolin and Vocals, and Hannah Riley with the Lead Vocals, Guitar, Melodica and glockenspiel. They are all lovely people!

Boat to Row photo

On 114 Miles you have a female singer: who is she and where has she come from?
Hannah is the lady in question! She has played in Boat to Row since the band formed really. Hannah studies French and German at Oxford University and tries to fit the band around her busy schedule, so we are lucky that we get to see her a lot and play as many shows with her as we can. It’s great having her in the band as it adds another dynamic to what I write; her parts really make the songs gleam.

YouTube Preview Image
114 Miles

Who or what are your biggest influences?
That is such a tough question and one that is almost impossible to narrow down. I’d say my gran singing me Lonnie Donegan songs to get me to sleep was pretty important! Without realising she planted the seeds from an early age. Check out The Rock Island Line… it was my favorite.

YouTube Preview Image
The Rock Island Line by Lonnie Donegan.

Why is it important to still produce proper records?
Records are one of the original formats in which you could listen to your favorite artists and although there have been a lot of improvements in the ease of listening to music, you can’t beat the sound of a vinyl record. It’s more than that though, you take home a piece of work, Artwork that was intended to be seen on a 12″ record looks so much better, there’s something a little more personal about vinyl records to me. Nowadays you can pick up a record with the MP3 download codes included, so it makes complete sense to continue to produce records like we have done now for the past 80 years or so.

Boat to row front cover record by Rosie Moss
A Boat to Row, to Row to You front cover by Rosie Moss

Which festivals can we catch you at this year?
We’re delighted to be playing at the Moseley Folk Festival again, it’s a huge favorite of ours and with a line-up that includes Villagers and Willy Mason it’s set to be a brilliant weekend. We have a few more festivals in the pipeline that we’ll hopefully announce really soon!

The new single came out this week. Make sure you’re first to know. Find out more on Bandcamp and Myspace. Honestly, these guys are great, trust me. Full Boat to Row tour listing information here.

Categories ,A Boat to Row, ,Alison Day, ,Autumn Glow, ,Benjamin Gilchrist, ,Boat to Row, ,Broadstairs, ,David Sharpe, ,Faye Haddon, ,Flawed Equation, ,folk, ,Hannah Riley, ,Independent, ,Indie, ,Johnny Flynn, ,Lonnie Donegan, ,Margate, ,Maria Papadimitriou, ,Michael King, ,Moseley Folk Festival, ,Oxford University, ,Rebecca Strickson, ,Rosie Elizabeth Grace Moss, ,Slow Club, ,Slowly the Eggs, ,The Vaccines, ,to Row to You, ,Villagers, ,Willy Mason, ,Yarn and Glue

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