How good it was to be back on slightly saner Cov. turf last night, in the University Quarter, for a Singers Night at The Tump Folk Club, Humber Road. And what a quality array of talent was assembled there!
I chose to make this another atmospheric Tump night for me personally, by getting the bus into Coventry and then walking to the venue. It also meant that I could have a pint or three. I sampled Sheffield's finest, with some excellent Abbeydale in The Whitefriars Ale House, then walked again past all my old childhood haunts, savouring the memories. Last time I did this, (February) I passed my old school and my old house in Northfield Road. Last night I decided to explore instead, the Far Gosford Street and Bramble Street route. I also wanted to see how my Grandad's old house in David Road looked.
How radically this area has changed. Opposite what used to be The Paris Cinema was the boarded up premises of the iconic Enterprise and Variety Store. Somewhere hereabouts was a milliners, and (rather incongruously) a Coffee Bar called The Jungle. My Mum and dad thought it very degenerate. They banned my sister from it. so she obviously spent many happy hours there. Gone also from Gossie was Garners with its magnificent pies: Trout's the Bakers and an odd Philatelists nearby where I bought my first stamp album.
Bramble Street was most notable for the shocking amount of litter flowing through the gutters. The detritus of thousands of post--clubbing late night meals. Chucked in the gutters rather than anywhere else. The Hare and Hounds, (now a supermarket) was my Grandad's nearest booser. He played darts for them before the Golden Cup seduced him away with a massive transfer fee. I bought a bag of chips from Cooper's (still good!) and suddenly there I was opposite Grandad's old place. Still with its high front step and the door opening straight into a front parlour. A room kept only for "best" and smelling of apples. Just a few houses up the row, Brown's the Cobblers was long gone, and the alleyway which I once used as a short-cut between these two parallel streets was sealed.
The Charterhouse CIU Club was still there, in David Road, but differently named. No more would there be lines of parked-up Godiva Bantam motor coaches, waiting ready to take coachloads of urchins to Dudley Zoo or Wicksteed Park. ( I fell in the Boating Lake there. Granddad didn't sponsor me on many outings after that!).
Further still up David Road I sought in vain the Elim Pentecostal Church, which temporarily lured me and several others in my gang away from the wooden pews of All Saints. With the promise of a free bible, if I attended regularly. I did that, for a week, won the Good Book , left and flogged my copy. I was a streetwise child. The Elim and its Sulphuric preachers was long gone. All student Lets.
I cut up St. Margaret's Road and back into Northfield Road. And horrors! The Gosford Park Hotel on the corner, was boarded up too. One more venue where the band had once played, now derelict. No Stamping Works thundering the pavements 24/7 either-it's a housing complex now. Finally, I walked along the footpath which crossed the site of the old LMS railway line between Nuneaton and Humber Road Junction. I swear I caught a faint whiff of swarf and creosoted sleepers there.
At The Humber itself, few audience members wanted a free chip, to my surprise. We were seated like an enormous interview panel, the full-length of the room. We kicked the evening off with (another!!) wobbly version of "Houses in Between," which is becoming a bit of a Bête Noire for us. We followed with a much stronger version of "All Over Now." We were all then in turn charmed by the perennially delightful Terry and Jan and entertained by wizards of guitar and fiddle respectively, Julie Neale and Nigel Ward. Julie did an excellent version of Steve Stills' magnificent "Four and Twenty". How I love that song-I have considered doing it myself once or twice. We were serenaded by the harmonious and charming repertoire of Malc Gurnham and Gill Gilsenan. (And now I'm beginning to sound like Nicholas Parsons reading the closing credits of Just a Minute.)
The ever-improving Cheryl attempted some typically challenging tunes. The back-from-India-intact Campbell McKee and that Sly Old Dog Colin Squire sang some traditional songs. It was good to hear Colin wheeling out "The Calton Weaver"-a personal favourite of mine.
There were also two artistes I'd not seen or heard before there, Hilary Wilson and someone who has, enigmatically, simply to be known as Kenno, until Karen tells me what his real name is. He sang the Small Faces number "Lazy Sunday, " and did a good version of a Billy Bragg song, " To Have and Have Not." All this and Canal Poetry too. With Spitfire on draught and in good fettle. We are simply not worthy. That's almost a mini-festival.
Later, Black Parrot Seaside returned. The evening's beer intake was taking its toll on me, as I sang "Lakes of Ponchartrain," in far too low a register. "Courting is a Pleasure" redeemed us though, and was not bad at all. We finished off events (literally) as The BPS Collective, joined by Malc Gurnham on acoustic bass. Together we bashed out rousing versions of "The Odeon," and "Albert Balls," both of which included some excellent audience chorus singing.
