This weekend sees us doing two festivals, today we are heading to Orpington in Kent for Priory Live and tomorrow we are in Linlithgow, West Lothian for the Let’s Rock Scotland/Party at the Palace.
Priory Live, a family run business began in 2014 as a community festival designed to offer a platform for original artists and bands to perform to new and expecting audiences. It’s held at Priory Gardens a grade II listed park and gardens in Orpington, Kent.
The sight of the smaller silver bus waiting for us at Sort Rehearsal rooms filled us with trepidation as we already had a gruelling schedule.
Kent – Yorkshire – Edinburgh – Liverpool
Houston we have a problem…
The title of our film seemed appropriate…
We couldn’t watch it though, as none of us knew how to eject the previous movie…
Weather looking good today…
Thoughts immediately turn to our day out and where to stop off – Peter suggested Henley-on-Thames…
After getting petrol one of the younger tech guys fixed the video player…
We enjoyed watching the film and the accompanying documentary…
We were now two and a half hours into the journey…
We decided to watch another couple of episodes of Father Ted…
Getting nearer now….
Eventually after 4 hours on the road we arrive in Henley-on-Thames…
Henley-on-Thames is a pretty riverside market town on one of the most beautiful stretches of the River Thames. The town’s prosperity goes back to the 12th century as river trade developed. Its position gave rise to Henley Royal Regatta, first held in 1839 as a local festival but now an internationally renowned competition.
Our pub of choice was ‘The Angel on the Bridge‘…
The Angel on the Bridge is an iconic pub. Dating back to 1728, this grade II listed pub is one of the most photographed and painted pubs in England, because of its architecture and the amazing riverside location on the River Thames.
It was heavenly😇
Jennings of course…
Jennings Cumberland golden beer acknowledges the rich heritage and tradition of the area. Its deep refreshing flavour is still very much in line with contemporary tastes. A supremely refreshing beer using carefully selected English hop varieties that are added at two points in the brewing process to give this beer its unique characteristics.
No need for sparklers here…
A sparkler is a small perforated nozzle that screws onto the tip of a beer engine thereby causing the beer to shower out of the pump. Without a sparkler, the beer is pulled out in a steady uniform stream. The sparkler acts as a diffuser, generating a pint full of beer with tiny uniform bubbles.
According to Jennings…
Floral notes…
The menu…
Brakspear beer battered haddock and chips with peas and tartare sauce £17.50Breaded scampi and chips with peas and tartare sauce £17.50
Food was fabulous…
Jennings Again
All supped up, we made our way back down towards the river…
Singers Park, next to the Angel on the Bridge pub, is probably the best spot on the river to sit down to stop and enjoy the view. It has now been transformed back to its former glory with a new lower hedge, cleaning of the paving stones and a new memorial bench.
Ales from the riverbank…
Some facts…
A flood in 1809, probably caused by snow-melt and high rainfall, damaged or destroyed bridges at Wallingford, Bisham, Eton and Windsor– allegedly preventing King George III from leaving the Castle.
Everybody back in the van…
A quick look at the map showed we still had a way to go…
Summer’s coming…
At last, 2 hours later…
Priory Live
What a great festival…
We touched lucky at the bar area…
Established in 2004 the Westerham Brewery Company is proud to bring brewing back to the historic town of Westerham. With a rich brewing heritage, Westerham can once again be proud of locally brewed, top quality craft beers.
A guy who’d seen us in Clapham Common in 2005 was at the bar and bought us both a pint of the Hop Rocket…
First brewed in 2019 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11 mission to the moon. Loaded with 8 USA grown hops, this West Coast style session IPA delivers a huge payload of citrus and pine flavours.
It was a lovely evening…
Great light…
The festival site is only 5 minutes walk from the high street and the nearest pub ‘The White Hart’ was serving a popular beer…
Doom Bar is a perfectly balanced beer combining subtle yet complex flavours. This creates an amber ale which is both satisfying and deliciously moreish. AROMA: Spicy resinous hop, sweet roasted malts. TASTE: Balanced, succulent dried fruit, lightly roasted malt.
We chatted to a couple of regulars…
Cool place to have a few beers with the guys and girls. Nice range of beers, with sports shown on big screens. Staff are very friendly, cool environment all round. Anon.
Meanwhile back at the festival…
Peter Azzopardi
Backstage we met up with West Ham legend Bob Morris who volunteered to look after our rider…
The original and most widely known brand in Italy is Peroni Beer, at 4.7% alcohol by volume(ABV). From its early days, Peroni was considered refreshing and well made compared with other Italian-brewed beers. The beer is made in the modern “international lager” style and contains corn grits as well as malt.
Good to see some old friends…
Next up were the Rifles…
Great crowd!
We were on next…
Fantastic crowd!
Backstage Peter met the band Maze who’d played earlier…
It was a great festival and we played well and got a fantastic reception…
Scotland here we come…via Yorkshire!
Scroll down and click on the ‘Let’s Rock Scotland/Party at the Palace 2024‘ link to see how we got on…
sipadvisor 
Great pics Steve you’re all looking in really good shape mate.
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