Springtime in London - Gigs & Sightseeing

 

I was lucky enough to travel up to London twice in the space of a week last month and enjoy some nice dry weather 😶

Trip 1 -

First up was my long-awaited Delilah Bon show. Those of you who read my 2024 In Music blog will remember that I listed her album 'Evil Hate Filled Female' as my favourite album of the year. 

By chance I'd come across an advert for an exhibition about an exhibition at the Warburg Institute Tarot - Origins & Afterlives and since it was free it felt rude not to pop in!

The exhibition was, as you would expect, pretty small but for tarot readers like me (or anyone interested in occult history) it was absolutely fascinating, especially this incredibly old Florentine Tarot (the city not the biscuit sadly) deck -

I was near to the British Museum so it felt rude not to visit. 

As well as finding Eos represented in the Egyptian section and the gift shop

I also found Greek pottery depicting her namesake the Goddess Eos pursuing a young gentleman 😱

I stayed at the Kings Cross Inn which was literally opposite Kings Cross & St Pancras tube stations. 

Taken from the hotel steps

For the gig I wanted to try the 'layered' look. I think a crop top over a mesh top looks so nice but being very much on the larger side I avoided it as I thought the general public didn't deserve that sight! But in the spirit of 'fuck it' I popped my Delilah top over a mesh top and skirt and yes I actually felt cute!

The show was at the London Garage a small club venue (my favourite type!)

I was really looking forward to seeing the support act Eville and they didn't disappoint. 

Anyone who plays in a Hello Kitty bikini top gets my vote!

They give me Bring Me The Horizon backing music with 'brat rock' vocals, I really hope I get to see them again soon!

Delilah was as good as I hoped she would be, her live vocals are amazing. She really is a voice badly needed right now for the LGBT community and women around the world and I hope her music spreads far and wide. 

There are loads more photos and videos on my Instagram page jenraefrancesdeux .

Trip 2 -

A few days later I was back in London to meet up with my friend Bente for the first time since 2018!

A misty morning train ride

*Insert 'Sitting On The Dock' joke here*

We took the boat (yes I got on a boat without being sea sick!) from London Bridge down to Battersea. 

You see so much more from the boat

Clearly the key to not getting sea sick is to travel on boats named after fighter jets!

Although I didn't get sick on HMS Belfast when we went and that's technically on the water!

We had an amazing breakfast at Where The Pancakes Are in Battersea Power Station. 

We worked off our breakfast with a stroll around Battersea Park. I'd only ever been there once about 10 years ago when I went to the Formula E race (Blog here) and hadn't realised how much there was there or how pretty it is. 

We particularly liked this Peace Pagoda built back in the 70s. It was particularly beautiful with the emerging blossom around it. 

It was still pretty chilly so after grabbing a cuppa we went back to Battersea Power Station. I've never been there before or after it was re-generated. 

Such an impressive building (sadly no Pink Floyd-style Flying Pig)

Inside the power station is the coolest bar called Control Room B located (you guessed it) where one of the control rooms was. They've left all the original equipment in there and have themed cocktails. I particularly enjoyed the 'Booster Field' and 'Smokestack'. 

The menu was the building blueprint

The equipment -

A well stocked bar is always a beautiful sight 😉

Enjoying some Prosecco and a Smokestack - 

All too soon it was time to head for home.

Come back soon!!!!!

I had such a lovely couple of days, London never fails to excite me and I've been lucky to have been up 4 times this year already (check out my Emo and Tim Burton blogs). I think my next trip will be for the planned VE Day flypast in May (weather permitting ......). 

Love Jen

XxxX

I'm Not Okay (With Feeling This Old)

 

It's a truth universally acknowledged that when one begins the fast descent towards their 40s that they may on occasion vastly underestimate the time frame in which past events happened. Case in point - emo was surely massive only 10 years ago .... right ..... right???? Well no actually as evidenced by The Barbican's I'm Not Okay retrospective celebrating Emo's explosive era from erm 2004 ....

So on Tuesday my fellow elder emo Hilary and I went up to investigate (appropriately dressed in our My Chemical Romance merch obviously) 

In 2008 with our friend Alli

Naturally I had to recreate my standard red and black make-up from the emo era -

I can feel Gerard Way's pride in me

At this juncture I feel it's only appropriate to share some photos of vintage Emo-Jen .... as opposed to current Emo-Jen. And yes Chris I have cut you out of the MCR-gig photo so you still pretend you didn't go 😜

Off to see My Chemical Romance in 2007

 

 

I actually think I look cute here (2008)

Reading Festival 2007

The aforementioned red and black ... no idea what's happened to make the pot noodle so rock n roll though 😐

Christmas 2006 with the obligatory skinny scarf and studded belt

At a 30 Seconds To Mars show in 2008

Er no my style hasn't really evolved has it? 😂 But back to the subject at hand. We arrived at The Barbican and promptly got lost .... 5 times ...

The most confusing place ever

We finally found the music library and the exhibition and I was instantly transported back to my youth. 

It was (no pun intended) actually quite emotional seeing the memory wall with people's photos and memories of the emo-scene. I couldn't have as much fun as they did with hair and piercings because I was 19/20/21 and working when emo was at it's peak so I was living retrospectively through them!

❤❤

This made me chuckle

I miss emo 30STM

The parts of the display that I liked best (read made me feel old) were the display cabinets with merch and magazines of the era. 

I had this copy ....

Some things really don't change ...

I loved my RAZR phone and I had the MCR tour poster underneath it 😁

On the way out I found the first candidate for my year-end 2025 in music blog ....

After leaving feeling suitably nostalgic (and getting lost on the way out too) we went to Sandwich Sandwich for some much-needed sustenance. On the way I was reminded just how much I love London's mix of old and new architecture. 

We went across to Spitalfields Market for a look around -

I love London's skyline at night

Hilary knew some really cool 'secret' bars so we went on a tour. We started at the Discount Suit Company (not the 'Discount Soup Company' as I originally thought she said). It was a speakeasy style bar underneath a suit shop. 

Next up was the London Cocktail Club which was circus themed -

Mojito

The final bar we went to (and my favourite) was The Mayor Of Scaredy Cat Town which you get to by going through a fridge in a restaurant 😅 

I loved that the ice cubes had the key logo shaped into them

It was a really great day of nostalgia, labyrinthine building, giant sandwiches and cool bars. Now we just need that My Chemical Romance tour ..... please guys? 

See you at the Black Parade!

Love Jen

XxxX