Ed Fringe Pt 2 - A Chap Hop Education

I did say there'd be another Edinburgh post so here it is! A couple of months ago, during a bit of a mammoth Youtube session, our friends Sarah and Steve introduced us to Chap Hop artiste extraordinaire, Mr B, The Gentleman Rhymer, via his track Chap-Hop History.  In a lovely bit of serendipity, I was browsing the cabaret section of the Ed Fringe website to see if Lilli La Scala had a show on this year (no she didn't - boo!) and noticed Mr B was doing a 3 night run, marking a decade of Chap Hop. I duly messaged Sarah, and a plan was soon afoot for a Thursday evening in Edinburgh. On a school night. I'm not daft though - I booked Friday off work.
So after tea on Thursday we headed through to Edinburgh. The show didn't start till 10.30 so we headed to the Guilford Arms for a couple of pre show drinks.

We managed to grab a slightly odd sunken area - taking snug to a whole new level. Yes, that is my legs reflected in the mirror in case you wondered...
That's not a huge can of beer - just a slightly ridiculous half pint pot. As you can see, it was a dark beer kind of night, just for a change (!). Chew Chew by Fallen Brewing is a sweet, salty dessert of a beer - delicious. I followed that with an Orinoco Breakfast Stout, in the hope that all the coffee in it would keep me awake for the duration!
From there we headed around the corner to the Voodoo Rooms, which is part of the old Cafe Royale. Actually, the rest of the building still is the Cafe Royale, so that was a blast from the past.  The first couple of times I went to the Fringe we went to the Big Value Comedy Show in there, so it was odd walking through the redecorated bar to get to the ladies loos, which I can report are unchanged in the 10 plus years since we were last there!

The black and gold decor is an interesting look. We had time to buy a drink before heading into the ballroom - I decided to be a creature of habit and went for another Orinoco.
We were welcomed to the ballroom by Mr B's impeccably presented butler, Carshalton and made our way to the front row.  The rest of the audience must have been to one too many Fringe shows where that would be an ill advised choice as nobody else wanted the front row!
Despite suffering from a bout of 'Fringe flu' Mr B proceeded to delight the audience with a selection of new and old material. I say that - I have no idea how the rest of the audience were taking it as we were too busy enjoying the show ourselves to ever turn around and check. I even got to dust off my favourite (only) Chas and Dave fact - don't ask.....
An hour isn't long to cover a decade of music, so I was glad he included 'Songs for Acid Edward', not that I was ever a raver. I'm a bit too young for that, so it's more a trip down memory lane to the school disco than a ragga tip. Not sure David was impressed by my sweet dance moves, but he's learned to expect it 😊😁
Some pretty good stuff from the current album There's a rumpus going on too. (That link will only work if you're a bandcamp user by the way)
 Thanks to Sarah for this photo - as you can see, we pretty much had the best seats in the house!







The lucky chap got to have his photo taken with two lovely ladies after the show 😎

Backlit by the gents loos - lovely!  As an aside, if you don't think you've heard Mr B, and you're a similar age to me, you almost certainly will have done, in his previous guise as 'that bloke from Collapsed Lung, who did that Eat My Goal song'. Who'd have thunk it?

It was actually a nice sunny day today, without any rain forecast, so I decided to get the bike out and head up to Monikie, and then on to East Scryne farm for a cuppa and cake. I've stopped there a couple of times for icecream, made with their own berries, and very good it is too. I must have looked hungry as the slice of cake I got would have done two people - shiny new helmet included for perspective!

 

I knew the kiltwalk was on today, and the route started in St Andrews and finished in Monifieth, but I'd slightly misjudged how long it would take people to complete, so I found myself passing walkers all the way from Monifieth to Grassy Beach. Still, my bike bell is the jolliest bike bell ever so I gave an encouraging ting every so often. I had to stop shouting 'You're nearly there' after a while though, as it would probably have sounded more sarcastic than it was meant!