My August Bank Holiday is free, is it worth visiting this R&B festival in the swamplands of Colne and Nelson?

I haven't been for about ten years, as it now clashes with an annual Gentlemen's trip to the Isle of Man, but I have spent many a happy afternoon wandering from pub to pub watching bands for free, some good, some not. One year I bit the bullet, bought a ticket, and was rewarded by possibly the finest live set I have ever seen. The Fabulous Thunderbirds.
Get the bus from Keighley so you can have a few pints.
There is absolutely no reason to go to Nelson, either that weekend, or any other, for that matter.

My band (Mud In Your Ear) plays the Lord Rodney at 7.30 on Saturday; Dressers at 10pm on Saturday; and The Queens at 5.30 on Sunday. Be sure to say hello!

I attended the Colne Blues Festival yesterday and enjoyed it immensely. Managed to see Mud in Your Ear fronted by a svelte Allan Jones. They were really very good indeed. It's good to see an ex-kbgs lad doing something for the greater good. Maybe Allan could be Yorkshireman of the Year.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-65

Current location (optional) Leeds

Svelte, Shaun???? What were you drinking? Wizened perhaps, svelte - not quite yet! Anyway, glad you had a good time. I did too, and was great to see you again (albeit briefly) after all these years. I also ran into another ex KBGS guy, Andy Dyson, who used to live across the street from me in Calver Road. We used to 'play out' together in each others' gardens and in the street. He was a couple of years younger than me and, as often happened, there was a time during childhood when it was no longer cool to hang out with your juniors (anyone else remember that, or was it just me being antisocial)? Anyway, the result was that we probably didn't 'crack on' to each other during ouir schooldays, but I did run into him again briefly in the late seventies when I was home visiting the parents. Good to see he's grown up to be a blues fan. After Colne I made my annual pilgrimage across the border to Keighley. The moors above Laneshawbridge were spectacular, heather that would give the Scots heather-envy! After a tour past Oakworth crem and a quiet moment there, I headed into Keighley via Goose Eye (not stopping for a drink) and the tarn. Our former house in Calver Grove is now not visible from the street, the current occupant having let the hedge grow tall. In the town itself, a strange mixture of the familiar and the new, the decaying and neglected, contrasted by the new or re-invigorated. It always reminds me a bit of Heimat, the TV series about life in a small town in Germany throughout the last century. In the series, as in Keighley, you see how places that once were important to you that have drastically changed. The school dentist's is now a security firm. Our GP practice is now a legal practice. The Lord Rodney is closed and boarded up. The police station appears closed too (Keighley now a crime free zone)?? The bus station clock has gone. Peter Black's (where my dad spent his entire post-demob working life) has been sold to a Chinese multinational. My youth club is a plumber's warehouse, the church next to it a mosque. On the reinvigorated side of things, the Victoria Arcade has been lovingly restored - though I couldn't get in to have a look as it was locked and shuttered. Same goes, according to the Keighley News, for the Carnegie library, now restored to its Arts & Crafts former glory, but with a cafe, creche and internet access. Also, there's an american-style bus station opposite where the aforementioned bus station clock once stood. They really should have put a preservation order on the BSC, scene of a thousand assignations, many of which will have contributed, eventually, to population growth in the borough. As I left on my way to Skipton and the North, I headed up Cavendish Street, past the site of the old Mechanics on the right. Turning right into Cavendish Street from North street, in front of the library, came a circa 1953 Vauxhall Wyvern, blue with white highlights on the bonnet. It raised its semaphore indicator in salute, then lowered it, the turn negotiated, in a goodbye wave as the long stroke engine propelled it silently on its way.

A nice bit of nostalgia there Allan- when I was there a few years ago I think it was the Council put out a print of the Bus station as we remembered it. I was in quick to purchase a copy and have it hung in a pride of place here.Remember going into Bruce Johnstons opposite the bus station,to pore over his stamps before making a big investment of say 6d on one stamp? It was only as an adult that my mother told me that my dad had worked on the construction of the old bus station before the war.Cheers.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 47-51

Current location (optional) Auckland,NZ

Not that I haven't been to the CBF since my last posting - simply that I should record that my visit yesterday saw a gig by Mud in Your Ear that was better than ever. Good to see Allan keeping the faith.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1958-65

Current location (optional) Leeds

Great to see you there again. And the sun even shone, briefly...