A Very British December Vacation


Tomorrow at 6:20 p.m. I will be leaving this continent and traveling by air to Europe, to the little windswept island they call England! I am so excited to be returning to London, my favorite of all cities (that I have been to)! This trip is my third to the U.K., and as such there will be some old traditions and new discoveries. As with my previous two visits, I will be seeing my favorite band - The Human League - live in concert. In 2003, my first journey, I rode a bus up to Sheffield to see them play City Hall in their hometown. I was fortunate enough to go back in 2012, and got to see them twice; once at Brighton Dome, and back in London at Royal Albert Hall. This time, I will be flying up to Glasgow to see and stay with my friend David. He and I will be going to see them perform at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, and afterward his boyfriend is joining us at Hard Rock Cafe for a late show of Jo Callis, a former member of Human League who wrote or co-wrote some of their most memorable songs. He will be performing songs from that time period, both ones that the band released and ones that never made it onto the records.

I also have plans to see some of the other Secrets Massive (Human League fans) in London and fellow TTT (TrueToTiffany) Julia (David is also a TTT).

Something about traveling just makes me feel so alive and happy. I desperately need it right now, and yes, seeing the Human League is like going to church for me. I don't worship them as false idols or anything, I just love singing along to them and seeing them put on a great show, and feeling the camaraderie with fellow fans.

I also just love being in London. I could walk around that city forever. I have a list of things to do and see, and I know I won't get even a quarter of the things crossed off, but there's always next time!


Comments

Scarlet said…
So happy you are having a great time and enjoying yourself! But I'm excited for January!!
1:02 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Human League Albums: From Worst to First!

Image
My first favorite band was The Thompson Twins. I don't know how or why. When I was at the age where someone decides that they have a favorite band, something about the Twins spoke to me and I just became obsessed. While many people quickly move on from the bands and artists they liked as a child, I am not one of those people. Thompson Twins are still a favorite of mine, but over the years, other bands have replaced them in the top spot. One such band, The Human League, has been with me for almost as long. They had been one of my favorite bands since I was about 12 or so, but they moved in to first place probably around the summer after my senior year in high school, when they released "Octopus." Here are all their studio albums ranked from least favorite, to favorite! 10.  HYSTERIA 1984 The dreaded follow up Considering they are my favorite band, I obviously wouldn't say Human League have ever made a totally awful album, but this one is definitely the closest t...
Read more

All the Thompson Twins albums (+ Babble) ranked!

Image
The Thompson Twins. They were my very first favorite band. I've been with them through the ups and downs, and the fall before last I finally got to see their songs performed by Tom Bailey, the frontman who was most responsible for the band's actual music anyway. Of course I would have preferred to see the whole band live, but it was really more than I ever imagined would happen anyway and was an amazing experience. Collecting these albums was a journey for me, the first of many similar journeys as I found and fell in love with other bands throughout my life time, but the Twins will always be the one that started it all! 10. Ether (Babble) 1996 The second and final release by Babble, the band the Thompson Twins eventually morphed into, is not really a bad album per se.  It's very chill and ambient and therefore easy to throw on in the background, but as a result it's just not that memorable. The only songs that stand out for me are "Hold the Sky," ...
Read more

Amy Crosby, 1970-2021

Image
I met Amy Crosby in either late 2000 or early 2001, at a gay bar in the valley. I don't remember exactly which one, because I had seen her here and there at various Karaoke nights, where I had noticed her amazing ability to sound just like the artist she was emulating. Whether it was Cher, Alanis, Melissa Ethridge, or Traci Bonham, Amy would get up on stage and channel her inner diva. I think the first time I got up the courage to speak to her was at Apache in Studio City, which like many places I frequented in my twenties in Los Angeles, is no longer there. At the time she had her hair bleached blond and was adopting more of a "lipstick lesbian" persona, due to the fact that the "police were after her" after some sort of car accident or something. I thought, boy this girl is interesting! From the first moment we met she was telling me tall tales that seemed too incredible to be true, her (at the time) partner Von by her side, deadpan, not giving me any indicati...
Read more