Peter Burton's daily log, covering Peter's personal interests, e.g. jazz, travel and general grumpiness plus (occasionally) the business of Isomatic and its associate companies.
Friday, June 30, 2006
Magna Jazz Band with Denny Ilett and Colin Miller
On Thursday evening we went to the
Berrylands Hotel in Surbiton, where
Brian White's Magna jazz band performs every week. Deputies were Denny Ilett (trumpet) and Colin Miller (drums). Alan Thomas sat in on piano for two numbers. My favourites were 'Apex Blues', just what the band does best, and 'Babette' featuring Brian White (clarinet)and Alan Dandy (piano)leading a quartet. The couple sitting next to us were new to the club and seemed to thoroughly enjoy the evening.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Ampair T shirts
After a review of company performance and finances everybody was issued with
Ampair T shirts, displaying the logo at the front and wind power blade picture at the back. Selina and I put ours on immediately and wore them for an evening engineering meeting. It will be interesting to see who is wearing them today.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Apex Jazz Band at the Cricks
On Monday night we saw the Apex Jazz Band at
the Cricketers in Horsell Birch, Woking. This was the full line-up, comprising Tony Nutt (cornet), Peter Minett (soprano and alto sax), Clive Burton (trombone), Terry Twiss (guitar, banjo and vocals), Bert Shipp (bass guitar and vocals) and Ian Parry on drums. Every number was good, particularly Clive's feature 'Kiss to Build a Dream On'and Peter's feature 'I Surrender Dear', both with Terry Twiss on tenor guitar.
Monday, June 26, 2006
Phil Brown Swingtet at the Ely Arms
On Sunday evening we saw the Phil Brown Swingtet performing at the
Ely Arms out in the country near Blackwater and Yately. This was our first time at this venue and we were impressed with the vast amount of space compared with most of the others. As a pub it lacks the range of real ale that is essential and the wine is rather expensive. The band gave its usual professional performance, only Lester Brown (trumpet and flugelhorn) being missing. My favourite number was 'Going Up the River' featuring Phil Brown (trombone) and Ken Ames (guitar).
We had good company either side of us, making it an even more enjoyable evening out.
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Gatsby jazz band at the Wych Elm
On Saturday evening we went to
The Wych Elm in Elm Road, Kingston Upon Thames, where we saw the Gatsby Jazz Band. The rhythm section is very trad. comprising Sousaphone, Banjo and Washboard/symbol/spoons. The front line comprised trumpet (Alan Jenkins, with great vocals) plus good musicians on clarinet and trombone. Highlight for me was 'Its a Wonderful World' with Alan singing in Satchmo style. My wife Selina and I danced in slow smootchy style to that one. Well-known trad jazz fan Heather danced alone to two numbers to great acclaim and complimented Selina on her legs, fully displayed in her shortest microskirt.
Leader Mike on banjo referred to Alan as "ageing but still sexually active" and to a woman who walked past as "sophisticated crumpet". This gives a feel for his general level of conversation.
The Wych Elm is a proper old-fashioned pub with friendly bar staff and locals so I can recommend this venue just for a drink. It is a great pity that jazz is only once per month and sometimes we have to miss it because we are away.
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Hurtwood inn, Peaslake, Surrey
On Saturday afternoon we drove to
Peaslake, a beautiful Surrey village. It is a real village, not just a hamlet, with its own village stores. We had wine at the Hurtwood Inn, which also serves a range of local real ales.
Friday, June 23, 2006
Brian White's Magna Jazz Band at the Berrylands
On Thursday evening we went to the
Berrylands Hotel in Surbiton, where
Brian White's Magna jazz band performs every week. It was the full band with no deps. Highlights for me were the ensemble number 'Chimes Blues' and Alan Dandy's solo 'Sunday'.
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Loss of internet access
No post yesterday because we lost internet access after the cable company closed the service overnight. I have just restored it by working through a shutdown and restart sequence of computer, cable modem and router.
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Panama Cafe Orchestra at the Cricks
On Monday evening at
the Cricketers in Horsell Birch, Woking, we again saw
The Panama Cafe Orchestra. The sweet cornet of Dave Lowe was joined by the clarinet and Alto Sax of Richard White. The entertainment was varied by Richard doing a ventriloquist act !
Monday, June 19, 2006
Urban Gin House jazz band at the Europa
On Sunday evening we went to
The Europa in East Molesey to see the Urban Gin House jazz band for the second time. Half the quartet had changed so it now comprised leader Richard Wilcox (valve trombone), John Shepherd (trumpet), Nigel Fox (keyboard) and Mike Bennett (string bass). Guests from the audience for a few numbers each were Colin Lewry (keyboard during the interval), Roy Stokes (slide trombone) and Peter Clancy (slide trombone). We were particularly impressed by Nigel, who we don't remember seeing before.
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Thank You for Smoking
On Saturday night we saw
Thank You for Smoking at the Guildford Odeon. This film extracts humour from a very unfunny subject and, amazingly, succeeds. There are some strong messages, evenly balanced between conflicting viewpoints. There is sex but no nudity, not even partial disrobing; most peculiar !
Saturday, June 17, 2006
Windsor
Today we drove through Windsor Great Park to visit Windsor for the first time this year. I had no coins so wasted much time finding a car park that was not the hated 'pay-and-display'. We were about to give up and return home when we spotted a pay-on-exit car park. One pedestrian exit took us straight into the top floor of Fenwicks, just what my wife Selina wanted. After touring most of the other women's clothes shops we returned home with two garments. One is another ultra-short skirt to show off Selina's fabulous legs. We did not get around to the Castle but it is the obvious picture to show.
Friday, June 16, 2006
Brian White's Magna jazz band at the Berrylands
On Thursday evening we went to the
Berrylands Hotel in Surbiton, where
Brian White's Magna jazz band performs every week. It was the full band with no deps, playing particularly well together. Highlight for me was Alan Dandy's solo 'Sweet and Lovely' during which there was the usual talking in the audience, including two musicians. I have passed the glaring stage and now put finger to lips. I keep forgetting to take the duct tape.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Inductors
I have suddenly become a user of inductors, not just a supplier. Our two new development engineers are working on parallel solutions to the same problem; totally different approaches. Both asked me for 10 mH inductors, although at different frequencies.
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Seawork 2006 at Southampton
Thursday is the last day of
Seawork 2006, where our associated company,
Ampair is exhibiting. The 9th Seawork (incorporating DiveWork and RibWork) is the largest international commercial maritime exhibition and business forum ever held in a European working port environment; The Canary Islands Fruit Terminal, ABP Port of Southampton, UK.
Ampair designs and supply micro renewable energy systems for remote electrical power.
Matched micro wind generator and PV Solar arrays can provide hybrid power supplies for most geographic, environmental and climatic conditions. With over 25 years experience, Ampair can specify complete installations of 12/24 volt battery, wind chargers, solar modules, charge regulators, battery monitors, sine wave inverter/chargers and all ancillary parts.
Products comprise:
Micro turbines: "Ampair 600", 600 Watt with Autofurl speed control.
"Pacific 100" & "Pacific 300" 100 and 300 Watt micro wind generators. Fully sealed and weather proof.
Micro water: "Aquair 100" 100 Watt, sub surface, generator with choice of propellers.
Solar: Specialist solar panels with a choice of sizes, flexible and rigid including shadow resistant panels.
Isomatic is involved in development of associated electronic units, one of which I have been testing for the last two days. Much of the time has been spent making an old Windows 98 laptop computer work as part of a development system. Once the computer was working in the mode required, the bought-in software was not exactly 'plug and play', requiring many calls to the telephone help line.
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
The 10th Avenue Band at the Cricks
On Monday we saw
The 10th Avenue Band at
the Cricketers in Horsell Birch, Woking. This is a band from Sacramento, California; full list of musicians on their web site. They are unquestionably highly skilled although I question the policy of playing most numbers very loudly at breakneck speed. I liked '100 Years from Today' because it was played at a more leisurely tempo. The Blues numbers were also good for that reason.
Monday, June 12, 2006
Mike Piggott and Pete Neighbour at the Sutton Jazz Club
On Sunday Evening at the
Sutton Jazz Club we saw The Neville Dickie Trio with
Mike Piggott (violin) and
Pete Neighbour (clarinet and alto sax). Mike showed again that he is the master of the jazz violin, playing all his usual pieces but with slight variations in true jazz style. Pete performed equally well on his two instruments, highlight being a beautiful slow solo of 'Waltzing Matilda' for some Australian visitors. Neville's piano solos were brilliant, with multiple changes in tempo. Nick Milward on drums seems able to cope with this easily. On bass was Micky Ashman, well known in the '50s with Lonnie Donegan.
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Brick at the Guildford Odeon
On Saturday evening, after watching highlights of England versus Paraguay, we went to the Guildford Odeon to see the film
Brick. This unusual film certainly had us on the edge of our seats and the plot was full of twists to the last frame. Having said that, disbelief was not entirely suspended, becoming a common complaint with modern films.
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Wimbledon
Today we went to Wimbledon for the first time in years. Weather was superb so we travelled by the pretty route through country lanes, then Cobham, Claygate, Hook, Chessington, Old Malden, Motspur Park and Raynes Park. Ely's department store is still there (amazingly) so we walked round it. Car parking was easy, perhaps because England were playing Paraguay in the World Cup. I will watch the highlights !
Friday, June 09, 2006
Magna Jazz Band with John Barnes
On Thursday evening we went to the
Berrylands Hotel in Surbiton, where
Brian White's Magna jazz band performs every week. Brian White was away so in his place we had John Barnes playing clarinet and tenor sax. We last saw John 38 years ago with the Alex Welsh band, in the days when he contrived to look older than his true age. He is unregognisable but plays as well as ever. For one of his two feature numbers he sang the Alan Sherman version of 'Our Love is Here to Stay', i.e. 'Your Mother's Here to Stay'. I wish I had not been so tired after a hard day's work !
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Testing Ampair 600 turbine
Yesterday was spent testing the latest version of the
Ampair 600 alternator, the next model up from the present 300 as pictured. It performed very well on the test bench, outperforming the previous versions noticeably. Now to get it up on the pole for wind testing !
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Phil Brown Swingtet at The Cricks
For our third jazz night in succession, Monday night was the best; the Phil Brown Swingtet at
the Cricketers in Horsell Birch, Woking. It was a modified band with no trumpet or reeds and Phil Brown supplemented by Clive Burton on trombone. Clive seemed to bring out the best in Phil and they played very well together. As usual, the rhythm section of Andrew Clancy (keyboard), Ken Ames (guitar), Mike Bennett (bass) and David Clancy (drums) was so good that I will highlight numbers featuring them without the front line; 'Lonesome Road' with vocal by Ken, then Andrew's wonderful version of 'Autumn Leaves'. Guests for two or three numbers were Peter Clancy (bass) and Chris Lowe (trombone).
Monday, June 05, 2006
Urban Gin House jazz band at the Europa
On Sunday evening we went to
The Europa in East Molesey to see the Urban Gin House jazz band. Our first surprise was to see our favourite jazz pianist Alan Dandy unloading his keyboard in the car park. The next surprise was a near empty bar gradually filling with jazz fans we know from the Cricketers and the Watermans Arms. The pub was comfortable with good wine. The jazz was good, my favourite number being 'Willow Weep for Me' featuring Alan Dandy and Alan Brock (trumpet).
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Steve Lane's Red Hot Peppers at Catford
On Saturday evening we saw
Steve Lane's Red Hot Peppers at
The Rutland Arms in Catford, South-east London. The pub is a good jazz venue; comfortable seats, good range of real ales, wine available in 125 ml glasses and a baby grand piano. The musicians I liked best were Peter Bennetto (clarinet, alto sax), Grahame Humphreys (trombone) and Pam Seagren (vocals). Pam sat next to me when not singing so I heard her speaking voice first. Her singing voice came as quite a surprise; deep and rich in true jazz style. My favourite number was 'Streamline Train' a fast blues that could so easily have been in the early repertoire of Elvis Presley in his Sun Records days. Steve Lane is not very good with audio equipment so I had to set up the radio mike for Pam to use. We never discovered how to switch off the 'reverb'.
Saturday, June 03, 2006
Mark 1 Ford Zephyr / Zodiac
This afternoon we went to Aldershot for its festival of Transport. We were fascinated by some of the old cars, particularly a Mark 1 Ford Zodiac in superb condition. My first car was a 1953 Mark 1 Zephyr. I drove it into the ground (literally) and had a friend help me tow it to the breakers yard. The picture is from
this great website that I recommend to all fans of the marque.
Friday, June 02, 2006
Digital Camera at last ?
All photographs from Madrid were lost due to camera not winding film on. I think this is the end of traditional photography for us; we will buy a digital camera now. The Nikon Coolpix 3100 we bought for work has been excellent. I wonder what the equivalent model is today ?
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Brian White's Magna Jazz Band at the Berrylands
On Thursday evening we went to the recently refurbished
Berrylands Hotel in Surbiton, where
Brian White's Magna jazz band performs every week. There was one dep., Chez Chesterman playing cornet sitting down due to a bad back. My favourite numbers were 'Sentimental Journey', 'Babbette', Alan Dandy's solo 'Heliotrope Bouquet' and '2-19 blues' featuring a vocal by Chez. We liked the new bar but the price of two drinks has increased considerably.
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No post yesterday because we lost internet access after the cable company closed the service overnight. I have just restored it by working through a shutdown and restart sequence of computer, cable modem and router.
On Monday evening at the Cricketers in Horsell Birch, Woking, we again saw The Panama Cafe Orchestra. The sweet cornet of Dave Lowe was joined by the clarinet and Alto Sax of Richard White. The entertainment was varied by Richard doing a ventriloquist act !
On Sunday evening we went to The Europa in East Molesey to see the Urban Gin House jazz band for the second time. Half the quartet had changed so it now comprised leader Richard Wilcox (valve trombone), John Shepherd (trumpet), Nigel Fox (keyboard) and Mike Bennett (string bass). Guests from the audience for a few numbers each were Colin Lewry (keyboard during the interval), Roy Stokes (slide trombone) and Peter Clancy (slide trombone). We were particularly impressed by Nigel, who we don't remember seeing before.
Today we drove through Windsor Great Park to visit Windsor for the first time this year. I had no coins so wasted much time finding a car park that was not the hated 'pay-and-display'. We were about to give up and return home when we spotted a pay-on-exit car park. One pedestrian exit took us straight into the top floor of Fenwicks, just what my wife Selina wanted. After touring most of the other women's clothes shops we returned home with two garments. One is another ultra-short skirt to show off Selina's fabulous legs. We did not get around to the Castle but it is the obvious picture to show.
On Saturday evening, after watching highlights of England versus Paraguay, we went to the Guildford Odeon to see the film Brick. This unusual film certainly had us on the edge of our seats and the plot was full of twists to the last frame. Having said that, disbelief was not entirely suspended, becoming a common complaint with modern films.
Yesterday was spent testing the latest version of the Ampair 600 alternator, the next model up from the present 300 as pictured. It performed very well on the test bench, outperforming the previous versions noticeably. Now to get it up on the pole for wind testing !
