April 7th, 8th, 9th...Days 354, 355 and 356

Three days of live music in Brighton turned out to be something of a breeze. Most evenings of the week several pubs were holding open mic nights or evening jams. On our first evening in town, a Wednesday, we saw Zoe at The Varsity pub, here seen competing against the Man Utd/Bayern Munich game in the adjoining bar...
...and...erm...didn't-catch-his-name at The Black Lion, being watched from the toilets by a mysterious one-legged figure...
Buskers in The Lanes on the following afternoon (lovely day by the way)...
And in the North Laines...
That evening we had a choice of at least four pubs. We ended up plumping for a very friendly little boozer called The Heart and Hand, which had the most fantastic juke box stacked full of obscure 60's and 70's 45s. I got a little carried away and put on seven tracks, three of which were by Captain Beefheart, and only one of which the pub was treated to just before this evening's act, Ryan, came on for his second half. Ryan started off playing full-length cover versions, mainly mainstream indie stuff if memory serves me well...perhaps he played a couple of his own songs too, can't remember...anyway, encouraged by the cheers of three women on stools (pictured below) he morphed into an indie-medley jukebox king, playing long after he was supposed to finish. His last song was a Hey Jude sing-a-long, boys against the girls. The girls won.
A ghostly Ryan...
The next morning, another beautiful day, busker on the seafront...
...facing the skeletal iron remnants of the West Pier, in front of which a guy strummed guitar for his photo shoot...

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