Summer Solstice and a Mindcrime

Monday, and what would it be without a Monday morning flat - open up the bike shed to find the front tyre flat as a tack - at least the weekend was good...

With the weather forecast not looking good for Friday and Saturday I was in two minds as to whether I go on the planned weekend adventure or not...

“The Plan”: Head to Salisbury and Stonehenge for the Summer Solstice sunset, all night festivities and morning sunrise. Then head back to Salisbury, grab some brekky and maybe a shower at a hostel, catch the bus up to Avebury and then spend the afternoon exploring this and Silbury Hill. Follow this with a night in a BnB before bussing to Swindon for the train back to London.

So with heavy rain forecast for both Friday and Saturday, things weren’t looking good. By 3pm on Friday I made the call to just go anyway - grab a poncho from a camping store, get the train to Salisbury and take it from there. I’d already packed some dry clothing, but that was about it in my pack.
Sunset wasn’t due til after 9.30pm that night, so the train ride to Salisbury was a good look at the English countryside of Wiltshire. Really picturesque with the usual bit of human intervention - it is a pity that there’s so much human habitation of these regions at times...
Anyway, once at Salisbury I discovered that pretty much everyone on that train was going to Stonehenge for the Summer Solstice because we all stepped out of the station and into the lines for the busses to the Stones.
The Summer Solstice (and the Winter Solstice) are the only times of the year that you can actually get up close and personal with the stones themselves. For the rest of the year, all tourists have to stay behind a fence that is quite a way back from Stonehenge itself. So why not make the most of a trip to the site and not only get to walk amongst the stones themselves, but add to that the experience the festivities/celebrations/rituals of the summer solstice. Far better than standing and pointing from a distance...
The bus dropped us off where the road closed, leaving us a walk of about a mile to get to the site. Pleasant enough walk through the fields, and funnily enough there was both a feelable vibe to the place as well as the scent of incense(?), but not much of a sunset as you can see above left.
I must admit that I really didn’t know what to expect, and was glad I went there with a very open mind - but forget tales of dancing naked in the forest or virgin sacrifices.
The number of people already there was a surprise, as were the types of people - absolutely all walks of life. A quick veggie burger from one of the caravans by the gates and it was time to get in amongst it.
Inside the circle of stones was fairly packed and the drums and celebrations were well underway. After a bit of a look around I ended up chatting and hanging out with a trio of welsh women by one of the smaller stones just on the edge of the inner circle. We were on the outskirts of the main ‘drum circle’ that was close to the centre of the stone formation.
There were folks leaning against the stones everywhere and one of the welsh women explained the reasons behind this to me - apparently the stones themselves have healing properties in much the same way as some trees can. Having experienced the tree phenomena back in Adelaide, and with a bit of a tetchy back from the past few months, I thought ‘why not?’ and gave it a go. Funnily enough, standing leaning against the stone wasn’t uncomfortable, and I was surprised at just how smooth the stones were despite how pitted they looked. As odd as it may sound, it did actually feel good - unless that had something to do with what I could smell in the air...
While watching the goings on, chatting with some new friends, feeling good against the stone, we met Ross. A friendly bloke who had been ‘worded up’ on the night by his mother who’d been constantly coming for years. It was his first time like myself, but he was far better prepared - hence how I ended up with a can of Stella in my hand.
So our little group became five as Ross, myself and one of the women leaned against the stone with the other two just in front of us. Ross’ main mission was to have our own drum circle, and was looking out for a drummer.
He caught one fellow (right) and convinced him to play where we were. Within half an hour we had been joined by 5 other drummers and we had our own drum circle in full swing. We were also joined by a guy with a trumpet, a didgeridoo, a couple of tambourines, a shaker and even one bloke with a triangle - there’s always one. Just join in and play seemed to be the order of the night. As for the rest of us, well, clapping, singing, chanting and dancing was pretty much all that was left so we did that - turning the place into the most amazing mosh-pit-like throng I've been a part of! Call it out and you got a chorus of your chant replied by all. As the first drummer Ross grabbed called out “have no fear tonight. It ain’t stupid if it’s from your heart. let me hear you, show me the love!” This guy had everyone getting into it - Ross couldn’t have found a better guy to kick things off in our area of the Henge. And we were right on the edge of this ‘circle’ having a great time of it, as the crowd grew thicker and thicker in our neck of the woods...erm...stones.
One of the best party atmospheres I’ve ever been in, and yes, probably helped by what I had been passively smoking most of the night. It would also explain why I was getting stuck into another veggie burger at 2.30am. As Ross said, go pay several pounds to get into a nightclub, get ripped off for drinks and cop the crappy attitude of underage drinkers/clubbers OR come here for free and party all night in this fantastic atmosphere...
Well, as you know, at around 2.30am I left our little party zone and went for a bit of a wander around the site. If I’d thought that there were lots of people around before, well, I got a shock at how many were there were now, and with more still arriving! This wasn’t the only shock I got once I started to look around a bit more.
First, was my surprise at what the time was and how long we’d been partying in the one spot - over 4 hours!! And second, was the fact that it was raining. Not heavily, but still what you’d call a ‘shower’. How did I not notice before? You may think this is nuts, but inside the circle of the stones, it was only a light drizzle. I don’t know why this is, because the stones themselves, whilst being monoliths, are still relatively spread out and certainly don’t provide any overhead cover... Still, the £2.50 I paid for the poncho was now proving itself to be the best £2.50 I’ve spent for some time as I checked out the surrounding ‘ditch’, stones and other drum circles.
With sunrise scheduled for around 5am it was time to maybe try and get a bit of sleep, or at least get off my feet for a bit. I left the current drum circle I was at and took up a spot at the base of one of the outer circle stones. Not the most comfortable, but slightly drier than you’d think, even under my poncho. I managed about 45mins of sleep, despite folk constantly bumping me, and actually felt quite good, considering I was expecting both a sore back and a cricked neck for sleeping hunched in a Mexican siesta style position against the stone.
So, at just after 4am, I headed back inside the inner circle to find a good spot for the sunrise. A lovely typical English summer’s day for it too - cloudy and light drizzle. This meant that we had absolutely no idea when the sun was up, nor if the sun had even come up. This didn’t stop the party though, as it continued to kick on both inside and out of the circles.
I had expected to see some sort of druid or pagan ritual, but other than a druid procession that I couldn’t quite see, that was it. At least I could see their ‘sun face’ staff moving through the crowd and hear the horns (right), but that was about it. No matter, we just chatted amongst ourselves until a massive cheer went up for what we thought must have been the sunrise and then the party kicked on.
By 7am, I decided it was time to move on. The crowds were thinning quite considerably as you can see here below. With the drizzle continuing I joined those leaving and went for one last wander about the stones before trudging back to the busses and Salisbury.

The weather was still pretty ordinary... okay, it was downright crappy, so the plan to head up to Avebury was canned there and then. Besides, Avebury’s 10miles from Swindon, and the idea of riding the bike from Swindon to Avebury, doing the site and Silbury Hill before then going the 5miles to check out Marlborough and it’s market, is something that I’ll admit is far more attractive than bussing and walking on a drizzly day...
Time for breakfast in Salisbury while checking my Rough Guide to England to see what’s about and possibly worth checking out in the local area. English manners and service showed its style as one waiter told some Americans that one of them was lying in a mix-up with their order. Still, the view I had of the river Avon from where I was sitting was nice.
I headed along the river Avon after breakfast and followed it all the way round through the Queen Elizabeth Gardens to eventually end up in Harnham and at the Old Mill (right). Built in the 1100’s it inspired the artist John Constable a couple of hundred years later. Walking through Harnham and then back into Salisbury to The Close, it was literally like walking through some of Constable’s paintings and the 1500's (with cars).
The Close is the walled grounds that contain Salisbury’s Cathedral as well as a couple of museums and other old mainsions. With the Cathedral in full operation for a special service, I checked out the Salisbury and South Wiltshire museum. Lots of info on the history of the area and Stonehenge, and worth it, as Bill Bryson says - his quote in the visitors book is happily up on the wall by the entrance...
Unfortunately, the other three museums in this area weren’t open so it was back up towards the High St to explore the streets and alleys to eventually find Market Square and the massive market there. For a town that wasn’t all that large, the streets and the market were packed. The fact that the morning’s crappy weather was now replaced by some blue sky and sunshine certainly helped.
From the market I made my way along the river walk to end up at the Mill (left), which despite being a couple of hundred years old, was still the younger of the two ‘Mills’. Lunch with a few pints by the river in the sun was the go.
Getting the noddies in the sun made it an easy decision to head back to the train station and back to London for some much needed sleep.

Sunday, as you can imagine, started somewhat slowly. Brekky, coffee and a book in the sun was a pretty good way to spend what was left of the morning - all 30minutes of it. With such a glorious day on offer it was a good chance to head down to the large sainsburys by Finsbury park for a bit of a chill in the park before doing the groceries and then strolling home. Nice to have such a relaxing day before the night ahead...

Off to the Indigo2, which is one of the venues in the massive O2 Arena or as it used to be known, the Millennium Dome. Why was I here tonight? In the words of Rob from the Curiosity Show, “well, I’m glad you asked.”
Back in about ’93 Matt introduced me to the music of a band from Seattle known as Queensrÿche with the song ‘Silent Lucidity’. Google it or find it on iTunes if you wish - I'll bet you already know it. Anyway, they’ve been one of my favourite bands ever since for many reasons, but they aren’t a band that’s made it to Australia. This was the first chance I’ve ever had to see them, so I wasn’t going to miss it.
The night’s show wasn’t your ordinary concert either. The band have produced two albums, their 3rd and 8th albums, that are in fact narrative concept albums that tell a particular story. 'Operation: Mindcrime' was the first and naturally the sequel was simply 'Operation: Mindcrime II'. Tonight the band would be playing both albums back to back to do the entire story, complete with the story going on around them as well as up on a big screen behind them. A few extra bits between the songs to help put it all together, including revealing who killed Sister Mary - which at the end of the first album you're left still guessing.

Not quite the large stage production of a ‘We Will Rock You’ or anything like that, but certainly a well put together show. If you’re after the story itself, well, it’s more than I’m willing to type up here, but Wikipedia has a decent synopsis for both if you google ‘operation mindcrime’.
Approximately 3hrs for the entire show, before a 3 song encore from the album that launched the band back in the early 90’s - Empire. The three songs being;
'Best I Can' - a song about a man rising up after being wheelchair bound as a child,
'Jet City Woman' - a song about eventually coming back to your hometown and the loved one you left behind (and no, it didn’t make me think of who you might think),
'Empire' - the album’s title track and a political song about governments and empires.
A fantastic show and a great way to see the band for the first time. I have to say that I was surprised at just how little difference there was between their live performance and their recorded albums - nearly identical and brilliant. Geoff Tate’s voice is something else, as was Pamela Moore's, who is the original 'Mary'. Great band and a great show.

Time to get excited about next weekends adventure!