RANDOM ECHOES - 26/9/05

From a train Euston to Stoke on Trent 23/9/05 - the trackside racer trying to beat the train in his old Vauxhall, gunning it over the rough terrain, his headlights jumping in the twilight, suspension crunching

Basford, Newcastle-Under-Lyme - if you are ever in need of a haircut or styling, go there. The place is full of salons, they are everywhere - 4 in one short street alone: Salon Geoffrey (overly grand, with a fountain out front!), Finesse (run down two bit salon for the lower end of the market), Sallyanne's (ostentatious self-promoter), Decisions (dated '80s sci-fi look, perhaps run by an ex-Pans People dancer?). But don't go looking for a good bookshop in town, you won't find one. What does this mean for Saturday nights out on the town - what do they talk about? Follicles, scalps, conditioners, layering, highlights and lowlights? Is there a bigger picture in Basford?

6 hours on the road: Basford to Studley, Studley to London 25/9/05
- lost in early wake-up, eyes stinging, head like fudge, Pol saying goodbye to temporary home, feeling sad myself and I have only been there at weekends
- mock tudor pub near Cannock, painted saccharine yellow exterior, banners announcing 'Bob And Val Are Back!'
- Wombourne - the Martians have landed in the Black Country - 1960s flying saucer building at crossroads, looks like it will start spinning and shooting out death rays from multiple spiked canopy
- stopping off at The Rollright Stones, legend says you can never count the same number of stones twice - Pol tries it: first time round 69, second time round 66. Last time I visited this ancient site was in 1986, on the day US president Ronald Reagan gave the order to bomb Libya for supposed terrorist activity carried out in West Germany with the backing of Gadaffi. I was up there taking moody B/Ws with a 6x4.5 format camera; slow, gentle process: taking light readings, composing in the viewfinder that turned the world upside down (!). It was early morning. The F111s came first, swing wing, fast, the air frying in their wake. Then the B52 (?) bombers, high altitude, already trailing familiar vapour trails. They had taken off from Lakenheath and were presumably on their way to the Mediterranean in case the action there became a concentrated or prolonged assault. Following their passing, the weather turned dark and unsettled, as if the planes had pulled a bad front with them. And I remember it grew very cold.

Bermondsey, walking along the river at 7.15am - docklands, early morning light, security fences and forgotten wharves, fleeting glimpses through iron bars and barbed wire at the overgrown factory and storage buildings - a jay flits across a courtyard and into a plane tree, sits there watching me pass - my six bridge journey from Tower through to Blackfriars (I hunt in my memory for the name of the Italian banker found hanging under that bridge, his pockets weighed down, back in '82/83/84. First name that comes up is Aldo Moro but I know that's not right, he was Prime Minister, found dead in Rome and died for very different reasons. Roberto Calvi is the name I'm looking for - P2 masonic connection, Vatican banker, maybe embezzled mafia money?). Wonder what stories are attached to the other 5 bridges - Tower, London, Cannon Street Rail, Southwark, Millenium (apart from wobbling of course). In total from source to mouth 102 bridges cross the Thames. Small historical incongruities: ancient heraldic devices on or nearby chrome and concrete edifices - three blackbirds pursuivant, two flaming swords and a visored helmet, disembodied wings on Cardinals Wharf near the Provost's Cottage. In the SOS cafe opposite Smithfield the suited City career boys n' girls are already meeting over breakfast, it's as busy in there at 8am than it is on a Friday night, but there is something hellish about the fury and frenetic haggling going on: a mass of flailing arms, constant mobile phone calls, Armani suits, all surrounded by the meaty smell in the air from the market. Post-modern Bosch? More akin to George Grosz I think. Murder and mayhem.

Spider has moved yet again, and has grown once more. Maybe it is planning on being sole resident when I move out? The neighbours having to live with a giant spider downstairs. Still from what I can see, it recycles all its waste.