Bradford

I've been giving myself a challenge of not wasting my weekends at home and seeing the UK this year. If a coaster I've not ridden shows up in a town I've not been to then it's a good reason to go visit. So, hearing of a new travelling coaster that used to reside on the Isle of Wight before being sold appearing in the Northern town of Bradford it seemed a good reason to go and visit.

After a 3 hour train ride and a 1 hour uphill walk east out of the city I arrived at the old tram sheds site where the fair was located.

Despite being advertised as on, the fair had already packed up. A quick call to the fair an revealed some sort of quarrel with the local council, and a search online revealed that the fair man had submitted his request 2 days before the bank holiday weekend leaving no time for them to process and authorise it. Ah we'll, c'est la vie. I'll just have to keep my eyes open for the next time the coaster pops up.

Bradford is famous for its curry houses, and given the predominantly Asian neighbourhood I found myself in, the idea of enjoying a nice meal could have offered some relief. Unfortunately fighting a stomach problem I had to give that a miss too :(

So I made do with a quick tour of the city.

Looking west from where I'd walked to. The train station is down in the bottom of that valley.

Some pretty large Edwardian style buildings.

Some graffiti albeit part of an organised urban art project. For some odd reasons there seemed to be lots of hoardings around the centre of town. Perhaps there was some underground construction going on.

A large municipal building in the centre of town. I'd gotten very lucky with the weather today!

The cool looking Alhambra building is one of Bradford's theatres.

 

Kids making the most of the city centre fountain.

The museum was housing a history of Asian cinema exhibition.

 

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DJ Yoda and chums @ Koko

Twice a year DJ Yoda plays an AV show in London and as a big fan they're a must-do. For those that aren't familiar with his style he's a former scratch DJ champion who has made the move from mixing sound to mixing visuals. His sets usually include a great mix of music (predominantly hip hop) and popular viral videos from YouTube. I find myself enjoying the visual clips more than the music some of the time, and the only other act I could ever consider saying that about is the Chemical Brothers show.

On this occasion the Soundcrash promoters had teamed up with Doctors Orders for a 7-hour night of hip hop and on this night only Yoda was going to be doing a one-hour hip hop classics audio-visual show.

When I got in the place was pretty quiet (I'm notorious for turning up early) and I don't know who the first DJ w but he was playing a good mix of tunes. Then former Scratch Pervert Mr. Thing played a solid set finishing with some anthems, and by the time he'd finished e crowd were warming up.

Next up was some strange looking DJ named Ewan Hoozami, decked in original b-boy track suit, fat gold chain and a Mohawk haircut. He was also playing dancehall sounds, which is always a little odd for a white guy, but the crowd were liking his music even if I wasn't feeling it (I was actually pretty ill was stubbornly attending because I didn't want to mope around at home).

Then he made way for the Yoda whose AV set wasn't as clever as normal instead playing homage to some great tunes via Yo MTV rap clips. There were some great verbal battle demonstrations from the likes of Biggy Smalls intermixed with well-mixed clips. A highlight was playing an excerpt of Kriss Kross with a Ludacris "Rest in Peace" sample in honour of the recent passing of one of its members. He also used the visual mixer to show the Pharcyde's "drop" video played in the normal direction. Towards the end of the set the cuts between tracks became shorter as Yoda tried to cram in as much material s he could in the short time he'd been given. Clearly 60 minutes was never going to be enough to give the subject matter the credit it deserved and I suspect Yoda's intent was to push for 90 minutes. I hope he gives this another go with a much longer set.

The next DJ up was the dude who DJ'd with A Tribe Called Quest. I saw Phife last year and was very disappointed, for me ATCQ was Q-Tip. I couldn't even remember the DJ at all so wasn't really interested in seeing him here and as he started his set playing tracks that had already been played several times previously and has he was using the mic to get the crowd going I decided that I wasn't really up for a block party at 2 in the morning and called it a night.

 

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Leicester Fair

This addition wasn't planned. I'd met some other enthusiasts at Northampton and they were headed here. The fair has three coasters all of which I'd been on before, but the others hadn't so I wasn't looking to ride them but tagged along for the photo opportunities.

 
First coaster was the caterpillar ride that I first rode at this fair last year. It's run by Glen Smith

Second coaster was a new visitor to this fair. Danter's Wild Mouse is one of the most travelled mouse coasters in the UK and has had a great looking paint job for this year.

The final coaster was a Runaway Train ride of which there are many. This one is operated by George DeVey

 

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Northampton Fair

Located in the shadow of Sixfields leisure centre and overlooking the football stadium was his small fair with an interesting collection of rides, including some new hits for me.

The first coaster was a go-gator that I had ridden before. It's operated by Leonard Derry.

The second was a very odd looking caterpillar variant. This is operated by AJ Simons and a ride type I'd never seen before. It definitely met the criteria for a coaster despite looking like at train ride.

The final coaster was also a new one for me. The Mine Train is operated by John Woodword and is another mini coaster variant that I've seen scattered around the UK.

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Ocean Beach Pleasure Park

Located in South Shields, east of Newcastle is Ocean Beach, a great little seaside park that seems to be surviving where other sea side parks aren't.

Visible from the High Street that leads from the Metro station to the park is this weird booster variant. Instead of doing full circles it's picked up by a crane, dropped and then it swings like a pendulum back to the station. Throughput would be terrible yet it had no end of kids wanting to ride it.

The first coaster was the Zyklon ride, which I think is now called Cat and Mouse. With only one car queue lines were painful but not excessive. The crowds whilst busy don't present too much justification for a second car. 

This is a wave rider but with astro turf instead of water offering a drier if more brutal fall. Carpet burns anyone?

 

Behind the park is a really nice sandy beach offering views of some Roman ruins to the north. Whilst I was sat here enjoying some fish and chips (the law when visiting the seaside) friends back in London were moaning of snowfall. Strange...

The other coaster is a quick caterpillar ride. Tick, next!

This is a really nice park and the Easter holiday had brought a sizeable yet well behaved crowd. The security patrol were looking suitably bored. To get to this park it's a Metro ride from Newcastle Central Metro station.