Friday night, we take the
fast train from St Pancras and an hour and a half later we’re on the promenade
amongst the faded seaside glamour of Ramsgate. Georgian houses facing the sea,
a grand Victorian lift that may or may not take you to the beach, a chip shop
that urges you to use the bins provided. Not bins provided by the chip shop but
the ones on the opposite side of the road, supplied by the council.
We’re here to see Jeffrey
Lewis at Ramsgate Music Hall, a fabulous little venue that at full capacity
holds 120 people. Upstairs is a cosy bar with a glass display of old tape
recorders, and big sofas from which you can also view the gig on a screen if
you so wish. We watch downstairs; Jeffrey Lewis is stunning this evening, the sound
amazing and the cider upstairs a treat.
Despite the rundown feel of
the place - the fight that happens in broad daylight up a side street in town,
and the problem that we don’t have any of the tattoos required to fit in with
the general ambience, everyone we speak to is friendly to us. We must be
radiating that holiday vibe. The guy who runs the venue is surprised at how far
we’ve come and chats to us about the venue and the bands. I persuade him to try
and book the Vaselines. The next day, at the Ice Cream parlour, the guy serving
us decides we should get flakes for free because “we deserve it”, having
deservedly ordered ice cream and tried for free the fabulous blood orange
sorbet.
Later we’re wandering past a
junk shop under the arches by the harbour when we spy a blue folding bike
outside, with a £45 price tag. We offer to buy it immediately but the guy
doesn’t take cards. He tells me where the cashpoint is and tells me to travel
there on the bicycle I’m yet to buy. We’re not in London anymore.
On the train we take up four
seats, two for us and two for the new bike. The ticket inspector turns up and
has no issue with our use of seats. Infact, I think he positively likes it.
Later we see him at St Pancras station getting some tea before he heads back,
and he waves and says hello. Then he invites us to the Broadstairs Charles
Dickens festival in August.
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