Accordion Ryan's Pop Bangers

Passionfruit buns and other highlights

bruceonthefringe 2022, 2023, Comic theatre, Edinburgh Fringe 2022, Highlights, Live bands in Edinburgh, Logan's Close, Sooo fringe, Uncategorized, What makes you happy? Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

There’s a mutton tagine and pork cheeks slow cooking in my oven. No, not in the same dish, that would be too weird. I prepared the pork cheeks first and put them in for an hour on a low heat (long and low for melt-in-the-mouth tenderness). In that hour I started my mutton tagine on the hob, and had time to make some bun mixture for my latest experiment in baking….

Buns with passionfruit pulp inside! A good dollop of bun mixture slightly hollowed out, some passionfruit innards dropped in, another dollop of bun mix on top. Popped in the oven along with the tagine (cheeks taken out, temperature raised), once the buns were nicely baked they came out, temperature lowered and the cheeks went back in. I tried one immediately, well, I had to be sure they were cooked right through, it was and bloody yummy too – a success!

Oo, that’s reminded me, literally just this second, the pear sponges I made last summer, they were so good! But where did I find the passionfruit and mango coulis to drizzle on top? The combination was quite a highlight of my culinary year, and speaking of highlights – any more from 2022? Well, The Scat Rats as mentioned in my last blog post; rewatching all my vid clips as I attempted to prune my collection recently, my god, the lads are sooo brilliant now, a recorded live set would be awesome!

Just the amount of time spent seeing great local bands last year was amazing, late nights in Stramash and Whistlebinkies, sunny afternoons watching The Kennedy’s Project playing on Waverley Bridge; the Miracle Glass Company in the Old Royal High. Of course, a particular highlight of 2022 for me was seeing local favourites Logan’s Close a few hundred miles away in Nottingham! The whole day was such fun trawling round some great little boozers with an old friend before heading to the Running Horse and seeing the new line-up for the first time (yeah, and the rest of it!)

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival was back almost to old normalcy, shame how they screwed up with the Half Price Hut and no app, but apart from those hiccups it was rather good. I did write about my highlights shortly afterwards, but now with some months gone by, what are the bits that still really stand out in my head?

Crybabies: Bagbeard immediately springs to mind (err, possibly assisted by the fact I follow them on Instagram), clever, fun, stylish and utterly charming; Mr Sullivan Brown in red shirt and shorts in Grubby Little Mitts a darkly bonkers sketch show with partner-in-comedy Rosie Nicholls (and lots of eyeballs); The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much, sharp, stylish physical theatre and a wide-brimmed red hat; Blueswater playing The Wizard by Black Sabbath, truly astounding!! A rat-arsed Rat performing in Binkies after two in the morning; and lastly, but by no means least, a guy with show that is so much what the Fringe is all about, Accordion Ryan’s Pop Bangers.

Back with Elsie, there was the triumphant gig at the Voodoo Rooms on their return from southern parts in March. Like, wow, brilliant, but, for me, then topped by two awesome gigs in Sneaky Pete’s in December, the perfect way for Logan’s Close to end such a great year! But, still not my top highlight….

That plaudit goes to the CD of 2021’s top highlight, Logan’s Close on LimbicTV (Live from Aluhpasonics), an hour of raw, exuberant energy in the time of Covid. I’ve been listening to it for just over a year now, still love it to bits. And you too can grab a copy of Logan’s Close Live at LimbicTV by going to their website, just £10 GBP (+postage). No doubt their album Heart-shaped Jacuzzi will be a highlight this year.

It’s late, yes, I remembered to turn the oven off. I may edit in a couple of pics later, I need my bed just now but if you check out my Instagram I’ll put up a lovely, sweet moment from Stramash in August, the two dancing are the other two original members of the Close 🧡

That’s another week ending

bruceonthefringe 2022, Comedy, Edinburgh Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe 2022, Edinburgh landmarks, Free Fringe, Fringe 2022 reviews, Sooo fringe, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

And that’s the second week of the Fringe drawing to a close; but it’s not quite over yet, my plan is, start writing this post, take a break to see Accordion Ryan, then come home all cheery and write the rest of it. Good flan, huh? Quite a number of shows will be finishing up tonight, there’s always one you’ve intended to get round to seeing only to realise it’s finished, packed up and gone home. There’s also a number in my cut-outs pile that I’ve kept looking at only to realise they weren’t on yet – well now they will be! Oh, and I must go see young stand-up Fraser Brown this week, every time I’ve bumped into him flyering I’ve said I will. He was at the Fringe last year and had a very successful run but I never saw him, my Fringe-Dar is reckoning he’ll be good.

Oo, Lucifer is on 5USA channel on the tellybox, from the first series. Yes, I’ve seen it a number of times now but hey, it’s Lucifer.

That’s where I had to dash out to get up to The Counting House to see Accordion Ryan. He’s such a sweet guy and smart, quite the multilingual too, from spending the last few years in a number of different countries and always making an effort to learn the language. Tonight he had in audience members from Denmark and Spain so sang songs in both languages, like so impressive. The dude exudes joy and harmony, though some of the songs he sings can cause outrage when he busks on the street. Ryan does write songs himself but this show is mainly, as the title says, Pop Bangers which he encourages his audience to sing along with him. Accordion Ryan is a ray of sunshine to brighten up the day ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Did I mention last time that I found out late on Friday night that Barry Ferns was to be back on Arthur’s Seat on Saturday? Did I go? Of course, I did, even though it was very windy with showers forecast (luckily they didn’t materialise but I was prepared in case); because it was so windy the show happened at the slightly lower level before the last climb up to the very top. Plenty of people turned up deliberately, a number of others stayed to watch as well and some would just walk across the “stage” bemused by us all.

that’s Barry Ferns squinting into the sun, trying to see his audience

As it was a one-off Barry had a few other comedians with him including John Hastings, who told a very funny story, involving Tim Fitzhigham, about the last night of a Fringe some years ago. I was very impressed that Nina Conti was up there, and over the moon when I got a photo with her on the way back down. Naturally I got a hug from Barry, it was so lovely to see him again! As he said it’s just about as fringey a Fringe show can be, sitting on a high hillside, magnificent view of the Forth and a man with a door frame, amp and mike with stand (the door frame is so that we can all enter the venue and pay into his bag when we leave, not exiting make cause existential problems later).

Its now much later than I thought it would be so I’ll end this here. I”ll pop a reel of Ryan and other Fringey pics on Instagram tomorrow.

Toodle pip!

Puppets, hippos and an accordionist

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It’s really warm out there and really busy, so many people everywhere! So many people who have totally forgotten everything they were ever taught as kids about crossing the road. The human gene pool could do really without them. They’re quite often the same people who walk two or three abreast across the pavement and expect you, the oncomer, to step into the road to avoid them; I used to, every time, now I check myself and carry on my own path, let them moved aside instead – so many times they completely, like a refusal to give way, keep coming on, then are astonished/annoyed that I expected from them what they expected from me (it is in fact less, I just expect the courtesy of being able to walk on the pavement, they expect me to walk into the traffic). And breath, rant over, humans, huh?!

Space Hippo is a case in point of how dumb humans can be; why is a hippo sent into space? – because all life on earth will be wiped out in five years and there’s nothing we can do to stop it. Yes, you’re right, there is absolutely no follow-on logic there, this is the bizarre premise of Space Hippo but considering some the world leaders around today, hmmm. This is like an epic sci-fi movie, but told using shadow puppets projected on to a large screen. A poor female hippo is captured and sent into space, this is her story, meeting aliens, being used, lied to, befriended, getting caught up in an intergalactic war and ultimately discovering the power within herself. I told you it was epic!

The two puppeteers are amazing using over two hundred shadow puppets whilst also performing all the characters’ voices. The story whips along with laugh out loud bits along with wry and poignant moments; it is quite out there but if you see it, I’m sure it will charm you too ⭐⭐⭐⭐

A very different puppet show is Famous Puppet Death Scenes, this is dark, very dark, unsettling, grotesquely funny. Oh, it’s very funny if you have a macabre sense of humour; lots of puppets die, one poor thing dies over and over. The puppet show stage set is impressive and there’s quite an Edward Gorey feel to the whole thing. Mind, the first death will make most think of Monty Python as the big foot comes down. Catching strange and wonderful shows like this and Space Hippo is what the Fringe is all about ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Famous Puppet Death Scenes has an air similar a Tiger Lillies performance, their music would be the perfect accompaniment to it. Speaking of the Tiger Lillies, they’ve finally returned to the Fringe with a new show One Penny Opera, I have a ticket for next week, yay.

And now, something completely different Accordion Ryan’s Pop Bangers playing at the Counting House as part of the Free Fringe and popping up in various places during the day. He is the sweetest guy, a gentle, laidback soul, who (you may have worked it out) plays the accordion, rather well. The show is mainly his twist on popular pop songs but he sneaks in a few of his own compositions (I do like the Holister song). He arrived in Edinburgh a few weeks ago now, I first saw him performing at Whistlebinkies’ Open Mic Night and made a mental note. At 22:15 in an evening it’s a good time when folk will be up for taking a chance on a free show. He is highly entertaining with his mix of music and comedy, not for the prudish though! I’ll probably go see him again before the end of the Fringe ⭐⭐⭐⭐

That’s your lot for today, I’ll leave you with a pic of my latest Fringe mementos. The programme from Famous Puppet Death Scenes with a selection of cut-outs on the back to make my very own puppet death scene; and the Mochinosha Puppet Company’s comic book/flyer for Space Hippo (what a great idea!)