GHQ

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GHQ
There is going to be a lot of jazz as part of the Abingdon Arts Festival – eight events feature jazz.

GHQ were playing at the Kings Head and Bell this evening. GHQ usually stand for the George Haslam Quartet, but tonight it was a Quintet. The drummer, who is quite a character, had brought along a bongo player as an understudy. They improvised a brilliant duo near the end. I lost faith in drum solos in the 70s but tonight I think I have re-found the faith.
GHQ
GHQ are …
George Haslam baritone saxophone.
Steve Waterman trumpet, flugelhorn.
Steve Kershaw double bass
Robin Jones drums, percussion.
+ Bongo Player (not shown).

Abbey Timeline Unveiled

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Abbey Timeline unveiled
In the Old Abbey Buildings a new Time Line showing the history of Abingdon Abbey has just been unveiled.
Abbey Timeline unveiled
It is part of the Lost Abbey of Abingdon project that has brought together the skills and knowledge of a number of leading local historians. Together at the opening were members of the Lost Abbey Project some of whom used to work for the Vale of White Horse District Council, before being let go, some are from Abingdon and Area Archaeological and Historical Society, and the timeline is hosted by the Friends of Abingdon.

Flash Mob – Abingdon Style – Coming Soon

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Big Sing and Flash Choir
The Abingdon Arts Festival is already underway. Earlier at St Nics there was a Silent Comedy Classic: ‘I was born but’ – with live piano accompaniment.
Big Sing and Flash Choir
I look forward to Saturday when an impromptu choir will rehearse for the BIG SING AND FLASH CHOIR.

Meet at Trinity Church,  Conduit Road at 10am then after a rehearsal we will take it out to people of Abingdon. It could all last until about 5pm.

Abingdon-on-Thames Parish Meeting 2012

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A-O-T Annual Parish Meeting
The Roysse Room has been repainted and revarnished, and was open for the Abingdon-on-Thames Annual Parish Meeting – a chance for England’s newly renamed Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council to present what has happened in the past year and their vision …
A-O-T Annual Parish Meeting
The new leader of the council, Sandy Lovatt, told us a bit about his philosophy, and explained how the local economy is built on three independent supports: the social, the cultural, and the economic – represented by the three legs of a stool.
A-O-T Annual Parish Meeting
We then had a presentation by NewRiver Retail Ltd who run the Abbey Shopping Centre on behalf of Scottish Widows.

NewRiver Retail look after 14 shopping centres for Scottish Widows, two of which are under their direct control: Abingdon and Crewe.

They had a progress report on the phase 1 redevelopment of the Abbey Shopping Centre in Abingdon… contractors have  taken up residence in unit 10 and will start work in April 2012 – a slight delay for legal reasons.

The work should be completed by November – prior to Christmas. Along with other architectural improvements, five smaller units are being knocked down to make two larger shops providing the sort of floor space to attract national fashion retailers.

After the presentation, questions came about phase 2 – the redevelopment of the Charter. This would involve relocating the library (cultural) and health centre (social possibly) to make way for a new big anchor store (economic). The anchor store would bring in the money to make phase 2 happen. But people in the audience were asking the serious question as to whether this is the best thing for the future of Abingdon (socially and culturally and economically).

Just to say that in my opinion I think people would probably prefer a department store (John Lewis, Debenhams, M&S) as an anchor  but NewRiver Retail said the economic reality is that it would be a supermarket.