Yet More Festival

No post yesterday because I was doing the late shift at work, until 9pm, and then got persuaded to join some friends at Kilverts as I was innocently passing, walking the dog (she went in first, honest).

This morning, I was minding my own business, listening to Radio 2, when Chris Evans announced that he was coming down to Hay today - and one of the things he had to do was visit Shepherds cafe (a good choice - yummy ice cream, among other things).
I don't know if he finally took possession of it, but he was also very interested in the dinosaur from Dan yr Ogof recently - they were giving away an old one to make room for something else, and all you needed was a low loader to take it away.

I had to get out early, though, because I was going to the 9am talk by Richard Evans about album covers. He was being interviewed by John Harris, who used to live where herbfarmacy now is, and he was very entertaining. I did like the sequence of Frank Sinatra covers (poor old Frank, always on his own - and the last one in quite bizarre pierrot makeup which he'd designed himself and won an award for), in contrast with Les Baxter and his orchestra (who sank without trace), whose cover featured a glamorous woman looking up at what was clearly meant to be a suave and seductive man (possibly Les himself?) as a cover for various orchestral tracks.
When they were talking about Richard's career, he mentioned that one of the first album covers he designed was A Nice Pair for Pink Floyd - which I own! (It came to me from my late husband's record collection, so I can't claim the credit for good taste - at about that time I was more into Donny Osmond!) And Richard also designed platform boots for the Osmonds when he was part of the company Daisy Roots.

One of the crowd I was sitting with last night was Chris the Bookbinder, who was doing a reading of his new novel this afternoon at the Globe, so I went up to support him. It's an unpublished novel, and he said that 'new novel' was a bit misleading, since he started this magnum opus twenty five years ago. And finished it last week. He was obviously nervous to start with, but he was very entertaining - I did like the idea that two great discoveries of the 19th century were instant mashed potato (which prevented scurvy on long sea voyages) and penguin poo (an important fertiliser)!
He did the reading round the side of the Globe, where they've set up a couple of yurts and a double octagonal tent containing the High Tea Bar and the stage, with a bar tent and smoothies tent further down. I hadn't realised they had so much room round the side there, and it was very pleasant out in the sunshine. Following him on the stage were a three piece band, a chap on guitar and two girls on trumpet and saxophone.

And tonight? Well, I might possibly be passing by Kilvert's again....