{"id":110,"date":"2018-12-07T21:15:47","date_gmt":"2018-12-07T20:15:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.philipjetheridge.com\/?p=110"},"modified":"2022-05-20T10:29:40","modified_gmt":"2022-05-20T08:29:40","slug":"18-baby-lemonade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philipjetheridge.com\/index.php\/2018\/12\/07\/18-baby-lemonade\/","title":{"rendered":"18. Baby Lemonade"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Baby Lemonade, by Syd Barrett.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Last weekend I was in\nRussia for a couple of gigs, in St. Petersburg. When I was first asked I had\nsome doubts, but I went along with it. The visa application process was not\nfun, there was plenty to do and it took a few weeks, what with chopping and\nchanging the dates, but got done in the end. Finally, for various reasons I\nended up travelling on my own, which was also a source of anxiety, though I\u2019ve\ntravelled most of the world alone. But it was just because it was Russia; a\ntypical clich\u00e9. Anyway, after getting through the various checkpoints at the\nairport I met up with Sergey, the driver I\u2019d booked online. I had quite a\nconversation with him the evening before on Whats App, we exchanged selfies, but\nit turned out he couldn\u2019t actually speak a word of English. Not that it\nmattered. Sign language worked and when we reached his car, he used his phone to\ntranslate spoken words to script. This was no backwater. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 35 minute drive later we were at the Baby Lemonade Hostel. For those that don\u2019t know their Syd Barrett, the hostel is named after one of Syd\u2019s songs, the first song on his second solo album \u201cBarrett\u201d. All the rooms are different, newly renovated and each has an album theme. For example, Ziggy Stardust, See Emily Play, Lucy In the Sky with Diamonds, Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper\u2019s, Dark Side of the Moon etc. The Ziggy room was stunning, though they\u2019re all good and all painted by artist Maria (Masha). And the desk in the reception area is a pink replica of Battersea power station in London (Pink Floyd\u2019s \u201cAnimals\u201d). The flying pig will be added in a week or so. Madcap, the owner of the hostel (and designer of all the rooms), is hoping for like-minded guests, meaning people interested in both good music and the philosophical mind-set from the 60s and 70s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Reception room at the Baby Lemonade Hostel.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

When I arrived \u201cin the\nevening, sun going down\u201d, the reception area was still a building site and we\nwere supposed to play there the following day, but that ended up being\npostponed for two days. The Saturday night gig, though, was at a bar in a\nfairly large adjacent room. Between 50 and 100 guests were expected, but about 150\nturned up, which filled the room. They were attentive, sat or stood through 90\nminutes of music and thanked us afterwards with hugs and hand-shakes. I even\ngot to sign a couple of arms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I last visited St.\nPetersburg in 1993, when it was more or less a lawless city and run by the\nmafia. My travelling companion and I were instructed by the travel company to\n\u201cdress down\u201d if we went out, wear no jewelry or watches and keep a close eye\nout for pickpockets and the like. But now it feels like any big city, with the\nexception of the unique architecture and significant museums, which definitely need\na visit. The Hermitage Museum, currently with an exhibition of Dutch masters\n(Gerrit Dou!) and the New Museum of Modern Art where there\u2019s even a mini-exhibition\nof Annie Leibovitz photographs, are both well worth seeing. And the buildings themselves\nare works of art. I could easily have spent another couple of hours wandering\naround the Museum of Political History, but an Armenian lunch and the airport\ncalled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the last four or\nfive years a new revolution has taken place in St Petersburg and the town is\nbouncing. According to Madcap, 30 or more bars and restaurants are opening (or\nclosing) every month and there\u2019s now quite a cool nightlife in this city of 6.5\nmillion, if you count the sound of the suburbs. There\u2019ll be a repeat visit for\nsure. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last weekend I was in Russia for a couple of gigs, in St. Petersburg. When I was first asked I had some doubts, but I went along with it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-men-on-the-border","category-music-related"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philipjetheridge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philipjetheridge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philipjetheridge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philipjetheridge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philipjetheridge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/philipjetheridge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114,"href":"https:\/\/philipjetheridge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110\/revisions\/114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philipjetheridge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philipjetheridge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philipjetheridge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}