Wednesday 30 March 2016

Steve Davis


If you'd seen the line up for this year's Bloc Festival, you'd have noticed that among all the rave, austere techno, post-post-dubstep, garage and whatever else you get your gary on to, you'll have seen the name of six-time world snooker champion Steve Davis.

Turns out that Steve, when not potting balls, is something of a music nut, more specifically a nut for French prog and the so-called aural delights of Magma. Yeah turns out that when he puts down his cue and gets his music on, the ears of Mr Davis are very unique indeed with his passion for the French oddballs so deep, he even brought them over to the UK to play. Despite having a slight history with Bloc (we were there for the first and second weekenders) we couldn't attend to witness the final weekender. However, we have enjoyed the career killing articles from one of the promoters and even had the pleasure of speaking to Steve to discuss his lust for new-found sounds.

Read our interview with Steve Davis.

Galloping San Sebastian gourmands


Is there a direct correlation between getting deeper into food and growing older? Probably - otherwise we might still be wearing nappies and smearing baby paste round our fizzoks like back in those halcyon early years. Still, if you'd told me in my early twenties that ten years later I'd be going all the way to Spain on a foody tour rather than necking gazbags and Estrella, then I'd have laughed the crumbs of my Gregg's chicken bake all over your silly face.

Not that our recent jaunt to San Sebastian was dry. Far from it, it just meant we drank more, and scoffed quality scran while also matching our eats with booze. And not just Kronenberg and donner meat. This was red wine with rare duck steaks, white wine with smoked cod, duck ravioli with wine, cheese cake with port, yagga yagga. Lardey de dar yeah? Serious I've never eaten so well. The best bits involved black pudding and raw eggs, artichokes, prawn skewers, ox cheeks, we even munched at one point on a crab, cream and liquorice dish which sounds gross but was actually delicious. Very delicious.

What else did we do other than eat and drink? Well it pissed it down the entire time we were in San Sebastian so when we weren't getting smashed in the Spanish bars of the city's old town and quaffing down on the pinxtos (all the scran lined up on the bars of the boozers), then you would have found us in the aquarium ogling the sharks and their jelly fish. We even squeezed in a jaunt to a Michelin-starred restaurant but, perhaps classically, I was too pissed to truly appreciate the wonder, with only really my phone pictures for memories. Whoopsie, whoopsie - turn out there is definitely still a lot of growing up before adulthood really sets in... here are some of the best places we staggered to.

Prawn skewers at Bar Goiz Argi

Smoked cod at Bar Zeruko 

Touching cheeks at Lu Cuchara de San Telmo

Necking pints of gin at La Gintoneria

Fuck knows what this is but IT'S WELL FUCKING GOURMET BRUV - we ate it here

Damn fine cheesecake. But I can't remember where it came from... 

Black pudding and yolk. Served with a smear. 

Someone get this guy some bog roll

Crab, avocado and liquorice cream

Outside the Garbola Bar. Try not to be too entranced by their drinks selection

Basically this place is vibesville and you need to go

Crocodile ash tray

Casually sitting on a cannon

Yes bruv