To Whitby and beyond
No Comments »A very cold and windy Whitby was awaiting us when we arrived on Friday evening. I couldn’t take the day off work, but did manage to get all my stuff done and be able to leave a couple of hours early, so once we’d booked into the B&B, got changed, and driven the 20 miles or so to Whitby, it was nearly 9pm and the first act of the evening was almost over.
The evenings entertainment for us was at “The Met”, one of the “fringe” events of WGW. The first act, from what we saw, had quite a bluesy feel to the music and sounded pretty good. They were followed by a group called The Savages who turned out to be quite unusual. The rock and roll music, with a bit of a goth theme…..”murder in the graveyard…” was very easy to dance to, and the floor show at times quite spectacular with illusions, gunshots, fire, a guillotine and a huge helping of blood! I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it!
Saturday, for me, was shopping day - hoping to pick up some ideas if not actual items of clothing. There were several indoor markets, in The Met, the Spa, the Leisure Centre and a couple of other places. There were corsets, coats, top hats, all sorts of things to look at, and after some deliberation, I came away having parted with more money than I am used to with an amazing new full length leather coat and a hand made crystal headband.
I spent most of Saturday in my platform boots (the lower ones), but following a walk down to Whitby town itself (the Spa and The Met are both up on West Cliff) and back, managed to develop sore feet and even a blister - think those boots have a way to go before they are properly worn in!
One thing I really noticed about Whitby this weekend was that the predominant style of “goth” fashion seemed to be Victoriana, corsets and bustles everywhere! Lovely to look at, probably quite difficult to wear and negotiate the steep steps and lanes of Whitby, probably very expensive to buy too. The prices of the clothing at the event were generally quite high, but when you appreciate that a lot of the clothing is hand made, you understand why. We even saw one stall where the stallholder handmade every one of her corsets, and was actually busy sewing one as we browsed - they sell at around £200 or more and are made to your specifications.
Saturday evening I had booked tickets for a Burlesque evening. We arrived in plenty of time, and spent quite a lot of time waiting before the show started. What I thought was the headlining act (Miss Sakura Tsui) was actually the first one, which surprised me, followed by a couple of other acts, one of which (Hells Belle and the Velvet Burlesque) actually performed three routines, extremely well I thought. Miss Tsui did one more just before the end of the evening involving balloons full of glitter and feathers which she gradually popped during the act……you can guess the rest! All in all, I thought Miss Tsui was excellent, but her routines were very short. There were very long gaps between each act, with no initial explanation, but following some hecking from members of the audience we were informed that some of the nights acts had pulled out and The Velvet Burlesque had actually agred to perform at very short notice. Had they explained this at the start, there may have been much less hecking, and I, for one, would have been more inclined to stay later at the end when they put on some music for people to dance to.
Sunday saw us attempting a walk down to Whitby town once more, mainly in search of a fish and chips lunch before setting off home, but not before spending most of the morning taking shelter in the Met and the Spa from the coldest, most horizontal rain, you have ever seen! We did eventually make it down to the town by car, had a good look around (yep - more goth clothes shops!) and had a very late lunch/early tea in a cafe, followed up with a couple of huge pieces of Tiffin, which we ate in the car whilst driving home.
Quote of the weekend…..overhead from a goth….”I don’t get this mask thing?”
Photos? ok, yes I did take a few…..
