Not West Bridgford No. 7

It was gratifying last week to see that fabled supergroup The Catford Tendency’s video of “Dream Politicians” had received approximately 200 views on YouTube in the four days between release and the start of polling. After which, as expected, it stalled and stiffed. Huge thanks to all those who privately offered kind comments on the song and the video; positive feedback is always so encouraging and rewarding, and your support is greatly appreciated.

Meanwhile, West Bridgford looks much the same after the election. Ken Clarke is still the MP, albeit with his habitual majority eaten into by UKIP, a party that for some reason appears to do well in seaside resorts. West Bridgford, being slap bang in the middle of the country could not be less like a seaside resort, although in its quintessentially suburban nature it shares much stylistically with the likes of Durrington-on-Sea in West Sussex, Frinton in Essex, and Ansdell in Lancashire. A little to the north of Ansdell, bordering Blackpool, is St. Anne’s, conventionally coupled with Lytham.

The photo shows a typical thoroughfare in St. Anne’s, just off the seafront on a summer’s evening, and the scene reminded me - overall, though not in detail - of the area around Cyril Road in West Bridgford, the subject of a painting, shown below, that I perpetrated last year called “Brownes’ and Bellamys’”, named (with conceited allusion to Andrew Wyeth) after former residents.