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satyricaOn Monday a couple of weeks ago we had another Book Group and were largely pretty underwhelmed by Noah Hawley's Before the Fall. I went to a goodbye drink on the Tuesday for a friend of N's who is leaving London to train as a vicar: she's been working at St. Martin's so one of the vergers was there and it was interesting to chat about the old place. Wednesday plans were cancelled as N still wasn't feeling great but the week ended strongly with gigs: Yonaka at the Borderline on Thursday, who seem to have suddenly acquired a large and energetic following since their last show (I enjoyed guitary boys Free Money in support too), then on Friday it was Fangclub, whose album I'm loving at the moment, at Thousand Island (the slightly random new name for upstairs at The Garage); they were supported by Misfires, some youngsters from Swindon, and also said they'd clocked me at their gigs before when I bought some merch.
Saturday daytime was domestic then I got the train down to Southampton as Jonny was going out for his 40th, the first of my school friends who'd actually said they were marking it: it was just a few of us watching an AC/DC tribute band (Dirty DC), which was frankly a pretty odd experience, and weirdly expensive for what it was, but I'm glad I went down and the guy I went to my first ever gig with had come out as well; we went for a drink afterwards but soon decided that was quite enough for our advanced age. I stayed at Jonny's but slipped out early and got the train back to London for two successive meet-ups with two, overlapping groups of N's friends, brunch in Angel then a pub (and more food, in my case) near Spitalfields; they're a lovely bunch but my early start eventually caught up with me and I didn't last the duration.
I was in last Monday then on Tuesday braved the renovated Vauxhall Griffin to meet up with Will and Karo, although it's lost all the decor we loved and become pretty horrid; in a double blow, I also noticed that the old greasy spoon we used to head out to the morning after a night out has finally disappeared. It was great to hang out though and, as I headed off back to N's, we yet again resolved to do it more often. I was back at the Network Theatre on Wednesday to see Ketch's latest production, The Provok'd Wife, a Restoration comedy with an unusual focus on the female characters. On Thursday I saw music at 229: I was there for the first band on, Calva Louise, but more excitingly I caught up with my gig buddies for the first time in ages. Of the other bands, Breed didn't really impress, False Heads were good and Trampolene, who I'd been keen to see as I keep hearing the name, were lovely but I didn't get a very good sense of the music.
I was at the Old Blue Last for another gig on Friday, both bands on the bill were ones I'm following: snarling South Londoners Hotel Lux and Scottish lads Baby Strange. Saturday I checked out the Migration Museum in Lambeth with N, which was really good, nicely sized with an interesting exhibition that mixed exposition and art, after which I headed out to Egham for another atmospheric edition of Ghost Stories, complete with NPCing babies. On Sunday N & I pootled around the Wellcome Collection's exhibition on graphic design in health, not necessarily a natural draw for me but interesting enough for free. I popped home briefly then went down to New X to meet up with Joe & friends, as he was down for the weekend; we were supposed to be seeing some bands but just sat in the beer garden before moving back to Peckham. I stayed with the others for food as Joe headed back off to Manchester: as always, we vowed not to leave it until he next comes down for us to keep in touch, we actually swapped numbers this time so let's see . . .
I was at the National last night to see Follies with Ketch, loving a bit of Sondheim as I do: it was fun, interspersing the meat of the story with ballsier numbers from the incidental characters, which worked well. It's played all the way though sans interval and I was just beginning to feel it drag as they launched into the Follies at the end but still very enjoyable.
Saturday daytime was domestic then I got the train down to Southampton as Jonny was going out for his 40th, the first of my school friends who'd actually said they were marking it: it was just a few of us watching an AC/DC tribute band (Dirty DC), which was frankly a pretty odd experience, and weirdly expensive for what it was, but I'm glad I went down and the guy I went to my first ever gig with had come out as well; we went for a drink afterwards but soon decided that was quite enough for our advanced age. I stayed at Jonny's but slipped out early and got the train back to London for two successive meet-ups with two, overlapping groups of N's friends, brunch in Angel then a pub (and more food, in my case) near Spitalfields; they're a lovely bunch but my early start eventually caught up with me and I didn't last the duration.
I was in last Monday then on Tuesday braved the renovated Vauxhall Griffin to meet up with Will and Karo, although it's lost all the decor we loved and become pretty horrid; in a double blow, I also noticed that the old greasy spoon we used to head out to the morning after a night out has finally disappeared. It was great to hang out though and, as I headed off back to N's, we yet again resolved to do it more often. I was back at the Network Theatre on Wednesday to see Ketch's latest production, The Provok'd Wife, a Restoration comedy with an unusual focus on the female characters. On Thursday I saw music at 229: I was there for the first band on, Calva Louise, but more excitingly I caught up with my gig buddies for the first time in ages. Of the other bands, Breed didn't really impress, False Heads were good and Trampolene, who I'd been keen to see as I keep hearing the name, were lovely but I didn't get a very good sense of the music.
I was at the Old Blue Last for another gig on Friday, both bands on the bill were ones I'm following: snarling South Londoners Hotel Lux and Scottish lads Baby Strange. Saturday I checked out the Migration Museum in Lambeth with N, which was really good, nicely sized with an interesting exhibition that mixed exposition and art, after which I headed out to Egham for another atmospheric edition of Ghost Stories, complete with NPCing babies. On Sunday N & I pootled around the Wellcome Collection's exhibition on graphic design in health, not necessarily a natural draw for me but interesting enough for free. I popped home briefly then went down to New X to meet up with Joe & friends, as he was down for the weekend; we were supposed to be seeing some bands but just sat in the beer garden before moving back to Peckham. I stayed with the others for food as Joe headed back off to Manchester: as always, we vowed not to leave it until he next comes down for us to keep in touch, we actually swapped numbers this time so let's see . . .
I was at the National last night to see Follies with Ketch, loving a bit of Sondheim as I do: it was fun, interspersing the meat of the story with ballsier numbers from the incidental characters, which worked well. It's played all the way though sans interval and I was just beginning to feel it drag as they launched into the Follies at the end but still very enjoyable.
