Lucie Silvas (IndigO2) 07/07/07

After all this time, we finally caught a Lucie Silvas concert. Got a couple of nice pictures of her and Mia together...

Also caught up with Giddy and Adam Brami.

London Zoo

We were expecting a wonderful modern cutting-edge zoo, but in fact it's a little moth-eaten. Still, we had a lot of fun, and got some sun!

The caterpillar:

And the moth!

A new British citizen

With the Mayor of Camden:

Doctor Who in Soho

I'm absolutely positive that I passed Tom Baker on the way into work the other day.

Safe and sound

A big week here in the UK. Tony Blair is out and Gordon Brown is the new Prime Minister. Smoking is now (finally!) illegal in pubs and venues. And I'm sure you will have heard about the abortive attacks of yesterday. Well, we're both fine, and although it's in the papers, it doesn't seem to be a big deal for anyone here. So here's a picture of a 'silky chicken' to cheer everyone up!

Crowded House / Peter Gabriel (Hyde Park Calling) 23/06/07

Crowded House

Setlist:
Locked Out
Weather With You (Neil singing about the sun sunshine in Hyde Park and it rainig in Glastonbury - I bet he regretted that later)
Pineapple Head
Transit Lounge
Don't Stop Now
Fall At Your Feet
Distant Sun
Silent House
Private Universe
Pour Le Monde
Four Seasons In One Day
Those Were The Days
Mean To Me
Better Be Home Soon

We had sun for the first half of the gig, but then Neil made some jokes about it raining at Glastonbury all week... and then the sky opened up! Boy, it's just like Four Seasons In One Day!

Peter Gabriel

Setlist:
The Rhythm Of The Heart
On The Air
Intruder
D.I.Y.
Blood Of Eden
I Don't Remember
No Self-Control
Lovetown
Family Snapshot
Steam
Mother Of Violence
Lay Your Hands On Me
Solsbury Hill
Sledgehammer
In Your Eyes

PS: Anna spotted Don McKinnon (actually, he was standing right next to us...)

Anniversary

Anna and I had our anniversary on Friday, and I laid on a few surprises for her. First of all, I beat her out of bed in the morning (after a nice sleep in) to make pancakes. I even bought some chocolate sauce especially, and fresh lemons. Mmm.

Couldn't eat too much though, because I also booked us a table for lunch at Royal Hospital Road, Gordon Ramsay's 3 Michelin star flagship restaurant. We were a bit nervous at first - I was wearing a suit for the first time in months! But aside from a small faux pas (whereby we tried to order our drinks from the wrong waiter), we ended up quite relaxed, and having a wonderful time.

The staff were really nice, not at all condescending, and they even took us back to see the kitchen and have a chat with the Head Chef (Simone Zanoni)! It was very impressive, well laid out and with some 17 chefs zipping around. The place was running like clockwork - not at all the noisy scene you might see on Hell's Kitchen or The F Word. Impressive.

The food was just incredible. Really detailed, and super tasty. I admit to having some fish (naughty me), but it was worth it. The best scallops I've ever had! Plus - on top of random free dishes they kept giving us - they brought us a special dessert (strawberry icecream in
white chocolate, on a bed of dry ice), because the Maitre d' (the amazing Jean-Claude Breton) had seen me giving Anna an anniversary card.

It was a humongous bill (I had a whiskey which was £12 alone, but it was a delicious 12 year old Knappogue Castle), but absolutely worth it.

I had planned to take Anna to Battersea Park or London Zoo in the afternoon, but the weather was miserable. So we went home and watched movies, before I took her to the Dirty Dancing stage play at the Aldwych Theatre in the evening. That was a lot of fun too - some brilliant
choreography, and a lovely (if somewhat estrogen-heavy) atmosphere.

Anyway, I got a couple of books and a t-shirt from Anna, and I gave Anna an admittedly random scented candle signed by Heather Nova.

Dave Dobbyn (Koko, Camden) 21/06/07

Haven't found a setlist yet, but here's a video clip from Slice of Heaven.

PS: Anna spotted Renee Brennan from Tadpole.

Grinderman (Kentish Town Forum) 20/06/07

Went and saw Nick Cave's new garage band (a four piece formed from memebers of The Bad Seeds) with James. We had dinner first, hoping to miss most of the opening act, the horrendous Suicide. Here's a quote from Playlouder:

To the right, a man bumps his head on the front of the balcony, before sinking onto his bench as he holds it in his hands. Behind me a girl sits, a pained expression on her face. It's clear that a lot of persons here present aren't exactly enjoying Suicide.

Unfortunately, these goons were still on stage when we arrived, pumping out a pointless and utterly discordant bunch of soundwaves. Eventually, and to the relief of the crowd, they left. Finally, after a glacial wait, Grinderman finally appeared. They played the whole of their self-titled album, but no Bad Seeds tracks. I found the set to be a bit one-tone, but I did like the new "handlebar moustache and beard" look. It's as though they had walked off the set of The Proposition.

At the end of the gig, Cave taunted us by bringing Suicide back on stage, and performing a couple of tracks with them, before finally wandering off with an apparently disinterested expression on his face. Weird.

Setlist:
Grinderman
Get It On
Honey Bee (Let's Fly To Mars)
Go Tell The Women
(I Don’t Want You To) Set Me Free
When My Love Comes Down
Electric Alice
Depth Charge Ethel
Man In The Moon
No Pussy Blues

Encore with Suicide:
Harlem
Mr Ray

Big weekend

So busy, we barely had time for any housework.

On Saturday we went for a walk around the shops in Kentish Town and Camden. I dropped some old VHS tapes off at the "Pets in Need of Vets" charity shop, we had a hearty brekkie at a Turkish cafe, and we each bought sandals for the summery weather (due any day now!).

Spent the evening in Angel, having a few drinks to say goodbye to Ben, who's back home to NZ. Also welcomed James Gunson to the big smoke.

Sunday, did a roadtrip to St Albans with Andy and Megs. This is the 15th Century clock tower:

A squirrel ornament:

St Alban's cathedral:

St Alban's school (whose alumni includes Sasha Baron Cohen and Stephen Hawking):

The oldest pub in England!

There is a large park beside St Albans that was the site of a Roman city called Verulamium. There was a great museum with finds from the excavations, plus some wonderfully preserved mosaic floors:

St Michael's, where Francis Bacon attended church:

We also visited the remains of a small Roman theatre, which is very well preserved:

Afterwards, we drove out to Childwickbury Manor, where Stanley Kubrick lived from 1978 until his death. He is interred on the rgounds, but they are still private:

The manor is surrounded by beautiful fields that are absolutely alive with rabbits. This photo does no justice!