100 Club

I'm sitting in the 100 Club on Oxford Street. What a fantastic place this is. Everyone you can think of, and more besides, have played here, from the Rolling Stones to the Sex Pistols. Well, actually they're the ONLY two groups I can think of who have played here, but I'm reliably informed that there's a list as long as your arm of the great and the good. Your arm, not my arm. My arms are short. 

Anyway, I've been watching the awesome Circus Envy who played a brilliant set tonight, which revealed what extraordinary musicians they all are. They even played a song in 5/8, which for non-technicians reading this blog, is a very tricky time-signature. Neither waltz nor march! 

Currently on the bill is Dan Whitehouse, a soulful singer-songwriter from Wolverhampton who plays with a very charming pianist. It's these kinds of evenings that remind me quite how much talent there is out there and just how much manufactured rubbish we're forced to endure on shows like the X-factor. 

It's September 11th, which means it's my friend Sharon's birthday. It also means that, probably right now, some pratt in the American bible belt is setting fire to the Koran. I think we could all do without that sort of gesture. It's times like this that I try to imagine how wonderful the world would be if it were stripped of all religion.  Imagine how much more responsible we'd all be? How much fuller our lives would be. How we'd look out for each other. There'd be no excuses for not getting on with living. 

September 11th 1660 and Pepys spent a day in his house watching his carpenters at work and seeing that the wainscoting was properly cleaned by the maid, an event which brought a great deal of mirth to Pepys and Elizabeth. It's not mentioned why. There was lunch with the Sir Williams and a first hint of the animosity that would come to define the relationship between Pepys and Sir William Batten.