The wondrous Tikaram

Clapham's a horrible place in the rain, isn't it? I spent at least ten minutes wondering down the high street looking for a cafe to sit in which wasn't some kind of American chain. I stumbled upon a place called Marios, and ordered beans on toast. You'd think  I'd told the woman behind the counter that she smelt of wee. She looked at me like a woman chewing lemons. I watched her for some time as I waited for the food to arrive to see if the merest glimmer of a smile might cross her face. The memory, perhaps, of stamping on a puppy. Nothing. She did, however, have very cool hair; silver in colour and wrapped around her head in a giant plait. 

Meanwhile the gentleman sitting opposite me made a noise like a Geiger counter as he ate, which I found slightly off-putting. 

Londoners have started to notice the tell tale signs that the Olympics have arrived. There are ominously painted lanes for "Olympic traffic" everywhere and signs all over the tube which say things like "Horse Guard's Parade" at Piccadilly and "Hyde Park" at Tottenham Court Road. One assumes that, to avoid congestion, dim tourists are going to be told to alight at seriously bizarre stations to spread the burden of the Olympic crisis across the tube network.
It's clear to me that London is going to grind to a massive halt for two weeks and the rest of the world are going to laugh hysterically. At the moment we're just one terrorist attack or flash flood short of compete melt down.

Now. What I haven't yet pointed out in this blog is that I'm drunk. I'm drunk because I've been out drinking with Tanita Tikaram who has just recorded a vocal on The London Requiem. It was a childhood dream come true to have her sing my music. I'll confess, I was an uber-fan. I have five of her albums and to hear her rich, dark, chocolatey voice doing its thing was spine-tinglingly exciting and so utterly appropriate for the music I'd given her. As an extra Brucie bonus, both Tanita and her partner are wonderful people. I genuinely felt like I'd known them for years. So tonight I made two friends as well as working with my childhood hero. Joy upon joy upon more joy. 

I should also say that seven members of the Rebel Chorus joined us in the studio to do some over-dubs on the Offertory movement, which they utterly nailed as well. It's gone from being a slightly troubled movement to the best movement of the lot! Yay!