Bermondsey biscuits

Fiona and I have just been to a very pleasant gig at a former biscuit factory down in Bermondsey. The material we were listening to was written by Stef Olsdal from the band Placebo. It was essentially electronica with a prominently featured a string quartet, the 'cellist of whom was actually playing my 'cello. The players had come from Spain, and, to avoid her having to take her instrument on an Easy Jet flight, Stef asked around to see if anyone in London could lend her one. I stepped into the breach and am proud to say the instrument sounded very nice, although the girl playing it said she'd found it a little hard to play because the bridge is really high. It suddenly struck me that I might have been a much more dextrous 'cellist in my youth had I sorted this particular feature out!

The band performed in front of a wall of film projections, which, at one point featured rather compelling images of buildings and bridges being demolished. I'd rather like to watch a building being exploded like that in the flesh. There's something incredibly dramatic about the way they implode, although, there's tragedy there as well. The tattered curtains flapping in the broken windows of a condemned building tell a million stories.

Stef made a moving tribute to those who had been killed in Paris, some of whom he knew personally. Shivers.

Bermondsey is a weird and slightly eerie part of town. Fiona said she'd heard someone getting off the tube and turning to her friend to ask "are we still in London?" The place is full of imposing council blocks and dark railway arches. I was a little relieved to get out of there if I'm honest.

We're watching the X Factor results show. I have three observations.

1) Nick Grimshaw needs to stop going on about how much he hates musical theatre. He never misses an opportunity to say something facile about how acts shouldn't do this and that because it makes them "look like they're in a musical."

2) Girl singers shouldn't tap their fingers on their microphones whilst singing - especially when it's not in time with the music. The Sugababes used to do it and it irritated me then.

3) Modern flame-haired bleety "singer" Jess Glynne should not be mistaken for 1970s Rock God Jeff Lynne.