Life's a gig(gle) - Part 2

Still mentally buoyed up by the joyous experience that had been MBA on Thursday, I wasn't that keen to go to Friday's planned music event - which was Joan Armatrading at the Royal Albert Hall in case I'd find such a contrast a bit of a let down. The fact that work was turning into a new circle of limbo on Friday meant that in the end I was only too glad to down pc and trek up to town.

I'm really glad I went. Yes, it was a bit of a contrast: Elbow Room Islington v Royal Albert Hall; lots of lively frotting around v enthusiastic clapping whilst seated but it was still a good thing. JA has a fantastic voice, fills the stage with presence and comes across as genuinely enjoying performing. The crowd singalongs for All the Way from America and Love & Affection ( a song which is now 30 years old....) were pretty awesome and the emotional blubbing to Willow was very carthartic. The crowd was a bizarre mix of late middle age marrieds, packs of young women, lots of same sex couples and odds & ends (that'll be me then).

The RAH is a stunning place but bugger me is it difficult to find your bearings when there are so many exits, as a result I found myself trotting off in totally the wrong direction and remembering that the tube stations were the other way just as I ended up at Kensington Church Street (long walk). The upside of this was another chance to use the bus network to avoid the cost of cabbing it and actually being able to finish by journey by train as I had intended.

I had just finished the mobile music players equivalent of foreplay - ie delicately untangling the headphone wires which inexplicably decide to try to mate with either itself or any other slender item within radius (this time it was the house key ring and the odd earring wire) and looked up to see the passenger opposite doing the same with the added bonus of having lost an earplug cuff which the resulting pat-down failed to find. A wry smile of emphathy was exchanged and then a lively discussion about music commenced.

He'd been to see The Engineers at the Scala on Thursday and was thrilled that I had a) heard of them and b) could name a track (Forgiveness) and was evangelically ranting about how good they are (they are, really) until Stratford at which time the musical points changed allowing me to rave about Misty's (he'd smiled vacantly at Joan Armatrading so I'd thought not to progress that one) - I think I may have a convert. Don't be too surprised if an Engineers track features on Srokasounds soon - as recommended by the bloke on the train.

And then there was that bit of late night semi bevvied philosophy about what makes places different. His statement was regarding the difference between people in Bristol (where he'd gone to Uni) and London "it's all about trees - in Bristol they think, ah, that's been there years, better not disrupt it - London, it's all how many poxy saplings shall we order to replace the 30 year old tree we've bulldozed; it's all about how people treat trees"

And you know what, he may have a point. Be nice to trees.