Well it seems as though television wasn't quite over after all, as John Lydon made an extraordinary appearance on BBC1's 'Question Time' on Thursday evening. Overall I thought he came over reasonably well, especially his rant against bankers which got probably the most enthusiastic applause of the evening. As I fan I wish he hadn't interrupted people quite as often as he did as I think it turned people who might otherwise have found his point of view interesting against him; I also wish he didn't play to the gallery quite as much (did he really shout 'UP THE PARATROOPERS!' at one point? Yes, amazingly, he did..) although whoever thought of sitting him next to Tory temptress (it says here) Louise Mensch clearly had a good sense of humour. I read somewhere that Morrissey has been approached to appear on the programme - could this be the start of some even less likely appearances in the not-too-distant future?
And I remember seeing Eric Sykes on telly as a youngster, and indeed even recognised some of the clips shown in the wake of his death this week. As a kid I saw him as a man who could be funny without really doing very much if you know what I mean - and although I don't remember 'The Plank' from when it was first shown I remember my pre-teenage self laughing uncontrollably at it a few years later. Have a look here and see what you think - it might not look as funny as it did to me all those years ago, but I bet you still smile. I've just watched it, and although I'm not laughing uncontrollably, I'm definitely still smiling...
Time for a gig at last, with The F.B.I. Band in their guise as The Blues Brothers Experience at 'Groove At The Grove' in the grounds of The Hall Grove School in Bagshot. In previous postings I might well have ranted and raved about the British class system and all that sail in her, but as all the remaining Cool Britannia gigs have just been cancelled I'm so relieved to be actually playing a show that I can't really find it within myself at the moment. Maybe on another day... well let's face it, definitely on another day...
Given the extraordinary weather that we've been having over the last few weeks an open air event such as this could have gone either way - fortunately the rain held off for most of our set, and as a result we went down well with the assembled multitude of parents, teachers and pupils. Dep drummer Mark coped well with what I believe was his first gig with the band as did Blues Brother Austin (that's the same Austin that I used to work with...) while Chicago Blues Brothers stalwart Dave Land teamed up with F.B.I. regular Ian in the horn section alongside Jon on bass, Richard on keyboards and Tony as always on vocals. As I said above it was something of a relief to be playing a gig again - I've spent much of today putting my accounts in order and filling in my tax return, and have realised that my earnings in the last tax year are my lowest for a very long time. Oh well - it could be worse... just... still there's a rehearsal with The Flying Squad and a gig with Utter Madness this week, then next week Ruts D.C. play a festival in Croatia with The Upper Cut gigging perilously close to my birthday the week after that so hopefully things are about to improve. You have to stay optimistic haven't you? Well - haven't you?
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