we will still need a song

Overheard on the 134 bus the other day: ‘I can’t believe you voted Tory. That’s really surprising. And do you know what else is surprising? We’ve got a spiders’ nest in our bathroom!’ The speaker was a young woman in a pretty coat. She gave no clue as to the political inclinations of the spiders.

The past few days have seen more gigging. Friday was Alabama 3 at the Kentish Town Forum. We were sitting upstairs, so I had to chair dance. As they have been ever since I first saw them in, like 1998 or something scary like that (it was back when I was a student and was still going through my super static polyester vintage blouses phase - no idea why I remember that) the band were pretty splendid - funky, swampy and bonkers. So a lot of seated Bez shuffling was going on.

Chair Bez-ing is pretty difficult, especially when you have a limited space to work with. I used to know a couple of fellas who were masters at pub based chair dancing. Chair Morrissey and chair Blues Brothers were their specialities. I don’t know how well they’d get on in a gig type situation.

Last night involved Hawksley Workman at the Borderline, which is a sweaty basement which appears to have been decorated like a Wild West themed burger bar. As Hawksley himself commented (and he chatted almost as much as he sang, which isn’t out of the ordinary for him. Thankfully his onstage banter is highly entertaining - he's like your oddest mate after they've eaten a lot sugar.) the place smelt quite strongly of steak.

Hawksley plays rocky poppy cabaret folk songs. Some of which sound like Sparks. He has a massive back catalogue full of catchy ditties so a lot of singalongs happened. Last night, he encouraged us to sing choruses whilst he’ll harmonised, sang bits of other peoples songs and pulled what my friend memorably described as a ‘sex face’.

For some reason, the front row of the gig seemed to be entirely made up of women with cameras. I’m not sure how many pictures of two men (HW and his pianist ‘Mr Lonely’) one person needs, but it was a whole symphony of whirrs and clicks, which was quite irritating. Still, we enjoyed Hawksley.

I’m not seeing any bands at all this week. But at least my bathroom is spider-free. I’ve not asked any of my friends how they voted, but may do so whilst on the way into work tomorrow.