dead brains don't dance

Somebody, unidentified, widdled on Jamie Oliver in the night. This is double-plus ungood as I thought they might have given up on such things, but the Boy Oliver may be salvageable as he appears to be covered in some sort of wipe-clean plastic sheath.

We will be applying moist towelettes, or possibly a steam cleaner, to the Mockney One shortly.

In other news, ramtops and I ventured out last night to Nailsea Folk Club to see Phil Beer and Miranda Sykes, supported by Issy and David Emeney with Kate Riaz, and a splendid evening it was too.

thunderbox might rock or, indeed, keen at the thought of a melodeon, but Issy plays it very well, and Kate is a remarkably fine cellist, understated but holding the trio together while casually adding little flourishes from the back of the stage that made me smile. Issy’s singing voice is perhaps a little over influenced by Maddie Prior, and I generally preferred the instrumental parts of their set, but if you’re at all folkie, catch them if they’re playing in your area and you’re unlikely to regret it.

Phil and Miranda, now. Well. Jointly, severally; in folk, blues, lounge jazz, standards from the last four decades, and songs but recently written… It’s impossible to sum them or their performances up in short as they cover such an incredible spread of style and genre except to say that they are both astonishingly talented musicians, and that the two playing together gel into something far more than the sum of the parts, unmissable as each part would be alone. Notice of things to come, too: Phil, in his introduction to Willin’ announced that Little Feat will be headlining at Trowbridge this year: they can’t ever be as they were, with Lowell George gone, but I think that’s definitely something to be looking forward to.

A good night.