This weekend has sped by to the point that I haven't actually blogged since Thursday.
I arrived at St Pancras on Friday evening and met up with Emma who doesn't live too far actually.
Not many people I knew were present but there was enough around to have a good time there and after I brought bottles of WKD blue and mango Breezer I was set.
Emma's friend Mia said that she hadn't actually seen anyone drink Bacardi Breezer for a long time which goes to show that I may suffer if they go bust.
Lucy Brincombe was also there who had travelled from Southampton for the weekend and Steven and Caroline popped over where at that point we went into the garden.
It was good to catch up on things although Steven's still rather against the idea of him attending graduation due to how much it costs. He did suggest however that we must have some sort of piss-up near the time and with the SRAs four days earlier that weekend will be the perfect time to do so.
Emma had her laptop playing all the music off Spotify open to all, where one of the tracks I chose was "Red Lipstick" by Skint And Demoralised.
The record that Moyles championed last month but didn't do too well in the charts, although I shortly came up with new lyrics after the death of Michael Jackson which aren't for the faint hearted;
"#He likes plastic lips
Touching kids
Jesus Juice and trips to the surgeon..."
We got so caught up with talking to about 11pm and we hadn't even headed off to KOKO. Just before midnight Steven and Caroline decided to head back to get the last tube and I was very close to bottling it from KOKO but Emma was being rather speedy about getting everyone to head off so I went ahead.
And it was just as well because not only did we get in free, but Emma had got access to one of the balconys specially for us.
The music playing was basically a mixture of the really big indie hits from the last year such as Ladyhawke, the Ting Tings, and Ida Maria to name a few although by the end of the night they stuck a few old favourites such as Mark Ronson's "Valerie", The Killers "All These Things That I've Done", and a bit of Rage for good measure.
I did get a few photos but my camera's currently charging as I type so I'll stick them on Facebook later.
I slept on the floor of Emma's front room that evening with the sofa occupied by a few of the lads who looked really out of it on my arrival back.
They had gone home by the next morning but I stayed over with Emma and Lucy until around 4:30pm where I headed over to Enbankment to meet up with Stephen where we would get a clipper to the Indig02.
We accidentally got off at Canary Wharf under the impression we had to change when it turned out we didn't need to at all.
It didn't stop us from arriving on time and before the gig itself was a DJ set from Solar Radio's James Anthony, and Fitzroy Da Buzzboy.
The gig itself was spectacular with a string section lead by Simon Hale who did a stunning performance of "Jacobs Ladder" from the 100 Degrees album. They also lent their perfection to "Deep Waters", "Morning Sun" and of course "Everyday".
The vocal line up was amazing with the main vocalists being Tony Momrelle, Joy Rose, Vanessa Hain, and Scotswoman Gail Evans.
And that wasn't all as there were guest appearances from Maysa, Imaani, Bluey's nice who's name escapes me, and the one and only Jocelyn Brown.
Not only did Jocelyn perform the favourite "Always There" but also her own take on "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" as performed with Inner Life in the early 80s. And in the encore Jocelyn and Maysa performed on stage together with the rest of the band on "Nights Over Egypt" which with the strings and Matt Cooper's stunning keyboards was a brilliant way to end the gig.
Stephen was just as impressed with the performance and I look forward to hearing his review on this week's Grooveline on Tuesday. I headed off at around midnight as my feet were quite literally aching but not before having a brief chat with Bluey himself who was signing autographs and merchandise along with his lovely daughter Mao, and I even met his nephew.
We tried to get a photo but my camera's battery had ran out as a result of videoing a few of the performances including the amazing "Jacob's Ladder".
I then got a cab over to the Holiday Inn I was staying at where I left this morning and got the bus over to Holborn and the tube to Victoria.
Now back in Canterbury now where Mum's sister Helen and her husband Richard are staying with us but no ones home as on this rather stunning day they've gone to Broadstairs.
I'm currently listening to Robbie on Jazz FM where it appears they've now brought back hourly news bulletins from Sky back into the show. At least it means they play that amazing news intro on the hour which is still the best news intro on commercial radio by far.
As for the music on the show itself, it's not too bad this week although Robbie's still playing one of the tracks of the latest album by the Rippingtons which I can never understand the hype about as they're well past their best.
But their best still sounds really good as a tune that really works in this weather has to be "Carnival!" from their 1992 "Weekend In Monaco" album.
And as everyone's in Broadstairs I'm doing my own cooking again and plan to do myself a "penne bol" with slightly expensive penne pasta and a few surprise spices.
Once again it's sped by.
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