Last night certainly was an interesting one: cool, but not in a sense that that word usually applies to a gig. A couple of weeks ago, Lyn and I started to see flyers around the village for a Glenn Tillbrook concert over in Greenwich. Not recognising the name, I ignored them, but Lyn said she wanted to go, so we had a drive to Greenwich to get tickets. Thus I had no idea what to expect last night. Me being me, I scanned Tilllbrook’s Wikipedia page on the way over. Knowing Lyn, I knew we were in for some kind of rock gig, but other than that I had no idea what to expect.

As it turned out, I think it caught L by surprise too. After a delicious pizza, we made our way to the venue. It looked like a posh school hall, and indeed there were quite a few fairly young children in there. Nevertheless, we took our places. It started shortly after, not with music but with quite a crude comedian – one of those Roy Chubby Brown types, only slightly less blue. After a few fairly hit-and-miss jokes, he introduced Tillbrook himself, to sing a few songs. Then, to my increasing bemusement, some school kids came on to sing. It was then I realised that we had got tickets for a charity gig for a local primary school.

After that I settled down and began to get into it; normal standards and expectations did not apply. There was a gospel choir, Tillbrook doing a few duets with his son, and, in the second half, quite a cool blues band called Seven Below Zero, who I felt took the night up a notch.

It ended about eleven. Quite randomly, we bumped into Sharron in the foyer; I hadn’t seen her in a few weeks – she’d been busy canvassing, she explained – but it was a great surprise to see her, and we agreed to meet for coffee soon. On the bus home, I thought about the evening, and wondered what to write about it. It had been cool, but not like other gigs are cool. You can see all the mega-bands you like, I suppose, but sometimes, the quainter, more local gigs are the ones that stay in your memory.