Richard Thompson — excellent as always, sold out the Sage again.

I've realised now why I prefer his solo shows to his band shows. As he sells out, he always plays big venues like the Sage which are, basically, horrible. To enjoy a band gig, you need to stand up and dance; failing this jigging about from side to side would work. The best band gig I went to was in Edinburgh; half way through I went to the loo, then spent the rest of the gig standing up at the back and had a great time.

Throw out the chairs!

Last week I went to Dave Cowan's leaving do. No idea who he was, but he decided to get Jess Klein to play. Kindly, he decided to open up the gig to the public which included me.

Jess was excellent again, better than the Cluny I would say. The gig was in the Black Swan centre which I've not been too, and the sound is far better than the Cluny with it's odd shape.

Had a talk with Jess afterwards; I'd had a few pints by this time so I wittered inconsequentially. Ah, well, I guess that she is used to it.

Well, I was not quite right. Hero does have a story, and it's reasonably engaging, although seems to be an allegory which says that the end justifies the means. Visually beautiful, well, yes, got that bit right.

Lots of art this week. First Blowup, being shown to mark Antonioni's death (he was the director; fraid I'd never heard of him). Not a bad film. Wikipedia says that it "does not follow a conventional narrative structure", which I interpret as it not having a plot. Most of the plot seems to involve unlikely situations which allow for lots of strange angles and artistic shots, with 60s stylism to the fore. Still, the shots were very artistic, which was fun in itself. It's not aged well, but it's an interesting historical view.

The Alvin Ailey dance company played at the Royal Theatre. It started off with a dark and meaningful dance about something, backed with orchestral music and then moved towarded a more dancable (er...) gospel set which got everyone tapping. The dancing wasn't the best I've seen; the acrobat dance wasn't that acrobatic, the grace was evident but not excellent. But it kept me happy for the 2 hour show (with two long interevals!).

24-7 is another Shane Meadows. More engaging than This is England, but with similar territory. Bob Hoskins as a likeble boxing coach, with a dark ending to keep up the griity realism. I like Shane Meadows; although his films have a dark edge, he's got a great sense of humour which is never partronising, warm to his subjects.

Going to watch "Hero" now. Based on previous similar films, I suspect it's going to be visually beautiful without much plot.