FRIDAY 14TH JANUARY 2000; Gigging and the "London Wheel"

One of my Christmas presents to Jane was two tickets to see Gene** in concert at the Kentish Town Forum tonight. They are one of her very favourite bands, and they are very good although I don’t enjoy them as much as when we first saw them a couple of years ago. They have quite a dedicated, almost cult following, which provides a good atmosphere in the gig, and I suspect we are only a few years above the average age of the fans! (We have been to gigs like Placebo at Reading University where we were perilously close to double the average. And we saw Steeleye Span in a reunion gig a few years ago when we were half the average age, and the only people there without beards. Of either sex.)

We drive home past The Wheel. (I think " The Wheel" is a much better name than The London Eye. I will start a campaign*.) It really is very impressive, particularly at night. Somehow it manages to look both incongruous, as if it has just landed from space, yet strangely appropriate for its location. And I'm sure one day it will work.

* 2020 notes; My campaign was not successful! the London eye survives...

** Gene sadly split up, leaving some very good albums and memories of gigs behind them. We were at their final gig, the Astoria in December 2004, when I almost got into a fight with a music journalist who "didn't really like Gene" and insisted on talking through the gig...