James and I went to see Jools Holland on Friday evening. Beforehand we went to one of our west end favourites, Joia, in Dumbarton Road, where the pasta is always cooked to perfection. We had a lovely and very filling meal. However, as I stood to put my jacket on as we were about to leave, I accidentally pushed my napkin into the flame of the tea light that was burning merrily on the table. Quickly the napkin caught fire and as I tried to smother the flames with my coffee cup they kept breaking out to the side, it was scary how quickly they spread. James noticed me trying to put out the small fire and was very alarmed, but luckily the waitress assisted me and we managed to extinguish the conflagration. However there remained a strong smell of burning, which caused quite a few heads to turn in our direction, although I don’t think any other customers had seen the flames.
The concert was great; lots of boogie woogie and blues and even a wee bit of classical music. Jools was very personable as usual and chatted about the band. The singers were very good, especially the gorgeous Ruby Turner who has an amazing voice. The main guest singer was Vic Reeves aka James Moir, an old friend of Jools, they have the same birthday and are only one year apart in age. We did a double take when he appeared, because as a veteran comedian of our youth (and a very good artist) we didn’t know that he was also a singer. Well, actually he wasn’t really, in my opinion! There is no doubt that he enjoys singing very much, and he enthusiastically belted out three pop hits from the 1960s. However he was not of the standard that Jools usually invites along to his concerts (such as Eddi Reader or Marc Almond.) He’s a very funny man and he was entertaining, however when I nipped to the toilet shortly before the end of the concert, I heard some younger ladies complaining that he wasn’t very good, and sounded “like a karaoke singer” which I think was a fair assessment.
Today I met Heather at the Grand Central Hotel for afternoon tea for two in the Champagne Bar. This was my birthday present from Heather and Ewan from last year, to which I naturally invited Heather! We had to postpone it from earlier in the year when Heather had Covid, but it was worth the wait, and we had a lovely time. The dainty sandwiches, scones with cream and jam, and a selection of cakes, arrived on a three-tiered cake stand, and there was more than enough for the two of us; we could hardly finish. We had a good chat and then joined James and Ewan for drinks at Innes & Gunn in West Nile Street.
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