Last night I saw Nick Cave barking and howling
 

I saw Nick Cave, Jarvis Cocker, Shane MacGowan and Pete Doherty "singing" (i.e. howling and barking) Home Sweet Home from Lady and The Tramp, and Nick Cave and David Thomas singing Heigh Ho from Snow White, and Nick Cave singing Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee (An Actor's Life For Me) from Pinocchio.

Oh, and I saw Grace Jones singing Trust in Me from The Jungle Book. And Gavin Friday singing The Siamese Cat Song from Lady and the Tramp.

What an evening!

where was this?

So, how did petey behave?

It was at the Royal Festival Hall in London, an evening of Disney songs called "Forest of No Return".

Pete Doherty was very well behaved, and came out into the auditorium to watch Shane Macgowan do a solo rendition of Zippedy-Doo-Dah. He and his lady sat three rows in front of us, and he seemed to be a very pleasant young man.

He was under valium, probably.

Shane Macgowan was under several pints of lager. He really is a sad sight to behold these days.

Nick Cave was in this building to watch the Philistines play about a week and half ago. He didn't look too well, he had bloodshot eyes.

He was wearing shades when he ventured offstage last night. I'd assumed it was a rockstar thing, but maybe not. Jane thought he was quite handsome.

These rock star get together things really get me down. It's like the current trend for bands like The Pixies reforming to tour 'best of' sets. We're in the midst of a real Indie dinosaur era. There's something very wrong about the whole thing.

The very fact that they play at the Royal Festival Hall is a testament to that. It all got a bit too comfy for these ageing and ageing-like musicians.

By ageing-like I mean youngsters who are old before their time, by the way.

Agreed. It's a phenomena that I hope will come to an end sooner rather than later.

It has cash-cow written all over it. It serves no other purpose.

Entertainment?

Yeah, but have a look at some of the crowds that go to this sort events in the Royal Festival Hall. I think it's self -explanatory.

Who cares?

Go meditate.

Ps - Sounded like a fun night, sonicl.

I do. Don't you?

It really is only a matter of time before the original line-up of Napalm Death get back together to play a run-through of Scum at the ICA.

Wrong, that's what I call it.

Do you mean the sort of crowd who go along to something because it's an "arts" event? You get that sort of crowd anywhere. The South Bank Centre attracts a lot less of the blue rinse brigade than most local arts centres.

Or do you mean the sort who likes their entertainment easily packaged? Isn't any event that is advertised easily packaged?

Totally. They should only have Ryan Adams playing in that sort of place. Where I work they have this slogan that says 'The ............... is yours', but that's total bullshit, because normally the great majority of people who come to see the shows here are upper or middle class. Only when we have the tenner season you get to see a different crowd, but that's only once a year.

See my answer above, and as I worked in this area for years, I think I know the typical crowds for most events well enough.