I had a great time with Robbie in the delightful cartoon town that is Brighton (yes, I mean that in a good way, although I guess I am implying that I'm not certain I'd like to live there). We had a look at the fallen pier which looked great at twilight with raging winds and waves crashing all around it. Then we visited Food For Friends for some partly healthy food and then we went to the gig in the Brighton Centre which took us back to younger days. It's a big 50s/60s municipal building that feels like an odd venue for a pop concert. We enjoyed wandering through empty corridors and rooms with our plastic guinnesses before the show.

All three acts made good use of the video projections behind them, combining little films with live footage from a camera on the singer's mike (I can't write 'mic') stand and, for the first act (Steve Burns) on the drummer's head. Alfie were promising in a Coral/Small Faces kind of way and the Flaming Lips were excellent combining their traditional 'crazy' showpersonship with some serious moments. The showbiz included big balloons bouncing over the crowd, dancers in animal costumes, santa, bleeding heads, singalongs, happy birthday being sung to everyone in the audience who (claimed to) have a birthday, snowflakes being hurled onto the audience and some top pop tunes, including a version of 'Seven Nation Army' being squealed into a megaphone (that was the clincher that persuaded Apoa and Kiloh that they want to come next time). The serious bits were about doing something about things you think are bad (following the communal booing of Scwarzenegger, Bush and Blair) and about the death of Elliot Smith, who did a lot of work with the band and their sound man, and, in this context, about how life has no meaning and you have to work to make yourself happy. They were both introductions to songs. I can't remember which song was about how we all have to decide whether we're going to try to make a change but the song that was about working on making yourself happy was 'Waitin' For A Superman'.

Two other highlights of the day were cycling through the spookily deserted City on a dark windy, autumn-leaf afternoon and then again in the middle of the night on the way home.

B-)