Gigs on fire

In a bizarre twist of fate, I didn't actually sing at the Pizza Express with Jon Regen on Friday. The reason being that the whole street was taken out by a fire in one of the buildings, so nobody could get near it from the afternoon till the end of the day. What are the odds?

Reminded me of a time, many moons ago, when I went to work in Covent Garden one sunny morning to find the street cordoned off and a crowd gathered at the rope. The fire was actually over but I guess everyone else was hanging about for the same reasons I was: wondering what the hell was going on and whether they were going to get their arse kicked for being late.

I said to the policeman, "That's my work in there - I'm supposed to be in."

"Not today you're not," he replied. "Go home and enjoy the sun." Far be it from me to argue with a policeman.

Of course, it's much more fun going home when you were supposed to be at work, than when you were supposed to be doing a gig. But such is the way of random urban fires and you can't plan for these things.

As it is, I'm now swotting up for my gig tomorrow at Alimentum in Cambridge. I played there last year and it's a classy joint. This time I have Simon Little on bass and Nigel Price on guitar - absolutely top players and on my album to boot.

You can check the details on the venue's website, or I have actually set up an event invite for you Facebook lovers out there.

Feel free to join the lovin'...