London Recap Birthday Weekend

It was a PERFECT birthday. I woke up and headed down to North & Ten to get bagels and the very nice dude working there had the idea to put a candle in one. Great for me, I hadn’t bothered to order a cake for the party so this was how I’d make my birthday wish

The daily writing hour produces some fantastic stuff for my professional Duck Duck Goose league short story then it’s time to head to Kate’s to work on a new (old) song. Drones On The Radio, which I wrote in London in 2005 and was due to be a Lullaby Oscillator song, though in later years I liked singing it as me. Thinking of contenders for the album, I remembered Drones and asked Kate if she’d play Wurlitzer on it. It’s so great to see her. Gosh, I’ve known Kate for 23 years now and we’ve made music together for a lot of these. After catching up and learning that I am as tall as Elvis - a fact that pleases me in a very profound way, Burning Love being my favourite song of all-time, and since you asked, there’s a fun chart on the wall to measure her daughter’s height - after all that, we get down to the song and Kate sprinkles some of her magic and I’m very happy at how it’s going to come out. With school pick-up on the horizon, she draws me a map of Stoke Newington, marking its bookshops and vegan spots, and I’m off. Right away, rounding the corner for Church Street, I happen upon a bakery that has one gluten-free vegan option - almond lemon balls - and my goodness they are so good not 50 steps down the road I turn heel to rush back for more

I still get a nice warm feeling browsing bookshops even though I already have most of what I’d buy. There is a heck of a lot of Donleavy in Abney Books, which always does the heart good to see. Peckish, I begin to look around for something to suit my gluten-free vegan needs and lo and behold as if by magic All Nations Vegan House appears on the horizon. The awesome woman behind the counter insisting on putting together a sampler plate of all their gf options in order for me to decide what I want. Truth be told, I’m quite full after finishing this, and most of the options have been delicious, all Caribbean Ital food, but wanting to support the place I order the oyster mushrooms and greens with the sweet potato wedges and it’s a good thing I did too. Scarfing most of it down on the bus ride back proving wise as I do not have time to eat again for the rest of the day. There is also a sarsaparilla iced tea that is TO DIE FOR. OMG, I thought about it every day afterwards and meant to make the 1.5 hour round trip just for that. Upon leaving the restaurant I run into David Barker again, more great stories, about hanging out with Kurt Cobain and The Afghan Whigs in the 90s, and the cool releases he himself is working on these days

Just enough time to head down to The King’s Head where I’d hired out the downstairs room, explaining to them when I get there how I’ve had so many cancellations we’ll be far from my original head count. They are very cool about this, shutting the downstairs bar and foregoing the minimum spend, and I tip them quite well for their trouble. In the end there are about 20 or so of us and, as Helen pointed out next day, ‘the guest list was immaculate.’ Rachel even coming up from Brighton and bearing gifts - a 7”, her Lyra cd, a couple badges, an Ernie Ball guitar pick they wrote the Dolly Mixture song about, and this lovely postcard where she drew the places we’d gone to in Brighton a few days before

Sarll brings me a Beekeeper lego figurine, and there are so many lovely cards from people, including this one from David Ryder Prangley

So great to see everybody. And I’m always amazed at how Sean Clothier’s mind works. Years ago when I asked Sean why he didn’t do his improv troupe anymore, he told me ‘aw man, the comedy scene is even worse than the music scene. You have people who are always ‘on’ all the time.’ I would often think of this when I was later doing comedy. But the thing is Sean himself is always on. It’s not even jokes-per-minute, it would be more fair to say jokes-per-second, and the sheer joy with which he tells them carries the volume into something approaching perpetual mirth. Which might be an odd way to put it considering how many of these reference goth bands

We close the place out and I’m buzzing so much from how amazing the day has been I don’t fall asleep until almost 4. And despite not having had a drink in almost 14 years, I actually feel hungover the next day from all the excitement

On the agenda for today is a trip down to the South Bank to browse the bookseller tables lined up along the Thames near the BFI. I have loved lingering over these since Kasia first took me here 20 years ago now. And I believe the last time I saw Rachel of Rachel On The Rooftops we wandered thru, perusing on our walk to the Old Vic. Somewhere in between these times I came across a book called The Mad Motorists, and already intrigued by the title, I was sold when upon opening the volume the dedication read ‘To The Lady With Whom I Motor’. Reading this book got me obsessed with the 1907 Peking To Paris race, hoping one day to write a comic about it, and very much to take part in a recreation of the trek myself. On this particular Saturday it’s a late start and when I reach the Thames Waterloo Sunset immediately gets stuck in my head. A mix of the maudlin and wondrous comes over me, a deep love for this city and all my time here whilst recognizing how temporary the latter is these days. That song and that feeling will hence be inevitable whenever the ‘dirty old river’ comes into view

I’m in the market for these two Roald Dahl short story collections. Have you read any of his adult fiction? A lot is quite macabre. And then there’s My Uncle Oswald that I read on the flight to the L.A. AWP, which is about ‘the greatest fornicator in the world’. I owned the below edition of Kiss Kiss years ago and cannot find my copy. I absolutely love these covers and very much want them in my collection. I love that cover so much I’m even considering calling the album Kiss Kiss

No luck with these though I do snag The Penguin Book Of Modern Humor (1984) and finally pick up Clarice Lispector’s Near To The Wild Heart. A lot of people have been raving about Lispector in recent years and it was this one that the woman at The Whispering Shelf in Indianapolis whilst I was on a mini Sporting Moustaches tour told me to get after convincing me I needed to read Lispector. Wander through the BFI, go to their library for the first time which is pretty cool, then hit Wagamama, remembering how back in the days of alpha-numeric texting ‘Wagamama’ was great because it was just one tap on each button heh. Head back to Ben & Helen’s. Ben’s already asleep, hang with Helen for a bit, then attempt to watch The Legend Of The 7 Golden Vampires but I’m so tired I only make it about a half hour in before bed is calling

I’ve been here over a week now and still haven’t figured out eating at home. All the brands at the supermarket have changed since my last trip and I haven’t found much to my liking. I spied a cereal that might do the trick last week but for some reason the packaging didn’t say gluten-free so I call the company next day and now that I have a bit of free time this Sunday it’s back up to Kinks homestead Muswell Hill to the Planet Organic to stock up. Start off having to run for the bus, then halfway along the ride I spot that the farmer’s market is set up along Alexandra Palace, where I’ve never been before, so I hop off next stop for a wander. It’s a bit late in the afternoon so all the gf vegan treats have sold out but a very friendly chap with three huge stirring pots in front of him heaps me a pile of his vegan curry sans the chickpeas per my request. It’s delish and just what I need. Finding myself at the bottom of the hill and it only being two bus stops to the end, I decide to walk it. This turning out to very much be exercise day. Popping in first to Muswell Hill Books & Parlour, a lovely little shop just opened in September, the owner having briefly taken over the Camden Lock Black Gull Books when they were in the process of closing. Man, I LOVED both locations of Black Gull Books. I find a paperback of Wodehouse’s The Pothunters (imagine if this was about weed? lol) and much to my delight it also contains his second and third novels, enabling me to cross all three off my ‘Wodehouse Books To Look For’ list in my Notes app. It’s my goal to read all 91 and I’m a little over halfway thru. Oh yes, on my birthday I started the day listening to the Cocktail Time audiobook, reminding me there simply is no better prose stylist than P.G. himself. Stock up on cereal and more probiotics to then grab the bus home and head out to karaoke

It’s very much a tradition for all of us. Ben & co. now have Karaoke Club that meets whenever they can, and starting at my 28th birthday I’ve more often than not celebrated by karaoking in London. I remember feeling trepidation during the lead up to that night of my 28th. For all Clare & Paul would tell me was ‘we’re taking you to a dark room in Soho and there will be Ladyboys there’. For those of you who don’t know, parts of Soho are notorious for brothels, strip clubs, and adult shops. And on this latest trip, Clare informs me that KaraokeBox where we used to go was indeed an ex-brothel. Very evident by the room set-up as I think back on it now, and that night of my 28th Clare and I having to be physically removed from one of those rooms as we refused to leave until we’d finished singing Catatonia’s Road Rage, channeling Cerys Matthews all the way until the end. And the Ladyboys turned out to be the name of a cocktail

We rush in and I kick thinks off with Burning Love and go on to hit Dancing In The Dark and Will You Love Me Tomorrow. I always forget that that song is associated with Amy Winehouse over there but for me it’ll always be The Shirelles. Clare tells them it’s my birthday for the free round of shots you get and wanting to take part I go ask for a virgin one. It is remarkable how, even having not had a drink for so long, muscle memory kicks in and the simple act of throwing one back has my body in a state of high expectation for a few minutes. It used to be so much about all the adventures that would unfold…

A good decade or so ago, around the time we became known as The Studbudz, Sean and I dueted on Robyn’s Dancing On My Own and it was so fantastic we never miss a chance to again. Sean lines up With Or Without You too, as Kitty points out ‘U2 have a lot of great songs, but maybe they’d be better without Bono singing them’ and she’s trying to get Sean to sing as many as they can in stops all over the globe, the two of them heading to Japan soon. I realize it’s imposing but I ask Sean if I can join in and he readily agrees, making for another moving rendition. At this rate, the Studbudz will have a full repertoire by, oh, 2084 or so…

I sing Iron Maiden’s The Trooper for the first time and crowd favourite David Lee Roth’s Just A Gigolo and too soon it’s all over but not before Kitty has put in Roy Orbison’s You Got It. A wonderful, wonderful song and a great group singalong to end on. It also reminding me of a memory I hold dear - being at the fantastic vegan restaurant Wild Cow in Nashville, The Traveling Wilburys’ Handle With Care on the jukebox, and when it gets to the ‘everybody’s got somebody to lean on’ part THE ENTIRE RESTAURANT looked up, nodding their heads along in recognition of what an excellent song this is. Instead of booking another hour we opt to head to the Highbury & Islington ‘Spoons to hang. Emma Cooper and I having quite a long detailed and it must be said excitable conversation about MCR, much to the bafflement of the rest of the group

Monday is a work day. The Middle People album is out on Friday and I’m having trouble getting much traction for them, which is a bummer cuz Mikey is one of my all-time favourite songwriters and I had such luck on my first three PR campaigns. I’ll have to do this a few days this week. Plus their Warmer In The Middle Of The Road, which Mikey wrote on a train in Georgia (country, not state), sees him tapping into his inner Mark E. Smith and totally earworms me for most of this trip

Finish up in time to head out to Hackney to hit WAVE - We Are Vegan Everything - that Kate and I went to last time I was over. It had been delish, tho when I arrive today the kitchen is closed. No fear, they have gf vegan sausage rolls out which are quite tasty too. Then it’s on to Umit & Son, home of the Ciné Real film club, “the only film club in the UK to exclusively screen films on 16mm”. It’s a wonderful little shop, piled floor to ceiling with VHS tapes, film canisters, and posters. Plus a 17-seat cinema in back that you can rent out for showings from their archive. Ben and I are both thinking of doing this. There’s a lot of Hitchcock in said archive and I’m psyched to see reels of Masculin Feminin, and wow just noticing now in the photo it’s A Matter Of Life And Death above it

The owner, who reminds me of Can’s Holger Czukay, tells me they host larger showings at The Castle Cinema just up the road so I mosey over to take a look. Very cool lounge, friendly staff, some good stuff on, and of course I like the green

After popping in, I find myself at a crossroads, I had wanted to hit Flashback Shoreditch and say hello to Jimmy Martin but as I’m out in Homerton everything seems very far away and not easy to get to, and I have to be back for the quiz. Plus I feel myself being led out to Dalston and Burley Fisher Books, ostensibly for the Roald Dahls. They don’t have these but as I’m looking thru the Music section I spot another book on my list, David Keenan’s Volcanic Tongue. It’s the only new book I will buy this trip and again it very much feels like I’ve been guided here to get it. On the Overground journey back I can see why. Opening chapter about The Pastels is so endearing I’m immediately sold. He’s 17 and never been to a gig before so he asks his dad what they’re like. “At concerts, he said, it was mostly couples. You wore a suit and tie, ordered some food, and watched the show from your table.” His dad then takes him to the club where The Pastels are playing and makes sure he gets in. But not before getting mistaken for a bouncer and taking up the role with gusto as he also moves into the club. Even with all this, when David gets home that night he knows this is the life for him

Then hightailing it to The Lexington. I’m so tired by now that if I hadn’t committed the day before I def would not be going. But it’s great to see Charley Stone on the door and our team - Van Maiden, I dub us - does respectably. I won’t name names but it comes up that one of our team had the piss taken out of him for answering ‘Christina Aguilera’ to the question ‘Out of everyone in history, who would you most like to make out with the most?’ The rest of our team agree this is a perfectly acceptable answer and I’m made aware of her 2004 UK Skechers campaign which I promptly look up when I return home

Skechers had never really crossed my mind before but they have now. And I find myself pondering the question, though it’s my initial reaction of Cleopatra that I think I’ll go with. My six-year-old inner child also piping up with Cynthia Rhodes circa 1982-1987. I’m unbelievably tired on the long bus trip home but I still manage to have a detailed conversation with DRP about the minutiae of KISS’ 1980 Unmasked tour (only 1 US date!), That stuff is just ingrained in me and I guess I can do it in my sleep. An activity that will be at a premium for the rest of the trip