Tom McRae and Subsequent Frivolities

On Friday evening it was the turn of the splendid Tom McRae (and friends) to entertain me, as part of the Hotel Cafe tour he's heading. He's brought a gang of artist(e)s from a venue in Los Angeles where he's been hanging about to showcase them over here, and attached his name to help the tickets sell. So although that meant we didn't get to see nearly enough of Tom doing his own material, it was still a great gig. One of those 'feel-good events' (eurgh) where people get together in unison and do it for the music. Man.

It was very enjoyable - some of the artists were inevitably better than others, but considering nobody knew who any of them were before the gig, they went down well. The real highlight for me though was the guest appearance from Kathryn Williams. It's only two months since I saw her do a free gig at Stockton Georgian and it was an unexpected surprise to see her again on Friday. She's got such a beautiful, fragile voice and holds a room in total silence - when rude people aren't talking that is.

After the gig myself and Sir Welford accompanied our hosts Lord Laverick and Lady Laura back to Sunderland where we were set to rest our heads. But not before attempting a night out on the tiles at a newly launched Club NME night, which was appalling. Much like the magazine itself, it was full of shit music and people dressed like cretins. When I got home on Saturday it was straight off to the Boro match against league leaders Man Utd, who beat us after expertly pulling off the art of cheating. Just two examples of how bad people generally get their way in this world.