flying north from Luton. Route home from Purcell Room: walk along the Thames (unexpectedly beautiful), bus, train, bus, plane, taxi, c. 4 hours

view from the bus stop on Blackfriars Bridge

I'm sitting here with the satisfaction of a job done. I'll leave it to others to decide whether it was well done, but to have Shirley on stage with us while Kate and I performed the songs she sang with her sister Dolly was difficult, but satisfying indeed. Not an average gig in any way. When you know that the material means a great deal to certain people in the room, there's a very strong sense of responsibility to get it right, but then in performance you also have to be open to let music in. Playing the work of someone as self-effacing as Dolly Collins is a good exercise: I was wary of smiling too much between the songs (did it look smug?). But then how could I not smile in the company of such people and such music?

The Purcell Room is a dingy hole, but once we got past security we were made very welcome, with tea and fresh fruit backstage beforehand, and good champagne and beer afterwards: we could have done with a few more glasses to share it with the happy crowd backstage though. And it was good to see Bill Drummond and Ronita Dutta too: Bill had seen Shirley and Dolly play live 'at least twice'.

Anyway, I'm going to doze a bit now, as I inevitably stayed up far too late last night with Kate and Stephen: it was the first time I'd visited them at home since they put me up during the Colin's Kisses sessions nearly 10 years ago ...