Sarah, Sarah, Sitting in a Shoe Shine Shop

I have been to see Ben Waters. He is an exponent of the boogie-woogie piano (he was the entertainment at Jools Holland's wedding if that puts him into context), and I confess I was feeling a certain trepidation at the thought of sitting through two hours' worth of eight to the bar and walking blues bass lines, accompanied no doubt by out of time handclapping from the audience. I was however, more than pleasantly surprised, because Waters mixed up the musical styles with plenty of rock & roll, plus some less expected covers such as the Kinks, the Beatles and ABBA. On top of which he was an amusing and entertaining raconteur. I was aware that he had connections with the Rolling Stones and he had several anecdotes about the various band members; although to be honest if you can't make something funny out of material like Jagger and Richards then you're in the wrong business.

He also told a number of stories about his mentor, the man who, himself steeped in the traditions, passed on the tricks of this particular piano style (and incidentally taught Waters very well because I had a good view of the keys and his hands were an absolute blur as he played). Given that this is a type of music that originated in New Orleans a century and more ago you can imagine the sort of mental image I had as he spoke. All of which proves that one should never jump to conclusions because the chap in question turned out to hail from Ilkley, and furthermore was sitting in the audience. Thus it was that a sprightly Yorkshire pensioner took to the stage, banged out a few numbers and regaled the audience with his own yarns about playing with Fats Domino, Dr John and the like; although sadly not Professor Longhair, perhaps that would have been too much to ask for. It's a funny old world.

One expectation that wasn't dashed - the audience clapped completely out of time all the way through.

We need some music at this point. Here's something from Fats Domino that speaks to me for some reason:

Pot62pouri

In my sky at twilight you are like a cloud
and your form and colour are the way I love them.
You are mine, mine, woman with sweet lips
and in your life my infinite dreams live.

- Pablo Neruda

I have had cause to look back at some of this blog's posts from the past; God hasn't the quality declined? Someone who's quality hasn't in any way gone down is Jools Holland, who I have been to see for the fifth or sixth time. Admittedly there isn't anything surprising or novel about it, but what he does, he does well. Other than it being the first occasion that I've seen them since the death of Rico Rodriguez, it was exactly the same and none the worse for that. The guests this time were Pauline Black and Arthur 'Gaps' Hendrickson of The Selecter.

They both sported excellent hats; Hendrickson's in particular causing much envy on my part. If you had asked me before to name a song by their band I would have struggled, but I recognised and enjoyed them when they were being played. The duo also took vocal duties on Prince Buster's 'Enjoy Yourself', a song which always heavily featured Rodriguez. Ruby Turner was, inevitably, the star of the show. Holland seems to put up remarkably well with being upstaged at his own gigs.

Anyway, sadly another great has left us. It's as a songwriter that I think Leon Russell will be remembered. Here are a couple of covers of his songs:

And here he is singing a song by someone else, Nobel laureate Bob Dylan to be precise; and it's a song that has a very real resonance after the other events of this week:

Eight pints and a curry for two quid

Not long ago this blog embarked on a series - admittedly so far rather short - on the great bridges of Wharfedale and the Washburn Valley. It seems that we are now similarly engaged in reviewing the great curry houses of Morley Street in Bradford, because just a couple of weeks after visiting the International I have been to the Kashmir. Neither of these were in any sense unknown to me although the feeling of being sober as I entered certainly was. The Kash has changed very little: new features amounted to a flat screen tv and computerised till (them) and a kindle (me) plus, disconcertingly, it is now b-y-o and people were sitting there with bottles of red wine and cans of Polish lager. I am pleased to report that I only drank from the jug of water kindly provided. Unlike at the International, the Kash's menu is still the same and so keema madras and three chapattis was consumed for the extortionate cost of £5.

Going to the Kash always (a strange word seeing that I haven't been there for forty years) reminds me of Diddy David Hamilton, although that's a dull story, unlike the sort-of-related one about the labrador (or possibly golden retriever - the details have faded somewhat due to the passage of time); in any event I haven't got time for either. I merely bring it up because the only other occasion  that I saw the chap in the flesh as it were, he was playing for Fulham in a testimonial at Griffin Park; I think for Jackie Graham, although that's even less relevant. The actual point of all this is to note the fine 2-1 victory of the Bees over Fulham last night. It was Brentford's 125th anniversary last month and a survey of fans rated the 4-0 win over Fulham in the penultimate match of the 1991-92 title winning season as the best ever match. I was there.

So, why was I walking the mean streets of Bradford again so soon? ["Exactly how mean are those streets?" enquires the Rhetorical Pedant "Isn't the city centre of Bradford actually rather nice these days, especially the lake and fountains at City Park?"] Well, I have been to see Jools Holland and his Big Band at St George's Hall, which was all rather good. Holland's cheery style of bonhomie isn't to everyone's taste, but he can certainly play the piano and has assembled very talented musicians and guest singers. I've seen Marc Almond sing with them three or four times now and he is always good value. He was educated nearby and always speaks warmly of the bands he saw at the venue. He mentioned Marc Bolan specifically and for the first time I wonder if that's where he got his stage name from. It's all a bit self-referential as his biggest hit and major crowd-pleaser tonight 'Tainted Love' was of course originally recorded by Bolan's girlfriend. The other main singer Ruby Turner was also on top form and the set - which ranged from big band standards through Ray Charles, Big Bill Broonzy and the Supremes to Soft Cell's "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye" - was a great success.

The evening of nostalgia is heightened by my own memories of being a bouncer at a Squeeze concert at St Georges back in the seventies when Holland was still playing with them and they were supporting Eddie and the Hot Rods.

"Cos you look just like a commie and you might just be a member".