For me, just a Saturday of delight.
Clarissa had asked if I wanted to see this exhibition of the Temple Of Mithras. I said I had wanted to do so for ages, as I walked past it to work every day that I go in. But you need to book in advance and I had just never got round to it. So as Clarissa offered to book, I was definitely in. And had lunch with her in Caravan beforehand while her husband was doing karate.
Now Caravan is fine, very convenient for the Temple in the Bloomberg Building, food is nice, but it is very expensive for what it is. But we also had a lunchtime cocktail too - bellinis all round. Decadent.
And then Thibault joined us for the exhibition. For which Clarissa scheduled 90 minutes. 15 was enough! I sort of knew this as I do remember the Temple ruins when they were exposed at street level years ago. They were originally discovered at this site, then moved nearby when the site was redeveloped, and then moved back when the site was redeveloped again with the new Bloomberg Building going up. The Temple was then added as a sort of basement attraction in the complex. So I knew there wouldn't be too much. But not realised just how little there would be!
So up at street level they have a modern art exhibit which changes every six months. I am generally scathing of such modern art installations that come with a long blurb on what they are about because, of course, what you are looking at looks like nothing at all and is neither interesting nor attractive. This was totally in line!
Now what I was anticipating was an exhibition area of artifacts dug up at the time of the original excavation. Which there sort of was - but only one case with a sort of montage of all the bits and pieces placed vertically like a wall art installation.
Then you go down into effectively a waiting hall with only three exhibits - all just perspex models of originals. I was expecting at least the statue of Mithras that I had seen before, but apparently that remains in the Museum of London.
And then every 20 minutes you are allowed to go down a further floor to see the actual temple ruins, along with some rather nice lighting effects and some chanting in Latin as an idea of what one might have heard if you were a worshipper in Roman London, following which you can wander around the perimeter and out you go.
So a bit underwhelming really. I mean they have done a lot with what they have got, but that isn't very much. So we retired to a local pub for a few drinks following which Clarissa went for her yoga classes and left me with her husband, and who had himself done a karate class that morning and had slept really badly the night before. He seemed whacked and I expected after Clarissa doing most of the talking he would excuse himself and flop at home, leaving me until my evening arrangements.
But as it happens he got a second wind and we had a really nice interesting conversation about all sorts of things. I guess the alcohol helped, but also we just genuinely get on and enjoy each other's company. So he stayed longer than he expected and by then it was about time for me to meet Luka to go on to our gig in the evening.
Luka and I arranged to meet at Tottenham Court Road tube station. We messaged when we got there. "By the obnoxiously loud reggae" he messaged. "So am I" I replied, but we still couldn't see each other. What we didn't realise immediately was that we were at the exits on opposite sides of the road, and there were different obnoxiously loud reggae machines blaring out from different speakers at both of them!
Anyway, eventually we found each other and proceeded to the venue. We were there before doors open, but were far from the first. And somewhat to my consternation (on Luka's behalf) pretty well everyone else was around pensionable age, but sort of trying to be hip - tattoos, leather jackets, slogan t-shirts, long flowing grey hair punctuated by bald patches. One bloke was wearing a mask which made him the spitting image of the villain in Mad Max Fury Road. If you have seen the film you can imagine what I mean!
The evening kicked off fairly early as there were two support acts. First up a young Manchester rock band called Ist Ist. They actually sounded very good, but the songs did feel a bit samey (although that may also be due to the audience not being familiar with them). But they just didn't look the part. The lead vocalist's growling deep vocals just didn't look right coming out of the face of what looked like the cheery chef of a rural gastropub.
Second support is the rather better known (well at least in their day which was a while ago), The Rose of Avalanche. Their songs also sounded a bit samey, and they rather looked like a parody of a once young rock band turning towards their pensions.
And finally we came to the main act. By this point Luka who had gone to stretch his legs a bit, found himself unable to get back to the front corner where I was, but instead found himself in the middle where there was a geriatric mosh pit. Catch for him is this wasn't a group of skinny teenagers throwing themselves around but hefty older blokes bouncing around like unexploded bombs. But by this stage at least there had also been a slight influx of younger audience members (in a reversal of my normal experience where the youngsters arrive early and more mature members pile in later).
Now the Mission, for the uninitiated, are a Goth band formed out of the Sisters of Mercy in the mid 1980s when Wayne Hussey and Craig Adams jumped ship. I had been rather musing (with a little trepidation) what a 63 year old Goth (for such is singer Wayne) would look like. But actually he looked just about as good as one could do for the role, with dark glasses, unruly mop of grey hair and jacket and open necked shirt. He looked really cool, and as Luka remarked, astonishingly strong voice for his (or any other) age.
I was a little underwhelmed by the earlier part of the gig, but it really got going with stonking renditions of Wasteland and Deliverance.
They finished with two encores, a set covering nearly two hours in all (I think we got our money's worth) and a thank you speech from Wayne to outlast anything in the Oscars. Although long, it was nice, and did make one realise the number of people involved to make show like this go on the road. And as the list got longer he included "And I would like to to thank God, but it seems he has stopped believing in me...")
Impressed at the crowd - including at various stages not only folk sitting on the shoulders of others which is commonplace, but actually standing on the shoulders of others - an impressive act of balance as well as strength!
The finish beyond 11pm meant it was well past midnight before we got home. I fed young Luka who was a long time in not eating for a teenager and we had a nice chat before retiring to our well earned beds. A long day, but for me a great one, having had, in series, for over twelve hours the company of three of my most enjoyable young friends. And the prospect of seeing another tomorrow night for another gig. They keep on coming😀
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