Dan Sloss at the Royal Albert hall

Well, not in the main auditorium, but in the Elgar Room. Which is a very small space really with no backstage, and packed.

I am not sure why Dan hasn't made it bigger. he has the lot, good material, good looks, good presentation. And sickeningly young at 24. I had a mate down from Leeds for the weekend and this was the feature presentation. "Another winner" is what he said at the end to me. People trust my judgment on comedy now. Well, as this was my 3rd comedy gig of the week, I can at least say that I test the market well.

We had started the afternoon with a tour of the V & A, had a nice Polish meal at nearby Cafe Daquise and then strolled up to the Royal Albert Hall to find out where the Elgar Room was. It is a smallish room with a bar in the back corner and chairs laid out like in a church hall. very low key. Like my previous experience of this young man his support came from a young Geordie comic called Kai Humphries.This works out very well, because Kai is likeable and moderately funny. But what works so well is the contrast with Dan. Its like you see what is ok, and then how to really do it well. Slick well-rehearsed confident presentation, compared to Kai's amiable but rather scattered style,

And of course the material is so much better. Dan just does a few jokes, nicely embellished stories that one laughs at all the way through. All told from the perspective of a very young man rather than the middle-aged who dominate the scene. A very funny tale about having sex with his girlfriend without having properly washed his sands after chopping chillies for dinner for example. His act doesn't particularly rely on blue jokes or bad language, although there is some. Its just very well-judged in my opinion. This chap should go far, although in my view he should have got there already.

Scott Capurro & Mitch Benn

Another winning Friday night line-up at the Fox.

First up Mitch Benn. Now often the sight of a comedian with a guitar make my heart sink.But Mitch is a truly talented guy. First he has a great voice and plays electric guitar like the pro he is. And secondly his songs are always funny. Laugh out loud funny.

The middle section of he evening was taken up by Suzy Bennett. I must admit totally unknown to me, but she was very passable. The whole routine was based on her being overweight and a bit of a chav. Could have made us squirm a bit, but she carried it off pretty well.

Then finally the supremely funny gay comic Scot Capurro. You really have to go to one of his performances as he will never be able to do TV with his act. But he has it all, very funny, totally outrageous humour, presented impressively slickly and at speed. You get a lot in a short time. Went down a storm in front of sell-out crowd.

Temples at the Forum

I think this was the third time I had seen the Temples play this year. Last time was a the tiny Garage. This time they had moved up to the more capacious Forum in Kentish Town.

Unfortunately the mate I was going with had to cry off at the last moment due to work commitments so with only hours to go I thought of my colleagues 18 year old who had come to the Specials gig with me at short notice and had the added advantage that he hasn't at the moment got any work to be committed to. His dad then said that actually his younger brother would fancy it if there wasn't an age barrier, and at 14 he was just fine. So off we went for what was a very good night. We got chatting to a couple in front who not unnaturally leapt to the conclusion that (a) he was my son and (b) that he was dragging me along to see this band.

Anyway, first up was a band called Klaus Johann Grobe. They rather grew on me as time went on, repetitive giving way to insistent. No short songs here- not sure that we heard more than one long, long track. But fine enough and different - a three-piece with drummer, keyboards and guitarist, all seated which does make animation difficult.

 Next on were Superfood - a brit pop type band who frankly I liked enough to be happy to see them headline sometime.

 

 And then Temples. Much likened to T Rex, not least by me, I can well understand why they are advancing in popularity. As lead singer James Bagshaw said when the audience demanded more, they would like to play longer but they haven't got any more songs. Just the one album, Sun Structures, and he said they hadn't had time to write any more. Maybe a little time off needed.

What they did is extend some of what they had, and introduce an orchestra to add layers to their sound - string section, harpist, French horn and sax.

If you like psychedelic music they should be for you. I would say in comparison to T Rex (and I know this is heresy) they are actually rather better. I like James' slightly reedy voice, and love the overall sound. And he does somehow look the part - skinny bloke topped off with big frizz of hair

  

Al Murray Pub Landlord

An ideal Sunday evening, meet a mate in a pub, have dinner, walk down to the South Bank to pick up second mate, take in a comedy show and a cheeky pint after thrown in. As Al Murray said, Sunday drinkers are proper drinkers.

Al Murray is a consummate performer. And worth going to see just because he has a certain style of comedy which differs from the run of the mill stand-up. The pub landlord is of course just a persona. The belligerent right-wing mouthy common man of the people is played by a middle-class Oxbridge graduate (which frankly accounts for more than half the decent comics you will ever see. It's an intellectual middle-class profession, much like being a lawyer or an accountant.)

What makes his style different is not that what he does is completely novel, it just accentuates a skill which tends to be only a minor part of other comedians' acts. So while chatting to one or two members of the front row to warm up is not unusual, the whole first half of Al's act was taken up by the simple formula of asking people's names and what they did for a living, and taking it from there. So obviously he spends a lot of time insulting their occupations, dress sense, family relationships, etc. But he does it all with such skill that you don't really notice that was all he had done for three-quarters of an hour. So, less material used than your average comic, but also vastly more thinking on his feet.

The second half was the more scripted part, with a brilliant exposition of financial markets "in half a pint" (a much underrated time unit in my opinion). And then he finished of by going back to the audience again to ask him for his policies if he ran for Parliament. More thinking on his feet, although some of the topics were clearly pre-prepared. But very good indeed. Second half of the show very much stronger than the first. Might have done without the musical number done as the encore, a spoof based on Rolf Harris "Send the Pedophile down, sport" to the tune of "Tie my kangaroo down". Comedians should generally avoid song endings in my view (Adam Hills guilty of the same.)

The National at the O2

Managed to escape from work with a couple of colleagues early enough not only to get to see the National but also the support act, the Wildbeasts. Rather liked their relentlessly downbeat pretentious sound. Bit like White Lies but not as up tempo.

As for the National, well they have been described as America's answer to Radiohead. They aren't exactly animated on stage, and although they come across as nice but earnest, they did almost suffer from "Oscar disease" ie a desire to thank everyone they had ever met for getting them where they are today. It is impressive how they, rather like Radiohead, have a big enough following to almost fill a venue line the O2 although slipping under the radar of the mainstream.

While not exactly exciting to watch on stage, they are definitely worth seeing live as they do come across as much more of a rock band live than on recordings. A good experience. And I even managed to escape the O2 in record time afterwards. Result!

Jesus and Mary Chain

Bit of a nostalgia trip this. I think I last saw the Jesus and Mary Chain as a student back in 1985/6.  But here they were at the Troxy playing their seminal album Psychocandy in full. Now I supose its my age that I have been to a few of theses anniversary celebrations of albums, although this one was odd in that it was in anticipation of the album's 30th anniversary next year.

Support came from a band called the Amazing Snakeheads. Now if you wee a real pseud who, say would look at a pile of broken pottery in an art gallery and admire it as a metaphor for a broken society, then this Glaswegian band might appeal to you. Alas all I would see is a pile of broken rubbish, and that's rather what I saw in this bit of shouty rock. Angry young man stuff but angry and frustrated probably at inability to sing. They looked like they thought they were being experimental when in fact they just weren't very good at music,

Unlike the Jesus and Mary Chain who were quite experimental in their day. East Kilbride's finest, they had a big cult indie following in the Eighties. Psychocandy is one of my favourite albums. The sound is sort of punk meets psychedelia,

Although the audience was primarily the middle-aged, there was also a fair smattering of youngsters who had somehow found them. A terrific band and the album sounded excellent live, feedback and all.