Wallace Collection

So how did you ride out Storm Dennis? All the TV pictures suggested some awful plights, with folk holed up in homes watching floodwaters rise. I picked the most middle-class method possible - holed up in an art gallery looking at 18th century French Art.

So I had invited friends to London to see a comedy gig in the evening and suggested they might like to make a day of it, with the Wallace Collection one way spending an afternoon. So there we went as the weather looked a bit nasty, and when we came out at closing time it looked like we had dodged the worst of the storm.

If you have never been to the Wallace Collection, you should do. It is one very large house, the London home of the Marquesses of Hertford (hence its home is Hertford House, just off Oxford Street.) The Collection is thus of the Hertford family, although not equally between the various marquesses, some much more than others. So unlike the national collections it tends to be heavier on some areas than others. So as art collections goes it is comparatively light on Italian Renaissance, but outstanding for French Rococo.

Additional exhibition space was carved out of the basement in 2000, and a the courtyard covered over to create an expensive restaurant/cafe.

 While the whole house is a museum/gallery, part of it consists of state rooms tastefully furnished that you could imagine being lived in, while part are galleries designed just to exhibit pictures.

The armoury is truly enormous as such things go. If you want to see armour, this is the place to come.

 The picture galleries upstairs are superb, especially if you like Dutch masters. Includes the Laughing Cavalier by Frans Hals, but also works by Rubens, Rembrandt, Cuyp, Van Dyck, etc.

Rembrandt's portrait of his son, Titus

Murder Capital at the Electric Ballroom

My third gig of the week and each with very different friends. First thirty-somethings, second with just about middle-aged bloke and now actually the teenage son of a mate of mine. And Luka has the big advantage over many of my gig buddies that he actually likes the idea of arriving at the opening time and seeing all the acts. And then wants to go to the mosh pit when the main act comes on, which is fine with me as that is the point I quite like being on my own to enjoy the act. It is the hanging around beforehand for which I like some company, plus someone to compare notes with afterwards. So young Luka ticks all the boxes.

And we were soon comparing notes on the opening support act, Unorthodox Coolock. To our surprise, we found that we were seeing a first for us both - a performance poet.  A bit of a struggle this, not just because of the odd art form, but also because he had the thickest Dublin accent I have ever heard. It is as if they have managed to master English consonants okay, but can't get vowels right at all. Anyway, it sounded moderately intelligent, but there is a point at which people try to sound profound but they are not really saying much more than wouldn't it be nice if people were nice. I think that was the gist.

Next up were an act called Egyptian Blue. Much more standard indie guitar band. Luka salivated over the guitars (since he plays guitar), but my feel is they played the guitars as if they were drums, a percussion instrument measuring the beat rather than introducing any subtlety. Frankly not impressed.

 And finally Murder Capital, another post-punk band, the "punk" coming from the style of music,  generally rather more refined than the original punk pioneers, but without all the fashion crap that came with the Pistols and the like. Like the opening act, they hail from Dublin. They have one album behind them, When I Have Fears, and quite simply that is what they played. That is their material at this stage. But it is pretty good material.

At this point Luka left his jacket with me and headed into the mosh pit for more action than I want to see. I mention this here mostly because they are an odd band to have a mosh pit. While they have certainly some punkish numbers, and some songs that go into that sort of music in part, they also have some completely mellow but intense stuff, like the song On Twisted Ground, which frankly I could imagine being sung by Elbow. Just saying it would give rise to an odd sort of tempo for a mosh pit. Also interesting that although a very young band, I suspect just into their twenties, the audience is much more mixed with I guess the average age being closer to 40.

Another particular feature is that James McGovern isn't lead vocalist. He is sole vocalist. They don't even leave another mic out. The rest of the band stick to guitars or drums. Otherwise not a peep.

McGovern looking a little dishevelled after a bit of crowd-surfing.