OMD

Allow me to let younger readers into a secret. Actually some middle-aged folk like to have fun. We are not all miserable buggers whingeing about the price of petrol, asserting how things were better in our day and voting for UKIP. (Why does UKIP have to say its not a racist party? As Charlie Brooker put it, its like your new next door neighbour coming round and introducing himself as your new, non-dogging, neighbour. Or as I was discussing with my trainee what would happen if it turned out that a candidate from one of the other parties had once been a BNP member. It should be ok because they must have had a conversion to see the light. In UKIP they have to be banned as all they would have done is nudged themselves slightly along the political line to a party that will get more votes.)

But no, we aren't all miserable buggers like that. And a surreptitious bunch of us happy mid-lifers sneaked out to the Roundhouse on Friday night to watch the middle-aged Andy McCluskey bounce around like a lunatic in front of us, as we bounced around on the floor. Ok, thinner hair and thicker waistlines now, but we were basically back the way we were when we were teenagers/students, having a laugh and enjoying good music in a good-natured manner. At a fairly trendy venue - the old engine-turning yard now general purpose venue - the Roundhouse. Now to be fair it has been trendier. It once was one of the home of punk, but now it has had a serious makeover and it is a pretty middle class form of trendy. But a fun place to be (unless you all try to exit at once. At the end there is a long stretch of waddling like penguins to the exit).

First things first, the support was John Foxx, also a throwback to the Eighties. He was lead singer of Ultravox before Midge Ure came in and the band hit it big. I am afraid to say this wasn't my cup of tea. There was this particular thread of electronic music which was slow and dirge like and I am afraid left me cold, although it had its admirers in the crowd, including my companion.

But OMD are a different kettle of fish altogether. They played a number of tunes from their new album, but as McCluskey said at the outset, "There will be some new ones...., and some old ones." There were certainly enough of the old ones to satisfy the crowd. And Ian McCluskey's "Dad at a wedding" style of dancing is something to behold. Not a man who takes himself too seriously, he lets go with gay abandon and a lack of self-restraint that is positively life-affirming, and quite how he manages to do it without having a coronary I do not know. He positively glistened with sweat from the very first number.

We old-timers (and I guess there was but a handful of youngsters there) lapped it up. Indeed its a pity there weren't a few teenagers there just to watch what old folk can be like when not lecturing about homework.

All the old hits were there, Enola Gay, Locomotion, Joan of Arc, Messages. They finished up with Electricity, or as Andy put it, "we will finish with what we started with as 16 year-olds." A great song and if you listen to it you can pick up the missing link between New Wave of the Seventies and Electronica of the Eighties.

Great night.

The Vaccines at the O2

Its somewhat of a surprise to em that the Vaccines have got so big that they can headline the O2, but maybe its just a reflection of the modern appetite for live entertainment that even they can fill this vast hall.

Early arrivals littering the O2 before the night gets going

I managed to slope off early enough to see the whole 4 band bill. So to start off were Temples. A four piece lad by a singer built like a pipe cleaner but with the sort of mop of hair an old timer like me could only be envious of. They were ok but nothing that exciting. But its tough to impress that early on the bill.

Moving up from a 4-piece to a 5-piece, next were Toy, a classic shoegazer band. If you aren't familiar with the term, think headbanging without the banging. A typical song has a short burst of lyrics and then the phalanx of guitarists bow their heads, long hair cascading down in curtains, and concentrate on their throbbing guitars (and no doubt the shoes beyond). For one track this is fine, but after a while, well all I can say is if you like this stuff its more of the same, and if not it just feels interminable.

Having not heard of either of the first two supports, it was same again with third, The Walkmen. Another  five piece band, but in contrast to the first two, quite an established band (in America). Three cheers for Google - wonderful that you can just look up this stuff while standing watching them. And they were really every good, to the extent that I have just invested in their sixth album. Lead singer has a great voice which reminded me of someone else but it took me a while to place it. Its Tom Clarke, the lead singer of the Enemy, a very different style of band. I can only recommend trying them out.

Finally the Vaccines. Who rather nicely came on to the familiar strains of the opening of Beyonce's "Crazy", Beyonce having played the O2, to rather greater fanfare the night before.

You know what you will get from the Vaccines - nothing fancy. They are a straightforward indie rock guitar band, with a lead vocalist who has a strong voice backed by a sound band. They are animated without being affected. So you get entertainment without feeling you are watching a band of arrogant posers. Its energetic, but not frenetic. Their set fairly zipped along, right down to the point at which Justin Young received his birthday cake on stage, in the shape of a coke can, with the words I love coke, better invention than the wheel. Great evening, even making it worth the long haul back from the O2.

Happy birthday Justin