The last few days have been fairly hectic. Since the meetup last week I have been into London twice more. This has been trickier than usual due to train strikes that can result in many services being cancelled.

Saturday

On Saturday I had a ticket for a Pitchblack Playback event that I will describe below. There were not many trains running to London, but I took a chance on one around lunchtime that was operating. It was pretty busy, but then some people looked like they were headed for the Arsenal ground. I got the Tube down to Leicester Square and then walked up Charing Cross Road that still has some cool book shops. The biggest of those is Foyles where I got some lunch in the cafe before some browsing. Then it was up to my regular haunt of Denmark Street which has a long history of being home to music shops. Unfortunately several of these have closed down in recent years. The economics of running a shop in such an expensive area must be difficult. A place called The Music Room has shut down since my last visit. That was great for music books.

I played a TD-27 electronic drum kit in the Roland shop. That is not the one in the window. Both are pretty expensive though. I have a more basic Roland kit, but it is still good. They even had an electronic cajon in there that I had not seen before. I bought some strings and some picks in Regent Sounds.

It was a short walk to Forbidden Planet which is a huge comic and collectable shop. It was really busy in there. I did not buy anything, but then I have a few things on my Christmas list. On a recent trip I visited the big Yamaha shop for the first time. Then they had a couple of electronic drum kits set up in the basement. That seems to be all guitars down there now, but there was one kit on the main floor. It looked nice, but was really badly presented.

Part of the frame was hanging off and the pedals were sliding around on the hard floor. I had a play on it anyway. I expect this one is a few thousand pounds. They do have some really nice stuff in the shop with a big piano showroom upstairs.

I had done a lot of walking by then, so I made my way to the event venue which was the Curzon Cinema in Bloomsbury. This is under a shopping centre I have passed many times. The event was a playback of the latest album by Steven Wilson, who is one of my favourite musicians. He is really into surround sound, so it was an opportunity to hear The Harmony Codex as he intended on an Dolby Atmos system. After a short introduction the lights were turned off and we could relax into the comfortable seats. The eye masks were optional to make it darker. At first it is a novelty to have sounds coming from different directions, but then you just get immersed in it. The hour flew by really and I managed not to doze off.

When we returned to reality Steven came out to answer some questions. I did not ask one, but he had some interesting responses.

I checked what trains were running and found there was only one going my way at 8pm. At Kings Cross the big departures board only had three trains on it with nothing later on. I took that one that got me near enough home to be picked up.

Monday

Sunday was more relaxed, but it was a very wet day. Yesterday I was working, but trains were being cancelled so I did it from home. We had tickets for a concert that evening in Kentish Town. I was wondering whether to risk it, but we went for it. We were headed for The O2 venue that I last visited with my daughter to see Motionless in White and Lacuna Coil some years ago. This time it was a couple of great bands who were big in the 90s when we saw them both separately.

First on were Living Colour. I love their mix of rock, funk and hip hop. They kicked off with Led Zeppelin's Rock and Roll before playing some of their hits from the first couple of albums. There was also a medley to mark 50 years of hip hop. Singer Corey Glover is just amazing. At times he was singing without the microphone and still filled the place as he hit impossible notes. They played for about 40 minutes.

They played this one.

After clearing some of the stage it was time for Extreme who have a new album out. One of the times we saw them before was at the Freddie Mercury tribute in the old Wembley Stadium. This was a more intimate venue. They played some new songs as well as old hits. They did a medley of songs from the first album that ended with the excellent Play With Me. Guitarist Nuno Bettencourt is a bit of a hero and still has his amazing chops. He is also looking in great shape for a guy who is the same age as me.

We had to make the really tough decision to leave before the end, so we only saw about half their set. There were later trains, but we just could not risk those being cancelled. We still had a great time.

We did get to see them play this.

I shall be staying home for a few days now, but there will be more music.

Rock on!