God it's late!
The Hurlingham Club is 40 odd acres of exclusivity in west London. To get to the hall you walk through gardens, cross lakes, pass fountains etc etc.
At the show there was a compere type fella called Robert Lindsay whose job was to ask Mark questions, obviously prearranged. Mark would provide an answer, in a v relaxed and often humerous way, and provide a song or part of a song as an example that would answer the Q.
At the start of the posh bit he was on stage on his own with an acoustic guitar. He was asked how he went about writing songs and he talked about how a little tune would play around in his head and how it would gradually build itself up to something more substantial. Behind with the Rent was the example he used. Next up was Secondary waltz after a direct question about the song. The other guys were on stage here and they provided some humerous backing vocals at times and got a few laughs from the audience - "a fat girl got left on the side" etc. Next up Marbletown. Brilliant it was but can't remember the question that led up to it.
Main show next. MK was 15 feet in front of me! Again questions and answers. "Mark - why do you have so many guitars?" "That looks like a famous one Mark "(the National). Stuff like that.
From the new album we only heard two songs, Get Lucky and Monteleone, but they were brilliant.
STP came up - Mark singing for Mason and Dixon. Great Sultans, a bit of MFN, Local Hero too. If this is Goodbye - no Emmy but tops nonetheless.
Backstage afterwards, which was v fortunate. Spoke to Guy, Danny and William Topley. Pete Townshend was there. Once again missed out on talking to Mark. Could have but wasn't brave enough to introduce myself! Gotta get over that if there's a next time.
Was it worth all that money - oh yes. This was MK like you don't see on tour.
