"So far, so middle-aged alt-rock."
CAUTION, ANECDOTE AHEAD, I thought. Janet had already suggested eating at the Oxford Thai restaurant opposite the Zodiac when I identified Robyn Hitchcock and his band ambling through the door. Let the Internet make your decisions, that's my motto, so we waited a discreet minute before following them inside.
I'd decided to emulate Robyn Hitchcock's haircut when we saw him in Cambridge this time last year. Is a left parting really so strange? We let them be but giggled and txted juggzy to drop in and make Robyn her new boyfriend.
The band were The Venus 3, including Peter Buck of R.E.M., and they were very good at performing Robyn Hitchcock's psychedelic pop. I still haven't listened properly to any of his albums, but the songs are bright and catchy enough that I didn't feel my fannish enthusiasm was unearned - by me or the band.
There weren't too many fans present, though, on a drizzly Sunday in Oxford. j4 rightly wanted to stand at the front but there was space behind us ... until the bouncer's hint turned out to be true and the rest of R.E.M. appeared for the encore.
Michael Stipe is much shorter than he looks on the television, you know. Flat cap and charcoal suit had kept him inconspicuous, though Janet thought she'd seen him in the audience earlier - oh, and apparently Thom Yorke was moping at the back too. Stipe took up position on the left, Mike Mills on the right, which is to say less than a metre in front of me, and they sang 'Electrolite' beautifully.
I would say that they rather spoiled the neat perfection of the surprise by staying to join in Robyn Hitchcock's 'Arms of Love' (with a lyric sheet which Stipe selfishly took offstage with him) and the unreleased 'I'm Gonna DJ' ("Death is pretty final / I'm collecting vinyl / I'm gonna DJ at the end of the WORLD!"). [Edit: and 'Listening To The Higsons'.] The second encore of cacophonous theme tune 'Give It To The Soft Boys' (for which everyone swapped instruments proving that Peter Buck is not a drummer) and the Byrds' gorgeous 'Eight Miles High' was probably unnecessary too. But I shan't pretend to be blasé any more than the overjoyed fans.
I'd previously decided against seeing Robyn Hitchcock a second time. juggzy equals teh ace for persuading us to come with her.
And then I woke up and went to my first day at a new job.
I'd decided to emulate Robyn Hitchcock's haircut when we saw him in Cambridge this time last year. Is a left parting really so strange? We let them be but giggled and txted juggzy to drop in and make Robyn her new boyfriend.
The band were The Venus 3, including Peter Buck of R.E.M., and they were very good at performing Robyn Hitchcock's psychedelic pop. I still haven't listened properly to any of his albums, but the songs are bright and catchy enough that I didn't feel my fannish enthusiasm was unearned - by me or the band.
There weren't too many fans present, though, on a drizzly Sunday in Oxford. j4 rightly wanted to stand at the front but there was space behind us ... until the bouncer's hint turned out to be true and the rest of R.E.M. appeared for the encore.
Michael Stipe is much shorter than he looks on the television, you know. Flat cap and charcoal suit had kept him inconspicuous, though Janet thought she'd seen him in the audience earlier - oh, and apparently Thom Yorke was moping at the back too. Stipe took up position on the left, Mike Mills on the right, which is to say less than a metre in front of me, and they sang 'Electrolite' beautifully.
I would say that they rather spoiled the neat perfection of the surprise by staying to join in Robyn Hitchcock's 'Arms of Love' (with a lyric sheet which Stipe selfishly took offstage with him) and the unreleased 'I'm Gonna DJ' ("Death is pretty final / I'm collecting vinyl / I'm gonna DJ at the end of the WORLD!"). [Edit: and 'Listening To The Higsons'.] The second encore of cacophonous theme tune 'Give It To The Soft Boys' (for which everyone swapped instruments proving that Peter Buck is not a drummer) and the Byrds' gorgeous 'Eight Miles High' was probably unnecessary too. But I shan't pretend to be blasé any more than the overjoyed fans.
I'd previously decided against seeing Robyn Hitchcock a second time. juggzy equals teh ace for persuading us to come with her.
And then I woke up and went to my first day at a new job.