I got to thinking about the yellow brick road. Well you do when you find yourself walking the streets of Glasgow in the rain. It’s enough to make a man take up a more rewarding hobby like, for example, trainspotting or maybe stamp collecting. However the force was strong in the pen tonight so, as if on one of those jihad things, it was off into Pivo Pivo for some Mistake Pageant with an Adriaan Blom on the side.
With a tip of the hat to the exalted bar staff of Pivo for looking like they did not know last night’s party had ended and learning, from a passing Canadian (and Tennents lager drinker, methinks), that Guinness is actually made from soup and sewage, it was time for an extended opportunity to review the entertainment quotient of Adriaan Blom. He certainly took the task in hand seriously as he had brought a nice big book of instructions with him and referred to it often as he sought the muse responsible for inspiration. Unfortunately, she wasn’t returning his calls.
On to Mistake Pageant. Naming your band after an Idlewild song should entitle you to a crucifixion on the cross of overworked mediocrity but this unassuming duo were actually rather endearing fuelled, as they were, by the essence of distilled simplicity. To keep the audience amused, the drummer did the loudest impersonation of a grumpy drum machine that I have heard in quite some time whilst the singer and her guitar sweetly exuded an innocent charm and a beguiling lack of, for want of a better word, guile. It might have been the Guinness but I was overcome with the urge to make them a nice cup of tea and offer them a single deal.
Pausing only to ponder the worth of shatterproof glasses, it was now time for that all important late night search for the services of a deep fat fryer containing something dead and spicy. I wonder if there is a kebab shop somewhere called the Wizard of Oz? Follow the yellow brick and find out, ya bawbag!