PSB at the Proms

Here's the (inconsequential) problem I find with booking lots of events in advance; I easily lose track of when they will be and, even less of a problem, what order they'll happen in.This has occurred to me as tonight was the third time we've seen Public Service Broadcasting in less than three months!

The first of those was at the Natural History Museum, which I booked for novelty value of the venue, really. Then there was Caerphilly Castle, which was the best gig I've seen by them, I think, and, finally, there was the Proms, tonight, where they were to play 'The Race For Space'. Irresistible!

Little was I to know when we booked the tickets that July 25th - which, keep it quiet, is the Minx's birthday - would be the hottest day of the year. (See extras for my weather appropriate dress.) The advice was not to travel on the trains as the rails might buckle in the heat but in the end it was an overhead wire that caused us to be an hour late into London. 

Nimbly, we rescheduled our trip to Tate Britain to tomorrow, dropped our bags at our room, and went over to Victoria to meet up with two of my oldest friends, David and Colin, at the Jugged Hare. We had a splendid three hours with them (and my brother, who popped by) before heading over to the Royal Albert Hall. 

We were lucky enough to get a box overlooking the stage when we booked, so the view was perfect and we settled in behind a couple of glasses of wine to wait for the event to start. 

We saw PSB tour this album from its launch at the National Space Centre in Leicester, and at many points since, including at least one end to end performance. However, for this evening, the arrangements of the songs on the album had been extended by the band's bassist, J F Abraham, to include the Multi-Storey Orchestra and London Contemporary voices.

And it really was very special. The setting was amazing and the audience were fantastic, my metric for this being that they were absolutely silent during the quiet bit on 'The Other Side'. PSB played the entire album in sequence, as expected, adding in 'Korolev', which was either an after thought to the album or not finished in time for inclusion. It was really very special.

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Reading: 'Case Histories' by Kate Atkinson