Moggy and Mogwai

So lovely to wake up with warmer air and the sunshine. We walked to Jarr, the Herne Hill refill shop, and visited the new coffee shop Ema in West Dulwich. We’ll definitely return there.

I worked in the afternoon listening to Mogwai in preparation for seeing them this evening. Fred got grumpy with the ticket procedure. An O2 venue app had to be downloaded, signed into using a Ticketmaster account, I had to transfer one of the tickets to him, and we waited while the ticket took time to disappear from my screen and appear in his. Come the time to check into the venue, the security were shouting at us from more than halfway around Brixton Academy - “TICKETS OUT!” Fred didn’t have his ticket out so they corralled him into a holding pen for stubborn souls, rebels, the technically inept and those who don’t read emails or texts. Those with rucksacks didn’t even get that far - automatically refused entry for a bag. I waited illegally in the go-forward lane as I didn’t wish to be separated. Fred took aaaaages to bring up his ticket. He was playing Solitaire in defiance. He left the pen eventually and we got into the frisking queue. It’s a back and front metal wand detecting action so I enjoyed close eye-to-eye contact with the lady behind me - I did a funny dance to dispel the awkwardness. She smiled. Phew. The security guard wasn’t impressed. Once in, our tickets were checked three more times, then music! We were in time to see Cloth and Kathryn Jospeh. I enjoyed both, but Cloth were ones I’d most likely listen to again. Mogwai were stupendously excellent. Love them. The lighting was fantastic, too.

Brixton is still one of my favourite venues and I’m glad it remained opened after the horror of the death crush. I understand the security measures, but I despair that smart devices are being relied upon to gain entry to a gig. I’d love to return to the tangible simplicity of paper tickets.