Health & Safety

To London with L to see Alison Krauss & Union Station in concert at the Royal Festival Hall. For some reason part of this year's BBC Radio 3 Jazz Festival. They must have been struggling for content because, though it was quite wonderful music, I couldn't discern a single jazz element.

Alison has the purest voice and is surrounded by great musicians. She only came to my attention during her collaboration with Robert Plant but she has been around for 20 years or more. I thought I recognised Dan Tyminski's voice and, it turned out, he was George Clooney's voice double in Brother, Where Art Thou?. I think Alison may have been involved in that movie too - Walked Down to the River? Terrific guitar and mandolin btw.

Jerry Douglas played dobro. Never paid much attention to the instrument before but, in his hands, it was a thing of beauty. Can't help thinking that, with that stance, he is just storing problems for his hips in later life.

Didn't like the wheelchair seating though. I could barely see over the heads of the row in front and, when a big burly bloke and his afffectionate girlfriend (she loved putting her curly little head on his broad shoulder) plonked themselves right in front of me, the blockage was complete.

I had a winge to the theatre staff, who were sympathetic but took no action. When I threatened to move myself to a better vantage point, one of them actually trotted out the old Health & Safety objection. But I did it anyway and nobody died. I thought we'd got beyond that by now.