'All your dreams are made of strawberry lemonade'

We’ve had tapas (very nice), we’ve visited the (newly re-furbished) fountain, and now we’re in the Roman Bath. It’s the first time for over a year, and the reason is the first Griffin gig of 2007.

So far, the sound desk has blown up, and we’ve had a first set mainly of covers, but with some new ones amongst them. Billy Bragg’s New England, Cannonball, a Crowded House one, Talk Tonight.

He sings one of his own songs, Take Me Home, and says that he wrote it after leaving the Bath one night. I giggle, I can’t help it, as it’s put a whole different perspective on the song for me now. I know those emotions.

He sounds great, better, I think, than at Christmas when his voice didn’t seem to be warmed up. There are no painful ‘comedy interludes’ just simple songs, beautifully sung to an appreciative, but not very demonstrative, audience. He tries, bless him, to get a response, but it falls mainly on stony ground.

We’re into the second set, and he starts with ‘We'll do it all…’ It’s the opening of Chasing Cars, and it’s OMG, OMG…, I’m fumbling with the phone, trying to call Corinne who’s working. It’s rare these days to do the ‘gig’ phone call, I think I’ve lost the knack. I miss the first few bars, but phew, then I’m through.

In the third set he leads a singalong to his ‘new’ version of Hallelujah. It’s somehow fitting that it’s a comedy version in praise of Boro footballer Mark Viduka that has suddenly brought him media attention again after all this time (albeit in the sports pages). He encores with Patience, and a reprise of New England, which leads to a bit of bouncing in some quarters.

We roll out into the York night sometime after 11.30. Unlike some, my journey home is all of 15 minutes. It’s been a good one.