'I once went two weeks without seeing Alistair'

It’s been over two years since I’ve been to a Griffin gig. Time has just slipped by, and while there were gigs I could have gone to, I didn’t. In fact the closest I came was during the snow of January 2010, when I got halfway across town and turned back.

I became accustomed years ago to bizarre gig venues, so when I saw on Twitter that he was going to be playing acoustic sets in the Café Neros of York, it didn’t even seem odd. As I was going to be in town to meet a friend for lunch on the Friday, it seemed right to go along.

The gig was scheduled to start at 12, I got there at 5 to, and looked around, seeing no sign that there was going to be any music. I found a table, drank my coffee, and about 5 past looked up to see that he’d walked in. In fact he was standing right behind me. There was a nod, a greeting, and an acknowledgement. There must have been only about 8 of us actively listening to him, singing softly, un-miked, in the rear of a coffee bar. It had a simple charm to it that was endearing.

As I sat and listened, there were lots of emotions, some of the songs trigger memories that just belong to 'us'. I hear him sing ‘Fields of Gold’, and I'm at Clapham Grand Missing Miles, ‘Hallelujah’, and I'm seeing him reading the words off a piece of paper in the Melbourne pub.

Halfway through, I was joined by the friend who I'd arranged to have lunch with. She sat and listened to the rest of the set, and enjoyed it. I hadn’t realised till then that she’d never heard him sing live before.

He came over and shook my hand at the end. It was sweet. I asked when the album was due out – around August ‘and you all have to buy it'. He admired C’s coat.

What really made me smile was her rather giddy ‘he said he liked my coat’ as we were leaving. I guess she must have looked in the eyes.