300b. Sat 10/2/18: The Bricklayers Arms, Luton

Beer: Banks & Taylor Crooked Hooker 4.7%

Late Saturday night pub, celebrating and blowing smoke for Lee after the Light/Shade event at Wardown House. To be fair, the boy done very good indeed, and he and Anna seem in good spirits.

Chat revolves around 'projects', nights, work and the pros and cons of various aspects connected to each of them. And poetry. We're joined by Lawrence who's interested in something going on where I work. And poetry.

Meanwhile, Al's soldering behind the bar, training a new recruit who can ease what appears to be something of a shortage of weekend help. It's fairly busy - standing room only, which is pretty good - and despite my reservations about B&T beer, the Hooker is pretty good. Fnarr.

300. Fri 9/2/18: The Bricklayers Arms, Luton

Beer: Banks & Taylor Crooked Hooker 4.7%

Arrive at pub to find Leighton in the back bar chatting to Wes, Leighton, as has already been mooted, is a sociable guy. Wes is a decent fellow too; when my brother returns from a Hat Factory screening of Duck Soup we embark on a brief conversation on early twentieth century European cinema ("Nosferatu, of course” is my contribution to that one), while Leighton runs through the classics that he owns on DVD, and has never watched.

He goes on to produce a filling, the size of a small pebble, he’s dislodged from a back tooth.

We play the quizzer, specifically Hangman, until the machine decides it doesn’t want to play anymore and crashes. Wes leaves soon after – having arranged on phone to meet his wife outside.

The conversation gets bawdier after Wes departs. Is fellatio acceptable for vegans?

We discuss how, not having seen him for so long – and his not looking well when we last did - that our old (very vague, and not un-problematic) acquaintance “No Offence” is probably no longer with us.

Plans for Knockouts (see above for last concert appearance, though now thankfully off the Mamas & Papas theme) is that, since we’ve never had – and are unlikely to get, a Radio 1 session, we ought to release a record as having originally been recorded as an Ethan Brains session for Radio 1. Not sure who came up with the name Ethan Brains, but it was funny at the time.

The beer is good, but too strong – I should have had gone for something a little weaker after the first couple, but didn’t… and I didn’t feel too well the following morning as a result.