No 12: London Forum 1st March 2004

Our hotel is full of Japanese tourists as we eat our breakfast the next day. Caryne and the Swedish contingent had told us the previous evening that they were planning a day involving drinking lots of alcohol. Lizzy and I haven't got the stamina for this - and we are filming again this evening so we need a modicum of brain cells between us - so its a cultural day again today. We decide to visit the British Library, the new vastly expensive one near St Pancras Station. Its a brilliant place, with sound archives, exhibits featuring some of the oldest and most famous books in the world, as well as a great temporary exhibition of modern Chinese prints. If you haven't been I would thoroughly recommend it. After a morning there we visit the old British Library reading room at the British Museum, and do a bit of shopping on Oxford Street.

We decide to negotiate the London Bus network to make our way up to the Forum in Kentish Town, and this works out fine. We're just got off the bus when we run into Bent, who's off for something to eat before the gig. We have blank passes from him, he tells us to go round to the stage door so we can get our video gear set up. We attempt to do this, but its not a straightforward task - the guy on the door fetches Love manager Glenn Povey, who seems pretty stressed and doesn't know anything about us being there - we produce the passes from Bent but this makes matters even worse, he shouldn't have done this presumably. We learn that Martyn Samuels from South Africa is already there and he is filming as well - Glenn relents in the end and lets us in, especially as we tell him we have bought and paid for tickets for the gig. We set up the gear in a small space by the sound rig where Martyn has already positioned himself, and then retire next door to a pub where we have arranged to meet up with Caryne and the Swedes. We're later joined by Steve 64 from the message board and then return to the Forum in time for the support band. Joss, who we met at Canterbury, is there as well - nice to see him again.

Sky Saxon and the Seeds are supporting Love at this gig, Sky is another 60s survivor with a new young band. They do a really good set and seem to have a really good time on stage. Sky hasn't weathered as well physically as Arthur - he has a face like a sack of spanners, as we say oop north, and is wearing some of the most atrocious trousers I have ever seen in my life - psychedelia meets Pucci print if you can imagine such a combination. More about Sky later.

Love come on and they're really rocking - Mike has told us previously that Arthur treats shows in London as the most important as there's more likelihood of press being there, not that this means he doesn't take other performances seriously, he always gives 110%. There's an after party in the upstairs bar at the Forum - the Danes make sure that Lizzy, Martyn and I get in. There's quite a crowd there, including Bobby Gillespie from Primal Scream who is a big Love fan, also the guys from the whisky magazine who had been interviewing Mike earlier in the day, as well as all the Love and Seeds people, including Arthur, who spends a lot of the time talking to Sky Saxon.

We're just about ready to go and I'm standing waiting for Lizzy to finish a conversation with Martyn - when Sky comes up to me, grabs hold of me and snogs me, and then says "Thank you for coming". Not as an unpleasant an experience as I might have predicted - still hate those trousers though Sky!

Back on the night bus to Kings Cross and the hotel, up early the next morning so we can catch early trains to get us back to work. The band are off to the continent now with the Seeds for a short tour over there, they're not back in the UK for over a fortnight - how are we going to cope without a gig for all that time!!