Butler

I’ve been too busy and distracted to visit and post on these pages this week.

It was heartening to listen to the radio commentary from Vicarage Road today (I chose, in a fairly avant-garde manner, Three Counties Radio over BBC Radio Gloucestershire) as my favoured Gloucester club rampaged to victory over the historic yet itinerant Saracens outfit. By all accounts this was the Kingsholm-based team’s finest performance of the season. D, a London media dude, sent me one or two SMS texts during and after the match and I salute his dedication to the cause. He nominates ‘the faultless Morgan’ as man of the match although Messrs. Allen and Lamb are also mentioned in dispatches.

I haven’t dwelt much about the rugby recently but Gloucester host Bristol this Friday so I’ll give ‘the lads’ some thought this week. I have a couple of gigs to look forward to. S and I are strutting to Gloucester’s Guildhall Arts Centre on Thursday evening to cast our eyes and ears over young and dark blades White Lies. I know little of this act but am promised studied gloom in the style of Editors, Interpol et al. Cor! The week after, J and I are popping over to Nailsworth, of all places, to visit Rachel Unthank and her remarkable Winterset. I mustn’t forget Joan As Policewoman. Mr and Mrs Cole will be making our debuts at Bristol’s Thekla venue in December for Ms. Wasser’s emotive crooning.

Reg Varney from On The Buses died today. He was 92 and, beautifully, made the first withdrawal ever from a British cashpoint machine back in 1967. We shall ne’er see his like again. Holiday On The Buses is one of the greatest films of all time.