Down to Brighton. That’ll be a good place for me this weekend. Lou is sick as a dog still but reckons she’s not contagious. I’m still being ginger around her and she’s still coughing, but it’s been a long time and we are starting to get busy again. Weekend time. I’ve missed seeing her. It’ll definitely help my mood.
Her friend January has released a new album, as she often does in the month she was named for. It’s her way of bringing some light in the darkest month. She was playing to the home crowd at Alphabet.
Alphabet used to be The Crypt, the goth club. There’s a bar deep inside, no windows, you don’t know what time it is. Tall people flare cocktails unselfconsciously and the beers are called things like Frog Licker. It could be wanky but somehow it avoids it. But in that bar you don’t know what time it is, it could be 4am it could be noon. It was evening when we arrived. I had a lemon thing that is beery and non alcoholic and pretty moreish. I sat and chatted to various Brighton folk and friends of Lou. I know some people do this with me, but I’m counting the number of times a particular person introduces themself to me as if we’ve never met. I’d call everyone ‘darling’ like my mother used to if it wasn’t a luvvie thing. As it is I just occasionally fuck up, usually with good looking buff blonde men for some reason. They all look the same to me them good looking actor blondies…
Last time I went to a gig in Brighton it was full of douchey people and you couldn’t see a damn thing. We left that one almost immediately. This one was lovely, and there was a good mix of deep support for the artist and audience. She has a great sound, and there were some bangers. Last year I was tasked with taking photos. Lou helped her get ready. This year I could just enjoy the look and the mastery. And there are a few people down here now in this circle that I’m starting to read as friends. Makes up for the social anxiety. I managed okay without crutches until right at the end when one good lad got me a single shot of whisky and it went down a treat. Good to see him. Good to be sociable.
That’s all we have to do really, is connect. We can do it without numbing too, it’s actually better, if we can get past the noise in our heads. I’ve got some calm and light from going into two shared spaces recently and witnessing two very different radiators.
Weekend time. Some calm. Some warmth. Some Lou.
AlBarclay 