This week has been fraught with anxiety as Owen had to rush up to Newcastle due to a family crisis. He is still up there and having to deal with the grinding ineptitude of the National Health Service.

It also meant we had to miss out on seeing Yazoo at their reunion gig at Hammersmith on Thursday - although by all accounts *the* gig to be at that night was Grace Jones at the Festival Hall as part of the Meltdown curated by Massive Attack. I have never seen her perform and would dearly love to if she tours with her new album later this year.

Luckily Owen had given me the tickets for Friday's Meltdown gig - a set by reformed post-punks Gang Of Four but much more importantly the bill was shared by the mighty Tom Tom Club. It's a bit galling that Chris 'n' Tina have to be a support act but they always seem to be happy to be asked to appear over here. Andrew was free tonight so he nabbed the spare ticket and joined me, Dawn, Gareth and Ian at the Festival Hall as the excitement mounted.

This is the third time I have seen the funky funsters live and they never fail to have me smiling like The Joker and moving. Sadly the Festival Hall is hardly conducive to butt-shaking and so I wriggled in my seat impatiently among the firmly planted punters.
Chris 'n' Tina make a great backbone to the fun, their drum and bass lines lines locked down, an onstage partnership as strong as it is offstage. They were joined by their onstage singing buddies - Mystic Bowie bouncing all over the stage with dreads flying and Victoria Clamp prowling around with her sleek looks - and longtime musician colleague Bruce Martin on keyboards, so important to their sound. Also onstage was James San Giovanni. rocking a flat cap look and great guitar as well as a musician who has been with Chris and Tina all his life, their son and onstage DJ Kid Ginseng.

They delivered a fantastic set of distinctive funk/reggae/wacky hippidy-hop fusion:
"Suboceana", "Punk Lolita", "L'Elephant", "Time To Bounce", "The Man With The 4-Way Hips" (steamy with extra-added sultry), "She's Dangerous", "Genius of Love" (will never tire of this), "You Sexy Thing" (as glorious as ever), "Wordy Rappinghood" (as delirious as ever) and we even got "Take Me To The River" as an encore.
Come back soon Chris 'n' Tina... London loves you!