This week has been most agreeable as I have been touring the country on a promotional expedition and caught up with some rather famous acquaintances. Why only yesterday I found myself in a delightful old fishing village called Plymouth in Devon, England. This was to partake of a rather exciting and somewhat noisy evening in the company of Justin Hawkins and chums The Darkness at Plymouth Pavillions. Justin always guarantees a colourful time as he is a most charismatic and talented entertainer and The Darkness certainly appreciate fine claret, Jim Dunlop plectrums and groovy fashions.

Talking of fashions, several numbers into their spectacular stage act, Justins rather fabulous flared trousers began to give way in a most embarrassing place. Within a few more bars the crotch had split wide open much to the amusement of brother Dan and other band members Ed and Richie. But Justin (who in true rock tradition was not wearing any underwear), simply grinned and continued to sing and play guitar with one hand covering the hole. This was extremely brave and at great personal risk of his entire personal 'belongings' hanging out for all to see!!

In fact at this point I was considering putting down my claret and popping back to the hotel to fetch a case of my own incredibly groovy trousers (we share similar dress sense you see), when someone kindly provided a towel, which Justin wrapped around his waist and carried on like the true professional that he is.

It was particularly fortuitous that the pack of press photographers who had been hungrily snapping glamourous pictures throughout the first couple of numbers, had cleared off (presumably to the bar) at the point of the trouser incident and so missed the scoop 'Hanging Out!' photo opportunity.

And as for the party that followed, well that is another story......

Yours truly,

(having a good time, ALL the time)

Aston

By the way in case you are a deaf mute albino legless cave dwelling crayfish type thing (I saw one once in the deep Postojna cave in former Yugoslavia you know) and still have not heard about The Darkness, you can find out more about them at http://www.thedarknessrock.com/ (as long as your cave has internet access.)