See Di and Robert Plant

Last night Di (RW) and me went to a rock n roll event in the newly refurbished Birmingham Town Hall. 10 years of Brum Rock (The 60's mainly); 3 hrs of happiness including 25 minutes of absolute genius - Robert Plant.

Why, how and where? The where bit is already obvious. 10 days back I was sur(f)ching for the words for 'storm in a teacup' sung by 'The Fortunes' 1965ish, written by Lynsey de Paul (i didn't know that). I noticed that the Fortunes were still playing and had a date at Birmingham Town Hall on 6 October.

"Let's go" sez I in a spur of the moment sort of way "it'll be a bit of nostalgia for us..... The only downside being missing sounds of the sixties as we have to travel back on the train on Saturday morning." So we booked it. ........."It also says that ...subject to availability .... Also appearing ... Steve Gibbons, Danny King, The Rocking Berries, Bev Bevan and The Move, Trevor Burton, some of The Moody Blues, Robert Plant, Jasper Carrot .... ........"

" WHAT?! Robert Plant?" spluttered RW. "There's a 20 million waiting list to see him and ledzep … 'ow much are the tickets?"

"50 quid it's for charity and there's Dave Pegg (bassist with that Fairport lot) subject to availability" - he was available unfortunately but more later.

"But what about Robert Plant" she went on. "My hero ... Best voice in rock. Lovely hair.... Wonder who had his babies? ....... Robert ....? Plant ...." You get the picture?

And so it came to pass. Everybody was available. Danny King had been sprung from the retirement home. He had a hell of a comb-over but moved well and had the voice of an angel though not the memory. He must be 70 at least. He did admit though that he was "..nervous as hell because of Planty". I know what he meant. Planty with just a guitarist (Justin Adams) and 2 West African guys on percussion (Salah-Dawson Miller) and a 1 string violin thing (Juldeh Camara) were mind-blowing good. 4 songs Ledzep re-interpreted back to roots. I could have gone to heaven then. Di was already there. Robert Plant - as close as that tree in our yard and chatting away to the audience as if he'd just got the bus in from Stourbridge. RW's still talking about it 2 days later. She thought he was just talking to her.

The Fortunes were a little too cabaret but very good nevertheless a little… oh and then we had Raymond Froggat. ........ and to my great embarrassment, and the rest of the cast who studiously ignored him, Dave Pegg! Oh dear oh dear .. he's my age now and should know when not to play TFT (the fucking tambourine- for the musicians amongst you). He kept appearing on stage obviously much the worse for drink, trying to moon walk and join in on backing vocals with whoever had a mic. He nearly took out the drums at one point as he skidded on some trailing cables. Danny King, 10 years his senior, was much steadier. C'mon Peggy - get off! In one drunken moment I spotted him playing air tambourine and singing to an imaginary mike. Could have been funny - but it wasn't. He enjoyed himself though

I'm off to down-load some Planty stuff and track down whatever that thing was that Juldeh Camara was playing.

Got to get RW off the flaming Robert Plant website first, and she wants me to have my hair curled and wear my shirt out over my jeans. Not sure about the Planty poster blue tacked to the wardrobe door. What am I going to do? We'll never travel in silence again.