Meeting The Feeling

Thurs 15 June, 11.50pm (The Players’ Lounge, Charing Cross, London): The Players’ Lounge is a popular actors’ hang-out just across the road from Waterloo Station. We’re here, unsurprisingly, with a bunch of actors whose play we’ve just been to see in Paddington. This evening The Lounge is heaving with well-groomed young men (men who, let’s just say, can probably dance really well) belting out heartfelt renditions of the hits from Cats, peppered with the occasional teary tribute to Rufus Wainwright. The Lounge has an in-house piano, but it seems to be something of an unspoken law that the piano ...

“Ambassador, you are spoiling us…”

Saturday 3 June, 10.30am (Regency Ballroom, Grand Hyatt Hotel, Seoul): Well, here we are. The day of the gig. In about 11 hours we’ll be playing to a crowd of over 500 people, including the British Ambassador, here in the Regency Ballroom at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Seoul, South Korea. How did we get here?! The theme of the evening is the Chelsea Flower Show, and the ballroom is looking really quite magnificent. A frenetic team of event organisers are bombing about, assembling lighting rigs and tinkering with elaborate floral arrangements. The décor for the evening includes a gigantic ...

North Korea… South-east Asia’s premier tourist trap

Thursday 1 June, 11am (Buddhist temple, Insadong, Seoul): We stepped out of Somerset Palace this morning into the warm sun with the objective of getting to grips with our new surroundings. Our first port-of-call was the local temple, which is located immediately adjacent to our Korean crib. And, well, let’s just say, Church Of England it ain’t. The temple is painted in spectacular colours and the whole place is incredibly upbeat and festive. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Naturally, we take a moment to remark upon the fact that Seoul suffers a little when held up in ...