picture from BBC

I woke up on my Birthday Boxing Day having had a wonderful nights sleep at the Cathedral Quarter Hotel in Derby. In the lead up to my birthday we had considered going to London to see a show but nothing took our fancy in the theatre and there was nothing decent on at any comedy club because even though August is nearly over the best comedians are either still in Edinburgh or at home recovering. Mandi doesn't share my love of discovering new bands and artists at a gig in a dive so we ruled out London. Another factor was the train times being so ridiculous that we wouldn't arrive until the middle of the afternoon by which time we wouldn't be able to see any museums or anything of interest. Derby might not be the most obvious choice for a birthday night out but a show caught our eye that we were both interested in (although in retrospect I should have played my 'it's my birthday so we'll do what I want to do' card) and decided to book that. Toyah Willcox was playing a small acoustic show in Derby Cathedral. This is the kind of gig that I would usually overlook but I'm glad we went. Of course the cathedral was a lovely setting, although the pews were a bit uncomfortable after a while, and they had a bar selling wine and beer so it was like being at a normal gig but far cleaner and more respectable the surroundings. It was just her on stage with two guitarists, and she was operating a laptop projector showing photographs and film clips (I didn't realise how prolific an actress she was) while telling stories and anecdotes from her career, which incidentally is the same age as I am. Aside from her songs she also threw in a few covers such as 'Suffragette City' and 'Sweet Child Of Mine', and never faltered. Some singers go on for too long and nobody seems to tell them to pack it in and stop ruining the legacy but Toyah sounded as good as she always did.

It is very rare that I have breakfast in a hotel because of their insistence on serving it so early in the morning, which has never made sense as the days of hotels serving three meals a day have gone the way of the communal television room and the bar that stays open all night to residents, but makes even less sense in a hotel because if you're in a hotel you aren't going to be going to work. Sunday breakfast should be a drawn out affair with a paper to read so once we had got it together to leave the hotel we found a delightful little cafe that was neither greasy spoon (although I would have loved that, Mandi can't eat a lot of fried food so needs choice) or a rolled up trousers and lentil latte joint.

It doesn't look like much but it was filling in a good way and I was able to walk around without feeling bloated and wanting the toilet all the time, particularly good news as we had eaten at a Mexican restaurant last night. This was my second full English of the weekend as I had one before we travelled to Derby, of course I am in middle age now so this should stop now, it won't of course because if we weren't meant to eat bacon it wouldn't taste so nice.

We've been to Derby on several occasions but we haven't taken the time to 'see' it before now. There's a lovely river and lots of green to walk along and as someone who likes to look up I was very taken with the architecture in the city centre. Derby certainly seems to have a lot more respect for the beauty of an old building than Nottingham (a city exempt from the 'listed building' rule - okay not exempt but a lot of old buildings seem to have lorries crash into them or suffer a mysterious fire if it means more student flats). My only slight disappointment was that I couldn't find a bandstand, following what I did in Brighton last year I have decided to play a tune on the kazoo wherever I see a bandstand, and hopefully make the song match the location although this will be a challenge having already blown 'Oh I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside' at the first opportunity. 

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This week's edition of The Sunday Alternative is here.

The latest episode of The Random Saturday Sessions is here.

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