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Flight 5065

In the end, on our London Eye thing, we were joined not by Martin White and his stupid accordion playing face, which I briefly glimpsed disappearing into the London skyline with Robin Ince a couple of pods ahead of us, but by everyone’s favourite posh guitar duo, teh Turin Brakes, along with a gang of African drummers.

The nature of the event was that you didn’t know quite who you were going to get, so we spent most of our time in the queue opening up the “passport” containing a full list of acts that had been handed to us, and trying to guess. As we approached the gantry, I spotted a couple of comedians at the top of the stairs. “That’s Marcus Brigstock”, I said to Sal. “He went to Bristol uni a couple of years before us–he’s always on the telly now”, I noted (although apparently he does take the occasional break in order to appear at London tourist attraction-based charity events). He did make me laugh, though, when he responded to the comment by the other (not quite so ubiquitous so I didn’t recognise him) comedian with him, who had suggested that the organisers were letting a few empty pods go by because “they’re full of sick”. “It’s ok”, said Marcus, “it’s Fair Trade sick.”

Ah, but it was not to be my erstwhile almost contemporary accompanying us in the pod, and nor was it Jo Brand who passed us a we got nearer the front of the queue (“I recognise her off that Trinny and Susannah episode”, said Sal), but indeed teh Brakes. They were quite good–there was lots of drumming from the drummer people, a chap from MTV filming everything, and, oh, the London skyline, in all its glory, as the hazy sun dropped down behind the hills in the distance. There are, predictably, half a memory card full of photos, some of which I may upload when I return from my weekend at Glasto with the other full…