PFC on Tour 18: Basildon You No Harm

Charlie Lansborough was in the big room (the Tom Paxton of this gig) whilst we hung out in the smaller house, a theatre that had an old-fashioned Muppets style curtain that raised at the start of each section. This impressed us so much that both halves began with us bounding onstage and calling out, "Look at that! Wow! Incredible! A curtain!" to the largely non-plussed audience. Presumably they had seen curtains before.

Brendan, Matthew and Tom travelled up by train as they had been to see the incredible play Stovepipe by Adam Brace. It's the story of a mercenary's hunt for his friend in post-war Amman. It's housed in the West 12 shopping centre in Shepherd's Bush and is a moving piece of promenade theatre. If you have any interest in theatre- and how can any fan of the Fun Club not?- then please go and see this play. More details can be found here.

Luckily, Ben was driving the car with all the stuff to the venue to ensure there wasn't a mad rush to get set up before the audience arived. Unluckily, Ben thought it would be totally fine to leave at 5pm. In rush hour. On a Friday. He arrived with moments to spare and the show-and curtain- went up on time. Ben blamed the SatNav. The curse of trusting a machine to do the work of a human brain. Did we learn nothing from Short Circuit?

Our pal and movie buff, Richard sandling was in the crowd to fill the room with his raucous laughter- and our hearts with jealousy when he revealed he'd taken the day off to see Watchmen- which was a welcome boost. You can see his bearded face in the onstage shot of Tom in full internet garb, above.

Here we are, realaxing outside the venue. If this photo had been taken a mere 5 minutes later, we would have been crushed to death by stampeding old biddies all hopped up on Charlie Lansborough induced lust. And by the way, if you are thinking of starting a video shop in the mid-80s, the Towngate theatre know a place you can get the perfect sign for it.