After dinner last night, Bobbie and I went with Sam to see Alice Russell live at the Hare and Hounds in Kings Heath. Great venue for live music, by the way. Alice Russell’s an amazing soul/funk vocalist and, among other things, fronts the Quantic Soul Orchestra.

We left Jake at home with his friends Ethan and Anna, a packet of biscuits, several stern warnings and rules and some videos to watch. Of course they were very well behaved. At least, I can see no evidence of damage, loss or foul play.

We stopped at Juliet’s place just down the road, and she came with us to the gig. We arrived way too early — around 9pm. She didn’t hit the stage until nearly 11.30pm. So we had a drink first, sat outside, talked to people, sorted the world out and generally had a nice time.

Have you seen this man?

When the band finally started playing, we went in and made our way to the front. Sam said he’d follow us in. That was the last we saw of him. Not sure what happened there. Not that I’m overly concerned…

[Update: Sam has reported in. All is well. He was hit with a sudden and inexplicable illness within minutes of us leaving him alone, and crawled on home to bed. He blames the Quorn tacos.]

I’d seen Alice Russell at Shambala, and thought she was really pretty great, though her stage presence didn’t have quite the same power as her voice… but Bobbie had missed that performance, so we made a point of going this time.

Pretty much exactly the same set, with one member of the band swapped out for another. The guy playing the electric violin wasn’t involved this time - and a backing vocalist was added. People danced, and everyone seemed to be having a very nice time.

Afterwards, Bobbie and I popped in to see Clutch for a chat and a sample of his bargain Laphraoig. Collette, Clutch’s partner, was fast asleep because of an early shift at work - but Clutch is 100% rock & roll so he was up past midnight. We’re yet to meet Collette. Clutch has arranged our meetings so far to coincide with her late shifts, because she’s not really that interested in whisky. Even a little bit.

But then he had a thought: “Is Bobbie interested in shoes, at all…?”

I think they’ll get on fine.

More Alice Russell photos at my Flickr set.