Whenever I go to London in the day, I always have a quick check to see what gigs are going on in the evening. So much happens there which is potentially hellish – I imagine that if I lived in London then I’d have the permanent feeling that I was missing something.

Last week I got chance to pop to MJ Hibbett’s ‘Totally Acoustic’ night upstairs at The Lamb on Lamb Conduit Road (I wondered if there was a sinister reason behind that name, but apparently it was named after philanthropist William Lamb who improved the conduit that brought fresh water to the people of the area in 1577), to see a gig by Mr Hibbett and Andy from Pocketbooks under his Sunny Intervals moniker.

The pub was exactly the sort of place that I expected it to be – homely with real ale and no PA meaning that we were treated to an um, unplugged ‘unplugged’ performance. The upstairs room was full – not rammed - and everyone seemed to know each other or acted like they did and it’s in this type of environment, away from large sterile super venues and hyped up bands, that truly touching moments of music are turfed up.

All through the gig, the friendly atmosphere meant that it wasn’t weird when performers stopping a song to make a funny comment to the audience before restarting.

Mark kicked off with a short ukelele set (must buy one soon, they look like fun – make it your must have accessory for 2008), and unbeknown to Mark several of his friends pulled out ukeleles of their own in the middle of the song to join in. A ukulele flash mob! Genius. He also played a cover of ‘The First of the Gang to Die’ and the chorus works shockingly well on the ukelele.

Andy played next. His music always conjures up images of lovingly remembered lazy weekends, maybe because that’s what the lyrics are about, but the music always complements it so brilliantly, and Andy’s voice – never powerful but always poignant, pulls you in to the stories. He has a single out on Wee Pop records.

Finally Mark finished off with an actual acoustic set including many songs which I’d never heard before – I loved ‘We’re Old and We’re Tired (and We Want to go Home)’, and a really lovely song called ‘The Girl Who…’.

Sadly, I had to dash off mid encore because I was old and tired and I wanted to go home (which was 100 miles away).

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