And play there they did! Well, more of that later, first I have to wiggle on about stuff. Ok, we got there fairly early (for once) and already the place was filling up well. So well that we ended up being on the side of the crowd near the speakers. Why is there a raised platform fir the crowd in the middle to stand on? Have they never noticed that this means the poor punters on the edge have no fucking chance of seeing anything more that the top of Petes frizzy head? I had no idea if Marvin Orford was even there until the bows at the end! The bar staff are happier to chat to themselves rather than serving customers. At least the Guinness was cold. The toilets are so well hidden that you can't give anyone directions to them, apart from "well, through that door and, er, up the stairs?"

Ok rant over. Back into the Christmas spirit, ho, ho, ho! Sir John of Jowitt nipped out into the crowd to hand me a VIP pass - tonight Matthew I'm going to be Jem Godfrey! I got all excited and started flashing it about, until some American bruiser took exception to Frost*'s early demise and landed a sweet one right upon my nose. Serves me right, I suppose, though how he got us mixed up I'll never understand!

IQ played a right royal stormer tonight! From the start of Breathtaker, through to the final ending of Awake and Nervous, the band were spot on. And an excellent mix of tracks from every period. After Breathtaker, Pete announced that the band had been going since 1981 (hence the Silver Jubilee) "and here's a track from 1981" - the crowd went mental when Fascination started up - well, us older ones did. This ancient classic was followed by the recent Sacred Sound and one I thought I'd never hear again, Nomzamo.

So, after this, it was way back again to It All Stops Here, but it didn't cos they kept their "all eras" promise by playing the new Frequency track, one that's been flashed about on YouTube a bit. If you haven't heard it yet, we've a link on our Hot News page. It shows that IQ are still heading in the right direction, even after a quarter of a century.

Further Away - announced as track one on disc two of the bootleg - came closer than ever, before we were treated to another newie Already Gone. When that was gone, The Seventh House came and went and we were treated to a second Menel-period track Human Nature. I tells ya, it is a joy to hear those tracks again, as they are invariably more up-beat and cheerier than the rest of these gloomy bastards work! I mean, The Enemy Smacks, fr'instance, what a morbid drug induced chilling and depressing song. I loved it. As do you. And there there ended, with customary bows - except for young Mike, who was busy doing his own thing and looked a trifle miffed at being left out. Sucker!

So was that the end of the show. Of course it wasn't!

After a brief interlude (well, with the stupid venue giving us a 9:45 curfew. Did I already mention that? Or the 7:15 start?), so anyway, after a brief interlude, the old boys and Andy Edwards creaked their way back on stage to run through a Prog Save The Queen/For Christ's Sake/Barbell Is In/The Thousand Days/Came Down medley, followed by The Wake - I could see grown men around me crying. Perhaps they'd realised that they still had mullets. Or maybe I stood on their toes. Who knows? Who cares? The band defiantly didn't, as the horse play between the excitable Mike and the cheeky Pete showed.

They took another short toilet break before being dragged back on stage to finish off with a rebel rousing, hum-dinging Awake And Nervous. And then, and only then, that was that!

Well, more correctly, that was the start of the after-gig parrrrrrrrrty!!!

After getting conflicting reports of the Royal George being either too full, or closed, us and Mike Holmes ended up in a "bar" that seemed rather familiar. Turns out that the ghastly white painted and souless "bar", inhabited by souless kids, was the old "new Marquee". A few of us looked around with a nostalgic tear in our eyes, while I waited for 30 minutes at the bar while several disinterested staff poured tons of ice, and sort measures into glasses for the kids.

So after the beer, we headed back to the George where the party was in full swing. And lo and behold if we didn't have a nearly full Silhobbit reunion with Me, Rimsk Scaffolletti, Robert Ball and Cess van der Valke (not to mentions hangers on like Fran Tuckett, William Groate, Perry Grafham and Leighton Buzzard) all being in the same place at the same time for the first time and place in 10 years. My old German mucker Heinz Svine had also been at the gig, but was escorted out early by a couple of buxom lasses and has not been seen since. Also there was the award winning Sir Jowitt, The Boy Edwards, Peter "the" Nicholls, "wee" Alan Reed and Mark "West" Wood. Also there were perineum liggers like Croydon Mick, Croydon Tina, Croydon Og as well as international IQ veterans such as Heike, Sophie and Nanda. And everyone else who knows me.

What a stunna of an evening!