Once inside, we were just in time to get to the bar before Steve Thorne took to the stage for what seemed a very short set of only three numbers. When I questioned Norm the Storm, the guy behind the bands, he reckoned that Steve'd mearly bust a string, before buggering off to fix it! Shortly after, Steve returned to finish his well-recieved set, with tracks from both his current album, Emotional Creatures part 1, and some from his forthcoming, Emotional Creatures part 2. The new tracks sounded as good as the old ones, and as good as they did way back in May and June when I saw him'n'Gary supporting Pendragon. Steve finished his set and popped out for a quick massage and a shower, he said.

Then it was back to the bar to gather some refreshment, but I was hardly expecting to bump into a living pub-prog-rock legend, but that's what I did. Chatting to Norm the Gorm was none other than former Jadis basserist, and former Crystal Palace player, Trevor 'Sexgod' Dawkins.

So I butted in as I usually do, and we chatted about the olden golden halcyon days, when Silhobbit was mearly a pup of a magazine, printed and photocopied in living rooms scattered around the country by a band of hard working yet poorly paid 'hobbits'. We also mentioned his being in the old Jadis, and what he was up to now...

We'll track him down for a full interview in due course!

After he really had to go, we just had a few minutes to chat with various forum/chat room peeps, such as Croydon Mick, HelenDo, Coffee Fairy Jayne, Croydon Tina and a couple of others. BigDug and LucyJuicy couldn't make it, but that was a good thing.

It was then Jadis' turn to entertain the hot and sweaty crowd, and hot and sweaty Gary did just that! Now, I know that the Borderline has a small stage, but I did feel sorry for Jumpin John Jowitt, who was partitioned off on a small segment of stage, barely big enough for his fancy dan boots. Last year I saw The Storys play there and they had seven band members. Ok, two of them were standing in the crowd, but still! Have some respect!

The night before, Jadis had played at Mr Kyps in Poole, Lee Galalad went and sent us this short report:

"The Night Darkness fell on Prog…
T’was a cold and windy night in the town of Poole…
No it wasn’t, it was bloody hot actually! Jadis played a blinder at Kyps in Poole, but it must be mentioned that fate is trying to silence prog and this must be stamped out! As the band returned to the stage for their encore and mesmerized us with one final number, just as they crash ended the very last note of that last song…
…darkness and silence.
The Gods had unforgivingly cut down Jadis in their prime and plunged us all into silence and darkness. Could the hand of evil forces be at work we have to ask. With so many prog gigs and tours coming up over the coming months, it is something we must investigate. I urge everyone to attend every gig and report on their findings.
…having said all that of course, it could just be that they tripped out the fusebox… "

Despite that playing heavily on their minds, the band played a blinder, who complained to the Management but got short thrift.

Relying heavily on tracks from their new Photoplay album, the band stormed through their set like a spoon through hot butter, highlights being Lost For Words, Too Big For Luck and Hiding In The Corner. Only kidding!

The sound mix was a bit in favour of the guitars, not surprisingly seeing that "Lazyboy" Steve Thorne joined on second guitar and backing vocals - covering Martin's bits wonderfully. However it meant that I couldn't really hear much of what new keyboarderist Giulio Risi was up to. Indeed he seemed to spend most of the gig eating gelato and fixing pipes.

Later we hung out with the boys (without being chucked out, makes a bleedin change, innit) whilst avoiding buying anything.

An excellent evening!

Charlie O'Mara