Lowdown, arctic... superheroes!

Well, well. All that scraping around in the pubs of South London seems finally to have paid off. Play/pause took its first step into a wider universe with a corking first night at Lowdown, underneath the Albany at Great Portland Street.

My man Tom took a cracking set of pictures. Have a look. As you can see, the place was rammed with pretty young wasted things who wanted nothing more than to get sweaty and dive around like loons. Sam and I could not have asked for a better night. Some lovely blagger/blogger even came along to review it for us. Aw. Thanks!

Oh, and on the topic of pictures, it was Joe's flat-cooling party on Friday - and the theme was Sci-Fi and Superheroes. You really can't go wrong with fancy dress.

I got the National Express up to Sunderland yesterday. It's the first time I've taken the bus in a long time, and, you know what, it wasn't that bad. I had a bit of drama getting on it (an exasperating tale of lost reference numbers, jobsworthiness and repeated sprints across the Victoria station coach bays), but they've really improved the buses these last ten years. Anyway, the reason I'm up is that tonight, I'm going here to see the Arctic Monkeys. And I can't wait. The overnight coach back to London will be less fun, I expect, as will tomorrow's work day, but saying as I'm missing Glasto, it'll be worth making the effort to get to see them.

Oh, and one more thing; a great interview with Roy Keane in yesterday's Observer.

He has built a team with character. Sunderland's record of scoring late goals this season is unrivalled and speaks well of the personality of the team Keane has assembled. Either that or it suggests a fear of coming back in to a dressing room and facing Keane having failed him.

Having him and Quinny at the club still (a year after the Drumaville takeover) feels like a dream. I remember being in Brazil this time last year, speculating with my brother about what might happen if Quinn was successful, and brought a top manager in with a big budget. I don't think either of us dared think it would have gone this well. Top of the league with three games to go, having won 14 of our last 17, undefeated, playing fast, powerful, passing football and scaring the shit out of both the opposition and the Mags - this is a great time to be a Sunderland supporter.