Never mind all that band stuff. I played guitar on a few numbers (including Charles Mingus' Nostalgia in Times Square) at the last jazz jam at Seymour's Family Club, which is being knocked down to build - yes - more flats! It was packed, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Alex Milne did a few sketches of the bands - I will try and upload them to the blog.

Now I turn up to Rob's new project at the Dockside rehearsal studios most Tuesdays, usually between 6-8 pm - odd timing, he says that's all he can get. The singer is nice to look at - tall, red-headed, but very young and with suspicious phrasing. The sax player is good, but a little morose. The guitarist is also good and young, but hasn't yet perfected Ben's trick of changing Rob's chords to something listenable. We work on various numbers and play a bit like Pink Floyd. I'm wondering if I'm only turning up so I can get a drink at the Orchard afterwards. It's nice to have a drink on Tuesdays.

Since my radio play Brunel and the Pianist was rejected by the BBC I thought I'd try something else. I had vague ideas of doing something around the film director/writer/producer Michael Powell. I've been reading his autobiography A Life in Film. It's a very engrossing read, but once he's started a film he often doesn't say much about it, he's too busy planning the next one. When he went to the island of Foula to film The Edge of the World (1937) he immersed himself in the island's culture and geography and lived with the people. He took this thoroughness to all his projects. He name checks all the technicians before the actors!

His career stalled in 1960 with Peeping Tom, a difficult but rewarding film much admired by Martin Scorsese, among others.

I thought of highlighting Michael Powell's contact with the London acting/glamour circles of the 1950s, he quite establishment, they mostly from the armed forces entertainment wing and the music hall tradition, such as the Windmill Theatre.