"But you don't really care for music, do ya?"Rufus Wainwright, Islington Academy, Tuesday 1st March

Rufus bathed in blue at the piano

Mesmerising. I love his drawly voice, his humour, his stage presence, his songs and arrangements, his buffness, his band. He's in a class of his own.

The Islington Academy is a small venue tucked away in a shopping centre. You need to have a strong bladder and good calf muscles to listen to drawly Doofus and stand in one place for so long (god bless the desperate soul who needed the toilet midway and couldn't face fighting through the crowd). I hate those venues that just pack the audience in and care not for the vertically challenged or those who actually want to hear the music. It wasn't the right place for Doofy's music at all, and generally attracts those irritating people who insist on talking throughout the set. Fortunately, the irritants restrained themselves, Doof was brilliant, and my companion such a lovely mantelpiece that I just didn't care! Hallelujah, indeed!