Over the weekend I caught up with the last few editions of Later with Jools Holland.   I rarely watch anything live now, so I was watching this on the V+ box and being a bit naughty: not having a lot of time I just fast-forwarded through large chunks of it, even though I would have probably enjoyed the Editors and Krystle Warren I just didn’t have the time.Instead I watched all the Gang of Four songs and Dizzee Rascal + a bit of the Charlie Watts thing. It was good to see a bit of boogie woogie and Jools’ face was a picture when he joined in: if you had to find an image to illustrate the colloquial phrase ‘happy as a pig in shit’ then you would have to use a screen grab of Jools at the piano, getting the chance to play boogie woogie legitimately instead of trying to play it over the top of something else.

Dizzee Rascal, or “Mr Rascal” and Jeremy Paxman was a delight.  How refreshing to see a rap artist with a band instead of decks, and to see British rap with its own identity and not just trying to be American.   I loved his first album, but never really thought he would stick around, and I am glad to be proved wrong.

The real highlight was the Gang of Four.  It was a bit disappointing to see Dave Allen and Hugo Burnham not in the line-up but with the scary presence of Andy Gill and Jon King it still works.  There is still the same group dynamic of a rhythm section that is totally regular and relentless providing a solid foundation for Gill’s take-no-prisoners guitar work and King’s intense and intimidating vocals.

The first thing that strikes you is that age has made Andy Gill look a lot more like Louis Walsh and Jon King a tad reminiscent of Al Bundy, but as soon as they start playing you soon see they have lost none of the old magic.  Even after thirty years the material from Entertainment sounds fresh and reminds me why it is still my favourite album of all time.

Jools Holland pointed out that Gang of Four were performing I Love A Man in Uniform when that song had been banned by the BBC when it first came out, but the real irony was seeing them do At Home He’s a Tourist.  That song was also sort of banned.  At the time, in 1979, the band were on the cusp of big things.  They were invited on Top of the Pops when the single was in the lower reaches of the charts.  Back then a TOTP appearance was a big deal and could send a single up the charts. For Gang of Four it would have exposed them to a huge new audience.

The only problem is that the BBC wanted them to change a lyric – the line about rubbers in the top-left pocket.  The band make a principled stand and refused to change the lyric, the appearance was cancelled and I still wonder what would have happened if they had been less rigid in their vision of artistic integrity.  Would they have gone on to be huge?  Would they have filled the niche that instead got filled by U2?

It was only while I was watching them on Saturday night that I realised they were probably onstage in London playing that album all the way through at the same time I was watching and I felt a momentary pang of regret that I had not tried to get a ticket.

The combination of Go4 and Dizzee Rascal on the same show made that one of the best episodes of Later ever – whoever else was on it.  Now how about getting Spizzenergi on the show sometime in the season?  Come on Jools – you know it makes sense!