First of all, it was another good day for Crawley Town. They won again at the Broadfield Stadium and still have the 2nd best home record in the Conference league. It was a bit of a worry when they went behind early on, but they ended up winning with a 90th-minute penalty. Still 4th in the league, but its a very tight league with something like 10 teams only separated by 5 points so its possible for teams to go up or down 5 or 6 places in a week with the right results.

Friday night I went to see Gang of Four play at the Sheperds Bush Empire. The concert itself was stunning, with the drummer and bassist keeping up a steady, thumping rhythm while the guitarist and singer do their own, scary things over the top. The band have been getting a lot of press lately as every says they are a major influence on up-and-coming bands like Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party and the Killers as well as on older acts like REM and the Chilli Peppers, which would explain the surprisingly large number of teenagers turning out to see a band of blokes who must be getting on for 50 at least, who have not played together for at least 20 years and have no material newer than 10 years old. One young japanese couple who were standing next to us said they had come from New York to see the show!

I was supposed to be seeing the show with an old school friend, but he ducked out because he was on a promise and I ended up going with the chair of our local Labour Party. He is a good ten years younger than me, but we have a few tastes in common. As we had quite a bit of time to kill beforehand we got something to eat then had a couple of pints in a pub, and chatted about music, books, politics and local gossip. For various reasons we were talking about Crawley and how certain different people perceive the place. Very interesting as we have very different experiences of the place: I moved here in the 90s from London, but he was born here and his father and grandfather were both involved in the Crawley Labour Party and the council.