Si came around in the evening with a climbing frame for the kids (his girls have grown out of it). After putting it up he says “I’ve got a spare ticket for ‘Joan As Police Woman’ if you fancy it”. I was unaware of her stuff but that’s the best way to see a band if you ask me. I get the nod from the misses and off we go.

Climbing frame building meant that we missed support act ‘Peggy Sue’. Their merchandise was fantastic – beautifully packaged singles and CD’s – one with an in-built shadow puppet show – made me wish we’d caught them.

Joan came on in a red leopard cat suit with drummer Timo in a long leopard coat and they started with a piano ballard. He then took on bass duties whilst what I thought was a drum machine was being played. I’m not a fan of drum machines and it seemed such a shame as Timo’s drumming was superb! They did stuff from a covers LP (everything from Britney to Iggy) they’ve just released, which were my least favourite tunes of the night (bar one!). Joan explained that it wasn’t a drum machine but a 4-Track “on real analogue cassettes” on which Timo played all the drums, percussion and bass, which made things better.

Joan has hilarious banter between songs which endeared her to the crowd no end, that and the fact that she has a voice to die for! The show picked up steam and I was loving it by the end. “This is our last song…” A big sad Ohhhhh from the crowd “…Oh you know how this works!” cue laughter and they did a song from the new Sonic Youth album that was FANTASTIC! I’ve not felt compelled to buy a Sonics LP for some time but I will now. A couple of slow ballads for an encore and she was gone. She looked like she had a good night – we certainly did!

And the kids love the climbing frame.

Bob the Chiropodist