The last RTYD acoustic afternoon of 2009

Another great afternoon was had by all those assembled at the Libertine on Sunday. The Lone Groover & Wonder Boy was the first of a number of acts making their second acoustic appearance for RTYD at the Libertine. They played another fine set, during which they debuted a great new tune, and watched their cappuccinos get cold.

Warren Meneely was electric; and acoustic; and on top form.

Michael Caines silenced the room with his witty picky ditties with added harmony courtesy of Vera Chok. And ended his set with a favourite of mine, his song about Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Claire Gamble brought her guitar, her ukulele, her recorder and her friend Alex from Norfolk to accompany her, and was as a charming as ever.

The Libertine's own barman Chris Tirrell closed the afternoon with some acoustic psychedelica employing open-tuned guitars, a keyboard and a very old looking echo unit.

Great stuff. See you on Valentine's Day 2010.

That's the Spirit... take a Gamble.

Thankfully, organising this weekend's Libertine gig didn't take any gambling. Just some salvaging. All that was needed was a bit of luck, some courage and good spirit. The result was a blessing which arrived in disguise at the last minute to kick off a great evening of acoustic and electro-acoustic pop.

That blessing was Claire Gamble, who stepped in to fill the gap in the bill left by The Flakes who cancelled their appearance a few days before the gig (Alright, I think we can drop that one now - Ed). Without her own band, who were unavailable to perform with her at short notice, Claire courageously offered to play with just a little help from her friend Abby.

Planet Claire is a place where one travels to find meaningful relationships and true love. A place where one is safe from disingenuous friend-requests and endless scrolling activity feeds. Planet Claire is a place where people still talk to each other. There, young people still write love letters and carry pencil cases scrawled with band names and intials in love hearts. It's a coffee-less, iphone-less, email-less, technologically-static place in a past-future. Claire herself is an heterosexual Aimee Mann for the reluctant Facebook generation. She is tall, with late-70s Roxy-LP-cover-girl looks and presence. We love her.

Spirit of Play are the young end of the RTYD demographic. They are thirty-something professionals who contacted me back when RTYD was only weeks old, hoping to become involved in my little community of parents and professionals who continue to rock and roll. Thankfully they are now a well established part of it. They make quirky witty intelligent pop. And tonight due to a turn of events they get the headline slot they should have had without fate playing any part in it. The place on the bill that they deserve. They also get 45 minutes to pull out all the stops. It's their last gig of the year. Their last gig of this decade.

For a moment I dream. You know me, I like to. I dream it's 2010, and they're playing on Later with Jools Holland. And why not? It's entirely possible.

If you haven't seen or heard Spirit of Play, imagine the three flatmates in Shallow Grave played by Ewan McGregor, Kerry Fox and Christopher Eccleston. Then imagine the West End musical version of the film, in which the protagonists are renamed Michael, Lucy and Will. They all work at the Times Literary Supplement, and they have a rock band that includes their friends J. and Tom.

As they attempt to dispose of the body of their dead flatmate Hugo and decide what to do with the large amount of cash that they have found by it, they periodically break into song, harmonising about human burial practices, Homebase, hacking up a human body and the resulting post-traumatic stress.

Get the picture?