Carl at the Groucho

This is Carl Smyth aka Chas Smash from Madness, he did tell me he was in 'the pop group Madness' but it wasn't till the next day I realised who it was! I met him in the lobby as I was on my way to the loo and we got chatting, he was incredibly funny and had us in stitches, showed me some video from a musical he is writing, I asked him if I could be in it, he said 'If you can sing you're in!' (We'll see lol ;-) Anway he came to show us this ensemble when he was on his way to a photoshoot, you're not meant to take photos there so I just reeled off a couple quickly, I asked him to approve the shot and he said 'Approved!' tuned on his heel and marched off.
Later on we met him again on the tearrace and he bought us a drink and entertained us further!

The us was me and my very old friend Tanya who I haven't seen for akmost 30 years, her brother Steve was a very talented musician and songwriter who I worked with in my early 20s who sadly passed away earlier this year aged 50.

Tanya kindly let me know about his death and today we managed to find the time to see each other, we met for lunch at the Groucho Club in Dean St and we talked ALL DAY until I left at about 9, I can't remember the last time I talked to one person for so long! There was a lot to catch up on however and she brought some photos of Steve throughout his life which we looked at together, she told me all about his life after we lost touch. Very sad.

We discovered that we both know pianist Clifford Slapper very well so we rang him as he lives in the West End and he came for a drink, it was great to see him and also to meet Tanya's Husband.