Saw Crowded House at Wembley Arena last night.  A sold out show for which I had tenth row tickets (I got an early buy as a lifetime member of the Split Enz/Crowded House fan club).  Brilliant, just amazing, as ever.  Fifth time I've seen some incarnation of CH, Neil Finn or the Finn Brothers.  It started off a bit slow with everyone sitting, but about 45 minutes in, they played Don't Dream It's Over and it was standing the rest of the way.

They played all their best songs, including Fall At Your Feet and Distant Sun.  They did that Hunters & Collectors song, a version of She Goes On, and even Black & White Boy.  Lots of singalongs, including the climactic Better Be Home Soon.  Nothing like singing along with 10,000 other people.  The encores went on for over an hour.  Bliss for lovers of great pop music, of which I am most certainly one.

Cultural week:  Seeing the controversial Women of Troy at the National tomorrow and then the Stephen Fry-written panto at the Old Vic on Thursday.  Just finished reading the new Peter Carey, His Illegal Self, brilliant and challenging and surprising as ever, and I'm now about 100 pages into Vikram Chandra's 947-page Sacred Games and enjoying it very much so far.