A lot of clever bastards

I watched Radiohead at Glastonbury, partly because I know their drummer, Clive Deemer. He goes to our pub.

There, sitting at the drum kit was - indeed - a bloke as bald as Clive, but it wan't him. His nose wasn't big enough. Then, tucked away right at the top I spotted Clive, standing up in front of a load of percussion. He is obviously not their number 1 drummer.

You may remember me telling you about how I saved myself from an embarrassing display of mid-life crisis some years ago, when I persuaded Clive to teach me to play drums. I was about 50 at the time, and he is quite a bit younger than me. The difference was that although he is probably about 50 now, he has been playing drums professionally for many years. He looks to be good at it, actually. Luckily I came to my senses about a day after he agreed.

I think the thing which sets most successful musicians apart from people who play quite well is their versatility - at least that's how it seems to me as an outsider.

Their lead guitarist switched from guitar to keyboards to drums effortlessly. Maybe 'effortlessly' is the wrong word for it. He put an enormous amount of effort into it. I would be gasping for breath after about 2 minutes of what he did. Whether you like their music or not, you have to admit that there are a lot of clever bastards out there, as Ian Dury once observed.