Jools Holland 001Jools Holland 002You cannot have more fun than standing for two hours in pouring rain listening to Jools Holland at Kew Gardens. I thought the Royal Albert Halls gigs were good, but thousands of people of all ages danced the evening away as if the sun was shining and the evening young. From little toddlers on parents’ shoulders to elderly adults on sticks, this was just fantastic fun.

Jools always has guest singers and tonight he had Louise Marshall, the inimitable (and very scary) Ruby Turner and the one and only Dave Edmunds. It is brilliant to hear I hear you knockin and Sabre Dance  – heard so often on record – played by the original as if he were a sixteen year old. The enthusiasm belied the guy’s age!

Jools Holland 009Jools Holland 007As the evening wore on the rain got harder. But the wonderful orchestra did their usual two encores and sent us off with the great ska original, Rico Rodriguez, growling out:

Enjoy yourself , it’s later than you think’ / Enjoy yourself while you’re still in the pink. / As years go by as quickly as a wink / Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think.

We did. It was. And now for Sunday…