Mia and Pog

Mia and Pog, originally uploaded by fred pipes.

Excellent night's entertainment at the underrated Cowley Club - tho the appealing sounding Nut Brown Ale was off so had to make do with Hophead. This was a date on the tour of Mia Riddle from New York (or is it California?) - you can hear some of her songs on myspace.com/miariddle - and Pog, who describe Mia as 'country-tinged indie folk'. Many of the dates on the tour are in people's houses, a sort of musical equivalent to the Artists' Open Houses. As Russ Substance from Southampton (who was too young to know of John Renbourn) was about to take Pog's place on the tour, we got all three acts, for the pricely sum of FREE, tho there was a whip round and I bought Pog's wonderful new CD 'Bothering the bunshop, despite the injuction', containing 'Trauma Tourist' and that great sing-along 'Go vegan (you cow-sucking pervert)'. Paul Stapleton (he of Pog and Anal Beard, as well as his topical and incisive cartoon books), it must be said, was performing solo, as Annalise was off seeing the Violent Femmes. But with three great sets, you can't complain, can you? Go see Mia, if you can, while she's over here!