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Pink Martini...

On Sunday the ever-wonderful Paul treated Simon, Charlie and I to tickets to see the rather lounge-tastic Pink Martini at the Sadler's Wells Theatre. It was a head-noddingly, foot-stampingly, hand-clappingly, arm-wavingly, finger-clickingly sensation of a show from opening bar to mind-bending crescendo. Good then.

This quirky, wildly original 12-piece band lie somewhere between a 1930s Cuban dance orchestra, a classical chamber music ensemble, a Brazilian marching street band and Japanese film noir. Pink Martini are engagingly impossible to categorise. On one level they are a retro-chic, Latin-based, classy easy-listening outfit, specialising in charming and melodic cocktail lounge ballads, before veering off into anything and everything from brooding European balladry and operatic mood pieces to ragtime or the Far East. The band is centred around the seductive vocals of China Forbes and piano genius Thomas Lauderdale. They are joined by four percussionists, two horns and a double bass.

Favourite bit? The fat bloke at the end of our row dancing to Brazil.