What's the point in being a racehorse, if you never get to go on a racecourse?

Deep words of wisdom there from the band I went to see tonight - the Beatnik Filmstars.

Actually they were really good (cracking version of Champion The Wonder Horse) and I felt all rock'n'roll sitting in a comfy velvet seat drinking a cup of tea.

Let me explain - tea because I'm not drunk any alcohol for 328 days obviously, and a plush velvet seat because I saw them at an artsy place that doubles as a cinema. I was most disappointed not to get a choc-ice between the support acts and the main band.

(As an aside, you cannot get access to the building unless you're a member of the collective. Lifetime membership costs £1. Awesome.)

The first support act were a band called Countryside who helpfully gave away free copies of their CD in the foyer in the hope they'd get a free beer. Somehow I think they'll go on to better things.

The old work-colleague I was with tonight (coincidentally a Beatnik Filmstars member's brother) had stayed in the foyer for an extra drink so we missed the start of the second support act, which the barmaid helpfully described as 'Ruth with her bells'.

Indeed.

We snuck into the side of the auditorium and grabbed the nearest available seat. On stage was a woman playing a bass guitar. To a tape of another bass guitar. After 5 minutes of some serious bass-on-bass action, she put down her guitar - and both basses carried on playing. To say I was non-plussed was an understatement. It appeared we were watching an accomplished bass mime-artist. She then played a theramin.

This was fucking weird.

For her next song it started to make more sense, she'd play one bass line, record it and then play it back on a loop while adding a second bass line, then record that and so on and so on...

So if listening to three bass lines at once, overlayed with alternately a theramin, some bells and a mouth organ is your thing - then google 'Ruth'.