Getting down with the kids

It didn't look like it was going to be a successful evening. Full of cold, my sneezing, wheezing and hacking was driving my fellow Tube passengers as far from me in the carriage as they could humanly manage. In my pocket I had a crumpled invite to an event which promised to be a memorable occasion only I couldn't find the venue (this happened not to be my fault thankfully).

But when I eventually pitched up, after 10.30pm, it turned out it was the launch of  the One foundation's #agit8 campaign, their fantastic two day event at Tate Modern featuring a host of pop stars playing protest songs, aimed at the leaders due to gather at the G8 in Northern Ireland in a few days.

Quite coincidentally, I happened to have booked today off work and it provided a great opportunity for Lovely Wife and I to take Dear Little Girl to her very first music gig. It was also a bit of an eye-opener for me; while I recognised the names of a few of their artists I didn't know their music. And I wasn't going to hear much either as mainly they were playing the likes of Woodie Guthrie, Radiohead and Bob Dylan.

So Paloma Faith opened the afternoon with a rendition of Bob Marley's Redemption Song:

Jamie Cullum did Radiohead's High and Dry:

Omid Djalili made an excellent joke about dickheads in a Nelson Mandela voice as well as a rendition of 'Iranian Men, Hallelujah, Iranian Men' (just sing it):

And KT Tunstall performed a moving Woodie Guthrie poem which was later set to music:

It was all rather good fun. It was how I imagine music festivals should be; without the people, drunks, drugs, mud and people. I was feeling quite hip for pitching up at these impromptu secret gigs by modern pop stars, quite a departure from my usual choice of music which generally requires the artist to be long dead. This feeling was somewhat punctured when a colleague pointed out only I could describe KT Tunstall and Jamie Cullum were 'radical'. For the record, I don't, but I get the point.

I'd like to tell who else will be performing there later tonight and tomorrow but I can't. You'll just have to pitch up and hope for the best. And it's all in a tremendous cause too, calling on the G8 to do more to tackle poverty around the world. For more info on the campaign go to http://www.one.org/international/

And, I'm pleased to report, Dear Little Girl loved her first live concert experience. I'll try and post a photo later of her grinning.