Waterloo to somewhere

OMM represented at a Pet Shop Boys show being recorded for Radio 2 at the Mermaid Theatre on Monday. The gig was sensational, but the most engaging sight of the night was Elton John.

Sitting in the audience beside his friend Janet Street-Porter, he tapped his knees enthusiastically throughout. And we knew when the intermission was about to start because his posse of minders leapt suddenly to attention and readied themselves for action!

Tuesday night was spent in the company of the Dirty Pretty Things. Carl Barat's last band, the Libertines, were pioneers of the guerrilla gig. They made an artform of hijacking front rooms, stairwells and pubs with a gaggle of wide-eyed followers. To promote their new album, Waterloo to Anywhere, however, Barat and his band have gone hi-tech. Fans gathered at Waterloo station so that Nokia techies could Bluetooth the details of a secret gig to their mobiles. Cue 200 milk-toothed DPT devotees hightailing it to a cavernous nightclub tarted-up like an underground station called 'Anywhere'.

The band loitered on to the stage like the last gang in town - legs tourniqued in skinny jeans, cigarettes hanging precariously from their lips - and razzed through tracks like 'The Gentry Cove', 'Gin and Milk' and single 'Bang Bang You're Dead' with ballsy high velocity. But the inclusion of three Libertines tunes, including the snottily brilliant 'I Get Along', hinted that Barat is still stalked by his past, and the eruption of moshing suggests the crowd won't let him forget it. Can his solo endeavours ever outshine the Libertines? Let us know what you think.

Today's best video