Bread and Circuses

Well yes. And to whoever hung that sign outside their house while the rest of the street was having a Jubilee street party this past Sunday, I salute you. And if you don't immediately get what it means, here you go.

So. Yes. Jubilee. It's obvious, and probably correct, to have some kind of issue with the whole idea of the Royals. Sure, Brenda herself is worth a bit over £300 Million, but wait a minute, dead-eyed Tom from the Apprentice wants $25 million just to buy some wine, so that puts Tom closer to the Queen than he is to me. Well that's all sorts of wrong, surely, I mean he's just a good-looking Ian Beale. And no, I'm not sure what point I'm making here. Tell you what though - Nick's recipe idea was gold, and the only reason none of the business knobs got it is because they have their food fucking cooked for them by servants and/or wives. "Who would use this?", asked one. "WOMEN AND REAL PEOPLE!", shouted back my wife.

Anyway, train of thought rants aside, this is a post about the Jubilee. I remember the silver one, in 1977. We had a street party in my grandma's road, and me and another kid played football with a Jubilee-branded football, and then we lost it. I was 8. Luckily, thanks to my mum giving me some DVDs of old home movies for my birthday, I can prove it..

Here I am sitting on a wall at the street party with my dad..

And here I am watching a children's entertainer do the breakaway wand gag...

Please note the rather excellent V-Neck sweater in a design that is currently being re-used by Hackett. Always on trend, people, always on trend.

So regardless of political opinions of Royalty, I have very nice childhood memories of when I last went to a Jubilee street party, which seemed good enough reason to not be too hard-hearted on those that were dodging rain and wrangling barbecues this weekend. And besides, as anyone who knows me can tell you - I love bread and circuses.

Here are some shots from my local street party...

And talking of circuses (See what I did there?)...tickets for the June 14th Mat Ricardo's London Varieties are selling.. about half of the tables have gone, so get your tickets quick if you want to be sat at a table. It's another amazing bill, particularly for fans of magic or old-school variety - if you love both, you're going to want to come to this one. Trust me. For more information and tickets, click here.