I spent an awful lot of today in the company of James Valentine.

Tonight his CD launch was held at Raval. As I understand it, it’s a fairly new live music venue on the second floor of the Macquarie Hotel on the corner of Wentworth and Goulburn Streets.

It’s a pub I most often associate with the great big hail storm of 1999, as it was the place where I was when the hail came down. I remember vividly everyone leaving the Trivia Night and going outside to watch the storm.

They’ve done a great job in renovating the upstairs room which I think was previously pub-style accommodation.

It’s a really nice room with comfy chairs and just the kind of place where you might have a fiftieth birthday if you had create friends who could jump on stage and perform.

Even if that wasn’t the case, it’s still a nice venue.

As I mentioned the other day, James’ CD, called Debut is pretty bloody good.

And tonight he was in his element loving being on stage and performing some really great music.

The crowd was mostly friends, though there was the odd celebrity here and there, who was there as friends. Guess who? Don’t sue.

My other big connection with James today was appearing on Afternoons to…

Judge the soap box competition

and…

Participate in the weekly debate.

In taking the affirmative position that “people should avoid comebacks”, I quoted Bjorn Ulvaeus who famously said…

“We will never appear on stage again. There is simply no motivation to regroup. Money is not a factor and we would like people to remember us as we were. Young, exuberant, full of energy and ambition.”

To which James responded…. “You see the thing about ABBA is they got other people to do ‘the comeback’ for them”.

Touche!