Vedantha and I were overjoyed, to put it lightly, when we were selected to play at the Lates at the Natural History Museum.

But for some expert cajoling by yours truly, we may never have arrived in time, Vedantha nearly missing the train from Cambridge because he was busy 'philosophising' (read 'daydreaming') in the library.One may say he took 'Lates' a little too literally…

We were then presented with our second obstacle at South Kensington, where our exit was closed and we had to try to climb over some metal railings to get to the museum. After I managed to step on one of the spikes, when subsequently when through my shoe, sock and foot, we decided to go the long way round.

Limping, we arrived at the museum a short time before our set, greeted with the friendliest of welcomes by the staff. Having spotted the crowd of five hundred odd people in the main hall, my heart started beating more blood out of my foot and into my shoe.

Undeterred, we set up camp in the green room (full of specimens in glass cabinets), meeting the lovely Angela Jane Ashby (an Australian vet-come-singer) and more of the lovely museum staff.

Our set was great fun, despite having NO idea what we were playing at any one point - the sound bounced off the ceiling back at us with a big delay, so we had to lip read each other to stay in time.

Charles Darwin, our new backing vocalist, missed all of his entries, partly due to his being made out of marble, but we forgive him. The beautiful evening was made all the sweeter by the fact that it was my dad's first time seeing us as a duo (or trio, if you include Charles), and he took a great photo of us (see our photos section).

The evening, along with the huge scar in my foot, will stay with us forever, as one of the most special shows we've played yet.

Next stop: Science Museum!

Ned

28/02/2013 - August and After play at the Natural History Museum