Tuesday’s show goes out live from 10pm for half an hour, and there’s no opportunity for retakes. We were shown in to a holding area with all the essentials: I think we were one of the last to arrive. Ticket holders are told to get there early, at the very rock n roll time of 6.15pm, as not everyone is guaranteed to get in (they over-subscribe in case people drop out) but we got there at 7-ish for an 8pm to 8.30pm start. It feels like an invite to a secret meeting of Slytherin alumni.
![the passenger iggy pop the passenger iggy pop](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/zUD3PBdg58g/maxresdefault.jpg)
The tickets ask you to wear dark clothing presumably so you don’t distract the viewer with your unpleasant Hawaiian shirt, or possibly just to wheedle out any potential Timmy Mallet-style attention seekers. You are ready for Download, and then find out you are actually going to Kew Gardens: Kew The Music, sponsored by John Lewis. Depending on your musical tastes this means over three weeks you could either see the godfather of punk, a couple of rather-full-of-themselves peacocks or someone who may or may not be rather over-fond of olive oil.Įither way, this is a nicely eclectic and varied potential list of headliners, but it is also like being offered a festival ticket without knowing exactly which festival you are going to. If I had been allocated last week, Elton John would have been the highlight. This is because you apply for tickets before you know which bands will be on. The second lottery comes if you are successful (the shows are well oversubscribed). The first is via the BBC website, where you apply for tickets, which are allocated randomly (to apply for tickets to be in the audience for Later… with Jools Holland you can click this link). To get tickets to the event, you take part in two lotteries. With Josh Homme and Iggy Pop across the table, Jools Holland even managed a decent interview… Iggy Pop was a force of nature on Later… with Jools Holland on Tuesday night, and I was fortunate enough to be there in the studio audience to witness Iggy lay waste to the cozy, boogie-woogie-piano-infested waters of Maidstone, Kent – where the show is filmed.
![the passenger iggy pop the passenger iggy pop](https://i1.wp.com/www.sopitas.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/iggy-pop-1-scaled.jpg)
A Queens of the Stone Age packing case backstage at Later with Jools Holland