School of hard knocks Some big names in music are playing Live at the Marquee just down the road from here at the moment. The six-peaked, red- and blue-striped big top tent is hard to miss - I'll try and take a photo soon. The wine connection today is that a chap called Brendan called in last week, hoping to fulfil the riders on the performers' contracts. His shopping list began Cristal, Bollinger, Veuve Clicquot... so I had to explain I couldn't help him with those. He said he might be back, though, for some of the requests that didn't specify a brand, or a few fat cigars maybe.

Jay-Z's fatwa, then - I use the term lazily - doesn't seem to have engaged the solidarity of all his fellow musicians yet, but the story's still running in the press: I think I saw some kind of follow-up in one of the weekend papers, though it's pretty much stale buns at this stage.

Now if I could get someone famous to boycott one of our champagnes, we might be on to something.  ¶ Monday, June 26, 2006