It’s always good when gigs take place right on your doorstep, and I have to say that walking down a short corridor and turning right will take some beating for ease and speed of travel. Having said that, I still missed the early songs from Orange Circle‘s set due to the burger van queue at the entrance. Welcome to The International Paralympic Committee‘s new flagship HQ.

A good dose of ’70s Rock is the perfect medicine for me after a day’s work, and Orange Circle had that covered for sure. ‘Come Together’ was a good title and song to get all the work colleagues in the mood for finally being able to fit in one building (the previous IPC Office was split into a couple of buildings as the Paralympics and Para sport, in general, grew in stature and consequently the staff grew with it. I didn’t catch ‘Faith Healer’. Was that the Alex Harvey classic? I hope so. An unsung hero of mine who died too young.

A good smattering of Pink Floyd to be heard reverberating around the new IPC Auditorium: ‘Have a Cigar’, ‘Wish You Were Here’, Sabbath’s ‘War Pigs’, Uriah Heep’s ‘Lady In Black’, a couple of more mainstream numbers in ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ and ‘Radar Love’ was also good to hear and to encore with. As a Deep Purple fan it was also great to have my new workplace ‘christened’ with “I’ve Been Mistreated!” echoing around the reception desk but, as much as singer Hanna Kleinhaus has her own distinctive style, I rather missed Lothar Prünte’s raw tones, especially on this one (Lothar fronted the band at last year’s wine festival in Bad Godesberg).

Star of the evening? Without a doubt drummer Bart Schell – well, as an IPC employee, he had a ready-made fan-club on-location to cheer every solo. Thanks to Bart, Hanna, Oliver Weiskopf (lead gtr), Ben Schell (rhythm gtr) and Joachim Longbein on bass for testing out the new auditorium’s acoustics. As a child of the 70’s I can’t think of a better way to christen the International Paralympic Committee’s new HQ. Now. Back to work…