I saw the New York Dolls play the Royal Festival Hall in 2004 as part of Morrissey's Meltdown. It was the first show the Dolls had played since splitting up in the late seventies, and a show that, not even in my wildest dreams, I ever expected to see. Although I absoloutley couldn't pass up my one chance to see a band that were almost mythical to me, I was also scared that the myth would be ruined by the reality. I was slightly sceptical about how a band who in their time, had been the essence of wild, arrogant youth, would come across 30 years after the event.But they were great - they were so good that I can't even be more specific than that - I was so caught up in the excitement and power of what they were doing that there's no way now I could give you a blow by blow account of how the guitars sounded or what was happening with the drums. It was an experience, an event, all of us standing there watching a band we never though we'd see, who never thought they'd play together again.  It was like, just for one evening, we'd all cheated time.  Looking back on it, the fact that Arthur Kane died a couple of months later makes the whole thing quite poignant and moving.  I feel incredibly priviliged to have been there that evening.