Playing at senility

George Melly has made some concessions to age. At his annual Christmas gig at Ronnie Scott’s he no longer opens his set with the raunchy number John Chilton wrote for him called ‘Good Time George’ but with Hoagy Carmichael’s classic ‘Old Rockin’ Chair’. That may seem more appropriate now that he has to sit down to sing and suffers from a long list of ailments that entail frequent visits to hospitals and clinics. Yet if this latest volume of autobiography, his fourth to date, is anything to go by, he has lost none of his wit or zest for life. The flesh may be weak but the spirit is more than willing and George still relishes a good time.

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