"We were in Manchester yesterday - enjoying the sounds the city featuring one of those ubiquitous Eastern European accordion & trumpet duos; a young Hungarian accordionist playing a csardas like he was possessed; an African kora player who's a regular around Picadilly these days and a European string quintet playing Pachelbel's famous Kanon und Gigue in D-Dur with studied precision."

I heard the Hungarian chap earlier on this week - he was brilliant. We were in a bit of a rush so didn't have time to stop and listen unfortunately. He was putting so much into his performance I thought he must be knackered after doing that all day.

The Kora player is superb and as you say IB he's often about although sadly not last Tuesday. In the summer you can get a number of good musicians in Piccadilly; last year there were some fantastic African drummers.

By the way, if you're ever in Manchester and fancy partaking of a pleasant benefit of living in a multicultural society, the best Chinese buffet is to be found at Tai Woo's on Oxford Road near The Palace rather than in Chinatown.