Due to some top luck, I found myself at the Stax Museum in Memphis on Friday night. It's essentially a re-construction of the original building with a Brit School type music academy attached, and they have periodic evenings when the school band play a concert in the studio (a meticulous replica of the original in the original place).

Friday was one of those nights, and its no exaggeration to say that it was an absolute joy - one of the best I've ever had. It turned out to be a bit of an office reunion with a load of people who worked for the label back in the day pitching up to drink beer & reminise about old times.

So you could find yourself chatting to label head Al Bell, or head of publicity Deanie Parker or a Mad Lad or an Astor or a Bar Kay or someone who used to sell the singles out of the Satelite record shop at the front.

Over there Wayne Jackson from the Memphis Horns, over there Jody Stephens from Big Star in front of Isaac Hayes' Cadillac complete with ankle deep white shag pile carpet. I did try to get Mr Bell to explain why they signed Lena Zavaroni but no luck. Just a lovely, lovely atmosphere...

And then the music started. A dozen or so teenagers, black & white together true to the original Stax ethos, started to play a selection of Stax classics & well, if you've got all those people in a pretty small room and relaxed as hell, well...they're going to get up & sing a bit aren't they?

And they did - Eddie Floyd doing Knock On Wood, William Bell doing You Don't Miss Your Water...it just went on & on. No stage, barely any amplification, casual & throwaway & a bit of fun & deadly serious all at the same time in front of 60 or so old friends & a middle aged white boy who can't dance and constantly on the edge of tears.

But the things that really struck me & stayed with me were the sadder things. William Brown, the in-house engineer, was there in a wheel chair smiling but not really present & only occasionally able to even recognise any of those people he once spent so much time with. The awful news that the Memphis Horns will likely never play together again as Andrew Love, that great bear of a man, has Alzheimers. And the love & the shout outs to the passed, to Otis Redding & Isaac Hayes and all the rest.

Now you can call me an old reactionary, but it did make me think - when the likes of William Brown go, where does all their knowledge go? Who's going to carry it on? Then I got a bit less sentimental and looked at the 16 & 17 year olds glowing with pleasure as they cranked out "I Can't Turn You Loose" and "Shaft" and all the rest and I went outside and gave them some money.

You could do that too: http://shop.staxmuseum.com/browse.cfm/museum-memberships/2,33.html