As a celebration of Simon's life, it couldn't have gone better. Hundreds of people queued for hours to get in, with most donating more than the minimum £5. The dancing started earlier than usual, and the celebrity guest DJs kicked in at midnight -- Brett Anderson (lead singer of Suede, which they should have mentioned, since name recognition was not high), Brian Molko of Placebo, Siousie Sioux, Kele Okereke of Bloc Party, and more after I left a little after 2am (it was too crowded by that point to dance, and I'd been dancing since 10pm anyway).

One wall of the indie room was taken up by huge blank sheets of card, which were quickly covered with scribbled tributes from everyone there, ranging from grateful to sappy to heartbreakingly sad. Sometime around 1 the staff of Popstarz, Ghetto and Trash Palace gathered on stage and handed out hundreds of free drinks to everyone, and with them high in the air we toasted the wonderful life of the very special Simon Hobart.

It was the right way to do it, and as Tommy said, it was exactly how Simon would have wanted it done: everybody got drunk, everybody had a good time, and it raised a little bit under £10k for charity.