The crowd, mostly men in their early to mid-thirties, seemed quietly confident, smug even. Complacent? They knew exactly what they were going to receive tonight No nasty surprises here. And, of course, there weren’t.The rock veterans began with their grisly ode to molestation, “Bone Machine”, which is full of their trademark demented lyrics – “Our love is rice and beans and horses’ lard”. Then rat-a-tat-tat-style, the Pixies cascaded through their material at a scorching pace. They don’t take breaks, apart from 12-year ones, of course (boom boom). We are then bombarded by some less well-known tracks, “Dead”, “Alec Eiffel” and “Crackity Jones”, delivered in blistering succession.It quickly became clear, however, that neither Black, who, from a distance, bears an uncanny resemblance to Michael Chiklis’s demented cop on The Shield, nor the iconic Deal (who is woefully underused tonight – particularly her delicious vocals) was going to engage with the audience.

Still cashing in (and why not?) on their back-catalogue of classics from their most heady period, 1987 and 1993.
Tonight they’re at Ally Pally. The palace is an unusual venue for a rock band (it feels like you’re in an aircraft hangar), and the acoustics are rather unforgiving. A year on from the massive hype, they are still around, however, still churning out the same material, in pretty much the same order. The gushing wave of critical enthusiasm is gradually dying down since this apparently unreformable band (relations between Black and Deal turned notoriously sour, and in the end Black was rumoured to have informed the band by fax that they were splitting up) reformed and played the Brixton Academy to hysterically favourable reviews last year. I must have soaked up and wallowed in the unadulterated nostalgia. I must have bowed down before this celebrated Boston quartet – the singer Francis Black (born Charles Thompson), the bassist Kim Deal, the guitarist Joey Santiago and the drummer David Lovering Except it didn’t quite work out that way.

“Outside there’s a box car waiting/ outside the family stew/ out by the fire breathing/ outside we wait ’til face turns blue.” These words of agreeable drivel, from arguably the Pixies’ most accessible song, “Here Comes Your Man”, swirled around my head all night, in my sleep So, I must have had a decent time. When she lost weight immediately after giving birth to her first son Brooklyn, Mrs Beckham said it was her natural metabolism, but with her third birth she admitted following a strict diet.Elizabeth Hurley lost 4st in the six months after the birth of her son Damian, reportedly by living on one meal a day.Anna Friel, the actress, promised the producers of her next film that she would do nude scenes within three months of having her baby.The trend has led to a quarter of new mothers wanting to lose their excess weight within six weeks of giving birth, according to an ICM poll.Gillian Fletcher, a former president of the National Childbirth Trust, said: “New mothers are already under huge pressure with all the changes that having a baby brings, and I think it is sad that women feel they have to lose weight so quickly.”. A third said that celebrities influenced how they thought they should look.Despite this, more than half of the women thought celebrity mothers who lost weight rapidly after giving birth were setting an irresponsible example.Mrs Beckham disappeared from the public eye after having her third son, Cruz, earlier this year but reappeared five weeks later – and 2st lighter. But they also blamed their partners for putting pressure on them.
A survey of 1,000 women found that 47 per cent felt pressured into “having it all”, even when pregnant, by maintaining their career, looks and social lives.Eight out of 10 said it was important to keep their looks and figure while carrying a baby, and 46 per cent admitted to worrying about weight gain in pregnancy.More than half – 57 per cent – felt pressure from their partners to look good. Women blamed celebrity mothers such as Victoria Beckham, Elizabeth Hurley and Anna Friel for setting an unhealthy trend for rapid post-baby weight loss.

New mothers say they are under too much pressure to lose weight immediately after having a baby and even to stay slim while pregnant. Vivienne Nathanson, head of science at the BMA, said: “If the Government is aware of the hazards [of passive smoking], how can it defend only a partial ban on smoking in public places – exposing workers to toxic chemicals just because they are unlucky enough to work in pubs and bars not selling food?”The British Heart Foundation said: “Protecting only 60 per cent of pub workers from the dangers of second-hand smoke because they happen to serve burgers with their beer is a senseless proposal that must be stubbed out without delay.”The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has urged the Health Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, to bring in a full ban on smoking in enclosed public places. The RCN said this would save 30 people a day from the fatal effects of passive smoking.. Exemptions would leave many workers at most risk from the damage caused by second-hand smoke. This research should be the final evidence the Government needs to drop the exemptions.”The British Medical Association accused ministers of double standards for launching a campaign today warning of the dangers of passive smoking.