The whereabouts of Paul Charles is a mystery from the start. The writer's friends sit around wondering where he can be. Sharon Shannon - sporting white peddle-pushers and matching jacket - has come along with her manager, John Dunford. Altan fiddle player, Ciaran Tourish, saunters in to attend the celebration and joins them. Paul Brady, enjoying a few days off after his tour, comes along too to wish the music promoter turned author all the best.
Where is the man from Magherafelt? He is late for his own book launch. Could we have the makings of a crime caper on our hands? His book, a thriller entitled, The Ballad of Sean and Wilko, is about to be launched in the HQ Hall of Fame. It's his fourth but some of us wonder if it could also be his last. Has he been abducted by . . . aliens. It does happen, you know. The cry goes out - has anyone got his mobile number?
"He's a man who's full of surprises," says Brady about the Co Derry man who acts as his agent in the UK. "He's a shrewd businessman," adds Tourish. Hmmm. The plot thickens.
But then . . . well, of course he hasn't been murdered or kidnapped. He arrives 40 minutes late. Sighs of relief all around. Was he mugged? "No, traffic," says Charles in a calm voice. And finally the show can get on the road.