Douglas Adams: The Party, Hammersmith Apollo, review Douglas Adams, the renowned author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, died of a heart attack in 2001 while exercising near his California home. On Sunday - what would have been his 60th birthday - luminaries from the worlds he frequented - science fiction, comedy, charitable environmentalism and music - converged on Hammersmith Apollo to reminisce with waggish affection, to sing his praises and even to sing. So we had his old pal David Gilmour crooning Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here and another mucker, Gary Brooker, from Procol Harum, giving us a blissful rendition of A Whiter Shade of Pale, with full backing. Hard not to picture Adams tapping his feet "up there," as guests suggested, despite his pronounced atheism and the fact that when this 6ft 5in giant tapped his feet, as Brooker recalled, it made a huge din - if not quite like a stampede of rhinos, on whose endangered behalf this gig was raising survival funds. For the most part, the three-hour celebration mourned Adams's absence but didn't let it dominate. What was glaring by its omission, though, was any sense of the masterwork that made his name. We had flourishes of the Hitchhiker theme tune, but for every contribution from Stephen Fry, host Clive Anderson or associate John Lloyd, there was nothing by way of Adam's laser-like prose. Jon Culshaw did some funny impressions of sciencey people, Python Terry Jones recalled a near-disastrous lift home in Adams's van, and even Sanjeev Bhaskar was on hand to reveal that The Kumars at No 42 was named in homage to the number at the heart of the Hitchhiker's Guide. Yet where was the thing itself? Diehard fans would have enjoyed the inclusion of some of his old skits. But they will only have their prayers answered when cast members from the original radio series hit the road to tour from June. Tour details: www.hitchhikers live.com