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Dancing In Limbo
Oct. 14th, 2013 11:08 amTo London yesterday for Kirstyfest 13, in pouring rain. Arrived in Soho Square at around 11.45 to find everyone crammed in under the gazebo taking shelter. Our music maestro John from California was the first I met; chatted with him and the people around till the clock struck noon and we had to venture out into the rain to gather round the bench. There I met Eunice, Claire, Anna and Joanne and shared hugs with all of them.
Organiser Barry addressed the crowd then introduced John by recalling Kirstyfest 1 when we were thrown out of the Moon Under Water "for singing this next song". John then led us in A New England. Terry, who knows the chords to Soho Square, hadn't arrived yet so we sang it unaccompanied. Jean MacColl hadn't been able to travel because of ill health so Kirsty's son Louis said a few words, then we sang Don't Come The Cowboy With Me Sonny Jim before wandering over to the Phoenix Theatre bar.
In the bar it wasn't long before I found Audrey, Kate, Linda and Steve from last year and we sat at a table in the corner, only finding when we'd settled that a pillar blocked our view of the stage. So we spent most of our time standing except when we had lunch (very tasty goat's cheese and walnut salad followed by excellent roast beef).
Early on I reminded Audrey we'd said we'd do a duet this year but she said "I was joking!" so that was that. At the start of the sing-along Audrey asked me to tone down the volume as I was drowning out the guy on the stage who was leading us. An hour or so later, chatting to Eunice, Richard, Terry and Suzie Anne (those two, who divorced 11 years ago, are back together now - I gave them my best wishes and said I hoped they'd re-tie the knot), I told them about Audrey's request, and said to them that for me Kirstyfest was meant to be all of us singing her songs at the tops of our voices, fuelled by generous quantities of guzzling fluid, while our music maestros Terry and John provided guitar backing. Eunice agreed that that had been the spirit of the early Kirstyfests and that was how she thought it should be. Nowadays, though, the feel of the event is more that people do individual turns, and we're all welcome to sing along but not to the point where the featured performer gets swamped.
Like Eunice, I prefer the old way.
Over the day I also met Tiff, Gavin, Ruby the 17-year-old lass who runs Kirsty's fan group on Facebook and several of her lady relatives, and someone I hadn't met before - Pam, a friendly lady from Wigan, who had with her her daughter who she's raised on Kirsty's music. Pam was delighted to hear that, like her, I'll be seeing The Pogues in Manchester in December and we promised to look out for each other.
Lots of people did turns on the mike. A few favourites, like They Don't Know and There's A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis, got two or even three airings, but Karen treated us to a rarity, I'm Going Out With An 80 Year Old Millionaire, and Terry did a great rendition of See That Girl in the style of Billy Bragg!
Louis took the stage, phoned Jean MacColl knowing he'd get her answerphone, and had us all sing a chorus of Cowboy for her.
Terry continued the Bragg theme by leading us in Sexuality - allowable because Kirsty provided significant backing vocals on the record. Around 4.30, with people starting to drift away, Kate said "Hurry up and do Fairytale so I can go". Within a few minutes a couple did get up and lead us in the Christmas classic; happily Kate stayed on a while longer anyway.
I'd booked today as holiday and didn't have anything to get up early for this time, so joined Anna, Claire and a hard core in moving on across the road to a Spoons, though, being fairly merry, with my BP trouble decided not to add to the four pints of Stowford Press I'd had in the Phoenix and stuck to cranberry juice. Joanne tried to recruit people to join her and her daughter Jade for a Chinese, but only I took her up, so the three of us moseyed into Chinatown and found a restaurant with an all you can eat buffet for £6.95. Jo hadn't had lunch so was Hank Marvin and went up for thirds; she urged me to carry on too, but after two platefuls I was absolutely stuffed.
We said our goodbyes and I wended my way to the tube. Standing room only on the train from Euston, but got a seat at Watford Junction. Home to hear the Classic Retro Countdown of this week in 1985 on Atlantic Oldies.
Organiser Barry addressed the crowd then introduced John by recalling Kirstyfest 1 when we were thrown out of the Moon Under Water "for singing this next song". John then led us in A New England. Terry, who knows the chords to Soho Square, hadn't arrived yet so we sang it unaccompanied. Jean MacColl hadn't been able to travel because of ill health so Kirsty's son Louis said a few words, then we sang Don't Come The Cowboy With Me Sonny Jim before wandering over to the Phoenix Theatre bar.
In the bar it wasn't long before I found Audrey, Kate, Linda and Steve from last year and we sat at a table in the corner, only finding when we'd settled that a pillar blocked our view of the stage. So we spent most of our time standing except when we had lunch (very tasty goat's cheese and walnut salad followed by excellent roast beef).
Early on I reminded Audrey we'd said we'd do a duet this year but she said "I was joking!" so that was that. At the start of the sing-along Audrey asked me to tone down the volume as I was drowning out the guy on the stage who was leading us. An hour or so later, chatting to Eunice, Richard, Terry and Suzie Anne (those two, who divorced 11 years ago, are back together now - I gave them my best wishes and said I hoped they'd re-tie the knot), I told them about Audrey's request, and said to them that for me Kirstyfest was meant to be all of us singing her songs at the tops of our voices, fuelled by generous quantities of guzzling fluid, while our music maestros Terry and John provided guitar backing. Eunice agreed that that had been the spirit of the early Kirstyfests and that was how she thought it should be. Nowadays, though, the feel of the event is more that people do individual turns, and we're all welcome to sing along but not to the point where the featured performer gets swamped.
Like Eunice, I prefer the old way.
Over the day I also met Tiff, Gavin, Ruby the 17-year-old lass who runs Kirsty's fan group on Facebook and several of her lady relatives, and someone I hadn't met before - Pam, a friendly lady from Wigan, who had with her her daughter who she's raised on Kirsty's music. Pam was delighted to hear that, like her, I'll be seeing The Pogues in Manchester in December and we promised to look out for each other.
Lots of people did turns on the mike. A few favourites, like They Don't Know and There's A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis, got two or even three airings, but Karen treated us to a rarity, I'm Going Out With An 80 Year Old Millionaire, and Terry did a great rendition of See That Girl in the style of Billy Bragg!
Louis took the stage, phoned Jean MacColl knowing he'd get her answerphone, and had us all sing a chorus of Cowboy for her.
Terry continued the Bragg theme by leading us in Sexuality - allowable because Kirsty provided significant backing vocals on the record. Around 4.30, with people starting to drift away, Kate said "Hurry up and do Fairytale so I can go". Within a few minutes a couple did get up and lead us in the Christmas classic; happily Kate stayed on a while longer anyway.
I'd booked today as holiday and didn't have anything to get up early for this time, so joined Anna, Claire and a hard core in moving on across the road to a Spoons, though, being fairly merry, with my BP trouble decided not to add to the four pints of Stowford Press I'd had in the Phoenix and stuck to cranberry juice. Joanne tried to recruit people to join her and her daughter Jade for a Chinese, but only I took her up, so the three of us moseyed into Chinatown and found a restaurant with an all you can eat buffet for £6.95. Jo hadn't had lunch so was Hank Marvin and went up for thirds; she urged me to carry on too, but after two platefuls I was absolutely stuffed.
We said our goodbyes and I wended my way to the tube. Standing room only on the train from Euston, but got a seat at Watford Junction. Home to hear the Classic Retro Countdown of this week in 1985 on Atlantic Oldies.
