Sunday, January 22, 2006

And a good time was had by all

Songbird2 was great last night- William Blake poetry sung beautifully, Russian poetry doomily booming across the room, the fantastic harpist Serafina singing and playing (ever heard a harpist sing 'wanker' in a beautiful voice before?).
I was looking for a soloist to do the solo in Diana's song but there wasn't anyone there with an easy instrument. However, Chris from Utrophia turned up- he had been working with a man with MS, bathing him and so on, all week, and he mentioned that he wanted to brush his teeth, and he had his toothbrush with him. Luckily I had some toothpaste with me (don't ask why) so I could provide the missing element for him. Witin minutes, he was up there on stage, doing a toothbrushing solo, which was possibly the most beautiful and poignant toothbrushing solo I've ever heard.
Ah what a night... just then, John Hegley and the Popticians turned up and played a fantastic set, rowdy and shouty and boisterous and lots of audience participation, dancing, jokes about purple plectrums- must be fun to play a gig to a bunch of sharp-witted poets and musicians, lots of witty banter, what a successful night! The best bit was when Serafina joined in on their last song. I think she will play on their next album. And their baritone sax player is xlnt!!!
They used to share Russ Greenwood, the drummer, with us. RIP Russell, I think you would have enjoyed last night.

I left my hat behind. It was a wreath made of twisted stalks of ivy and only just balanced on my head.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Not only did you provide toothpaste, but also a screwdriver. Invaluable when the CD player decided to ingest discs instead of playing them.

It may be a musical cliché, but I don't care. Serafina's harp glissandos were fantastic!