Sunday, June 15, 2008

Rockabillies on bicycles


I went to Little Alison's party last night in the Star in Tufnell Park. It's a really nice pub- I've played a couple of times where her party was, upstairs. There is a dog there that tries to persuade punters to throw its frisbee for it.
Alison used to be an actress and singer- she did one of those music hall shows at the Edinburgh Fringe I mentioned a few blogettes ago, dressed as Carmen Miranda with fruit in her hair ( She sang in the He-mails and She-mails choir in the Christmas EP too).
Later, she became a seamstress, and now she's a fully-fledged designer and she was wearing a very beautiful pleated black satin dress that she had made for the occasion. She's a rockin' chick and has two sons, tall (Frankie) and small (Johnnie) and her party was full of real characters of all sexual persuasions, all ages, all professions; everywhere you looked there were red lipsticky smiles and cool haircuts!
I didn't stay long because I have not got used to not drinking yet, but I did stay long enough to see and hear the band, the Congo Faith Healers, whose music was much more interesting than just normal rockin' stuff. They have a trumpet player, double bass, drums and two guitars, and there is something very French-sounding, something Louisiana-swamp, about their songs even though the subject matter seems to be trains (alas, I too am guilty of over- trainism), death, love and other rockin' subjects. they are seasoned performers with no attitude whatsoever, which is a very refreshing change- they all tap and jig along to the music, all of the front guys sing, they all wear hats, they smile and they entertain. Perfect for a party on a Saturday night!

As I left, two perfectly dressed and coiffed rockabillies, a girl and a boy, turned up on their bicycles.

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