Sunday at the Leinster: All chips and nonsense really. What had started as a quiet afternoon with Frank, Brian and Col performing the opening stanza for the benefit of Don and meself, turned out to be one of those typically chaotic ballad mangling sessions with the likes of Maria, Deb, and Kay taking it in turns on the tonsils, whilst the rest of us (that is once Keef, Jack, and Jim had joined in) had a quick loop through the Captain Chaos book of songswhatcolknows, some young drummer turned up , turfed the world's 4,578th worst drummer off the skins, tweaked the tempo and entirely disconcerted the string section toasting by the fire. Then a casual passer by got up to sing Summertime as casual passers by occasionally do, only she really could sing.
Frank the indefatigable played Route 66 without resorting to his Melways, Debbie sang One Note Samba so fast it sound like half a note samba, and the evening ended in style, with Maria, Deb, Kay and POCKOTL taking turns round Bye Bye Blackbird. A wonderful song sung with such vigour that by the end of it, there was not a single blackbird left in the Leinster Arms Lounge Bar and Lunatic Soup Kitchen, and not many paying customers either... so we all rolled out into the gathering dusk, reflecting on the fact that some jazz tunes might sound better with a bossa, swing and country feel all emanating from different corners of the pit orchestra, only we don't know which ones.. and nor, given the afternoon's entertainments, which proved many and varied, should we care....
For the benefit of casual readers from somewhere other than Melbourne , Australia, I append some helpful explanatory notes:
The Leinster:: this is a pub styled in the manner of a 1950's recreation of a midland counties 1923 hotel gone to seed.
" Frank the Indefatigable played Route 66 without resorting to his Melways" The Melways is a locally produced book of maps, whereby one can tell exactly where one is lost in Melbourne, which is a sprawling city of some 3 million souls, all of whom wear black.
And Frank got lost, by the way.
POCKOTL: Princess of Cool and Keeper of the List: she who has the e-mail list for the jammers newsletter. Has been known to dance on the tables with an inverted salad bowl on her head, and swearing like a trooper in Greek. Most of this is completely untrue.
