All My Lurvin'

Kristy warms up on The Old Town Road with Ross; on her own for her entry.
It was with mixed feelings I received the news that we wouldn't be able to hold a Night of Lurve this year. Matt and Tina's plans for the pub meant that the pub would be closed until the middle of February. The good news was that the performance area was going to move, away from in front of the fire and bar, to the end of what is now the games area; a vast improvement for performers and audience alike. I put the word out and thought about what we might do instead. Then, out of the blue, following a phone call from Matt, it was back on. A delay in starting work meant that Friday the 7th of February, the first Friday in February and our first event of 2020 could go ahead after all.

   Mike and John recreate the spirit of 2019
A little bit of lurgy, and the late notice that the event was back on, meant that performer numbers were a bit down on previous years, but the atmosphere was as warm as ever.

To prevent any advantage being given in the playing order the names of performers were drawn from a cardboard box by various audience members.

      Mike and Dave made 'Bread'                
The first name pulled out  of the hat was Kristy. For her warm up song she was accompanied by Ross on cajon. Together they sang 'Old Town Road' by Lil Nas X & Billy Ray Cyrus. She was on her own for her performance piece, Elvis Presley's 'Love Me Tender', a song which lends itself very nicely to the ukulele.

Dangerous Derrick 
Mike and John were second up, repeating their 2019 entry, warming up with 'Hey There Delilah' by The Plain White Tees and McFly's 'Love Is Easy' as their entry song. It was well delivered, but didn't recapture the wow factor of its first airing.

A fluke of the hat meant that Mike stayed on stage, swapping John for Dave on guitar with a second entry. There's nothing in the rules to say you can't. Mike and Dave's warm up was Ed Sheeran's 'Thinking Out Loud' and their competition entry was Bread's 'I Wanna Make It With You'. It appeared that Mike's double entry might have counted against him as his vote was split across both songs.

                                 Steve and James are digging it                        
Reluctant entry Dangerous Derrick Meyer was on fine form with his warm up, ToTo's 'I Won't Hold You Back'. His entry was a medley of The Beatles 'Twist and Shout and Richie Valens' 'La Bamba'; a great joining in combination.

An unexpected delight was Steve and James from The Tunnelers, a very local band, who had only called in for a quiet drink. A guitar, bass and cajon were rustled up, and they treated us to a couple of unknown songs. The first, Quotes Laid Bare, then their competition entry, a recently self penned song, the title escaped me, but sounded like 'Living The Life of a King.

not MDFing it up as usual MDF were in the points.
An almost full line-up of MDF were next up; just TCB missing this time. In previous years MDF have performed a bit like Britain's entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 'Nul Point', but made the score board for the first time last year. They did it again this year with Warm up song 'Bad Things' by Jace Everitt and last year's warm up song as entry, The Cure's 'Friday I'm In Love'.

Pete and Marian unchained
The seventh and final act of the evening was Pete and Marion, regular Collective supporters and hosts of an acoustic music night at The Bull, Clifton. Their warm-up song was Dolly Parton's 'Here You Come Again'. This was followed by The Righteous Brothers 'Unchained Melody' as their entry song. It's a difficult song with a wide vocal range and Marion received a fair bit of assistance from the audience whether she wanted it or not.

While Shirley counted up the entries and did the hard sums, Roger Greasby of Born In A Barn Studio and Danny Ansell & Co band accompanied me on Ross' new cajon with a few songs, Bruce Springsteen's 'Ghost Of Tom Joad', 'Not Fade Away', by The Rolling Stones and my own song Caffeine  & Nicotine that Roger recorded for me the previous summer.



Of the 30 voting slips returned, worth 90 points in all, Dangerous Derrick, was runner up,  scoring 15 points.

The winners, in joint first place, with 18 points each were, new to the Collective, new to public performance, and new to the ukulele, Kristy, and Steve from The Tunnelers.

All that was left to do, was award the prizes and ask the winners to sing again. What I wasn't expecting was a combined performance with Steve and Kristy. They were joined by Ross on cajon, singing a Bob Dylan and Gabrielle medley. A perfect end to a very enjoyable start to 2020.


Thank you to all of the performers, audience members and to Matt and Tina for hosting us. 2020 has officially started and Shirley and I are looking forward to another great year of Collective music.
The next Open Music Night is Friday 6th March.

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