…was just such a dash – to Annalisa de Mercur’s party.
I hope it was a good one. They usually were.
This one was on a Sunday, so I’m guessing it was lunch/afternoon into early evening that time.
Quite possibly it went on quite deep into the evening.
Janie’s diary suggests that we arrived back at heathrow at 11.05, so I suppose that did enable us to dump our luggage, wash and dash into Marylebone (probably via my place) to the party by early/mid afternoon.
There will have been bagels.
Annalisa usually served lots of mini bagels.
There will have been lots of people too – many of them former Keele folk.
This was probably the first time that Janie met many of the people there; Kate Fricker (probably) and Annie Bickerstaff (almost certainly). Were John and Mandy there on that occasion?
Postscript: John has chimed in by message witha confession that he and Mandy were there. But no additional information was forthcoming.
Times change. These days (he says writing in late 2019) Up The Creek Comedy Club is located in trendy Greenwich and is perceived as a happening place on the comedy scene.
Mark Ahsmann [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]
So what in the name of common sense were Janie, me, Annalisa and Gerry Goddin doing going to that place on a Saturday night?
We went to see the west-country comedian Ben Murphy perform. Ben had recently engaged with some of us Newsrevue writers and had especially taken a shine to some of my lyrics, which he was proposing to try out at Up The Creek that night.
Here is a link to my first letter to Ben – only a week or so before the Up The Creek visit – a very business like and quite counter-cultural letter viz the Ben I subsequently got to know rather well. Perhaps that is why I tended to get paid by Ben, whereas some less commercially-minded writers are (I believe) still waiting for their royalty cheques.
Menawhile, back in November 1992, Janie and I actually moved an appointment to eat with Janie’s mum, plus twin-sister Phillipa and niece Charlotte, which was due to happen that evening. If my memory serves me correctly, we all went for a Chinese meal at North China on the Uxbridge Road at lunchtime the next day instead. I think that was the first time I met those three.
So, if I now point out that seeing my material, in the hands of Ben Murphy, doing battle with that seriously-arsy Deptford comedy crowd, was a far LESS daunting prospect than the thought of meeting Janie’s mum…
…but then you wouldn’t have tried mother-in-law/my girlfriend’s mother jokes at Up The Creek in 1992; that would not have ended well.
I do recall warning both Janie and Annalisa that it would be seriously risky for us to “take on the audience” if they turned against Ben. In those days, even Gerry Goddin was able to quell his instincts to chirp back in such circumstances, but I wasn’t so sure about the girls.
In the event, Ben went down pretty well at Up The Creek and we all survived the experience. Some acts that night were less fortunate than Ben…
…but then most of those acts were less naturally talented and less able to control an audience than Ben Murphy.
I have managed to find a video of Ben Murphy performing live, many years later, in less edgy circumstances – on that south-west coast circuit that he made his own for a long time:
I remember that Janie insisted on driving to Up The Creek and that we dropped Annalisa and Gerry home, as both of them, in those days, lived conveniently en route or near to Janie’s place.
I had for some time wanted to invite for dinner the folks who had helped put my back together again after my disc catastrophe in 1990. The advent of Janie (we were some three months in to our relationship by then), Janet Hill’s announcement that she and Mary were planning to return to Perth (Western Australia) and a convenient date when Janie was in any case going to be in town nearby come Friday dinner time, proved to be suitable triggers.
The back knack team, as in: “those who dined that evening with me and Janie”, were:
Michael Durtnall – chiropractor extraordinaire;
Claire Durtnall – Michael’s charming and lovely wife;
Janet Hill – the first rate masseuse Michael suggested to me and with whom I had been working for a couple of years (more on that anon);
Mary – Janet’s partner.
I took the day off work (I had bags of accumulated holiday some of which was reaching “use it or lose it proportions”) and probably cooked up a storm of Chinese food.
We didn’t take food porn photos in those days – we only rarely took “here we all are around the table” photos…
…so here is someone else’s food porn photo of wontons that look decidedly like my ones.
I think I probably did the “whole fish” thing and perhaps chicken with cashew nuts or similar. Possibly I did the cha chiang lettuce wrap dish too – I tended to do mine with minced veal or a mixture of pork and veal.
Stuff like that, it would have been.
Janie and I both remember a very convivial evening…
…as does Michael Durtnall, although he did admit that he couldn’t remember Janet and Mary being at my flat that evening.
Let’s see if we can track down Janet and retrieve her memories of the evening. She’ll probably also remember the very first time she massaged me (indeed the very first time I had been massaged) and her surprise, after my unhelpful reaction to just about everything she did, when I made a second appoitnment. I still have regular theraputic massage, Janet; thanks for taking the trouble to “break me in”.
The diaries are light on detail, but I believe I was in Bristol on business Thursday/Friday and Janie spotted an opportunity to combine my presence in Bristol with a family visit.
Janie’s diary shows her only taking morning clients on the Friday and arrangements for taking the train to Bristol that afternoon.
Mine just shows the Thursday and Friday marked out “Bristol” and loads of scribbles about confectionary for some reason – something to do with someone wanting confectionary puns I think – plus “Jane” for the Saturday.
If I recall correctly, I was staying in The Royal, aka The Swallow Hotel on College Green. We might have stayed at Hilary & Chris’s place in their spare room on their Z-bed that time on the Friday night – I think we did that a couple of times before agreeing that we could afford our own privacy when we stayed.
Anyway, this was the first time I met the Boswell branch of Janie’s family; Hilary (big sis), Chris (husband) and kids Paul & Scott. The boys were still little-uns back then.
I think we came back on the Saturday evening and stayed at Sandall Close ahead of DJ’s birthday bash Sunday lunchtime at the Kensington Royal Garden Hotel. Not a huge crowd that time but I know that Kim, Micky, Clifford, Gary and Gary’s dad Harold Davison were there – this was the first time I met Harold and I wrote to him a week or so later.
We returned to that hotel for Sunday lunches several times – they did rather appealing themed Sunday lunches that worked well for groups. A sort of buffet dining that Janie and I have rather comprehensively rejected since, but at that time it wroekd well for that sort of gathering. Large tables, well spaced out and something for everyone…even Kim…on the menu!
My diary shows me playing bridge with Daniel & Marianne on the Friday evening (probably also with Andrea).
Then it shows spending the day on Saturday with Michael Mainelli writing “Zen Things You Wanted To Know About Business”…which was the working title of the subsequent hit book Clean Business Cuisine...
…what do you mean, haven’t read it?
It’s as topical now as it was when it was written…
Anyway, it looks as though Janie worked all day on the Saturday and there is no sign in the diaries of us seeing each other on the Sunday. There are some electronic signs of me working on my canon of NewsRevue material ahead of the Christmas run, that Sunday.
Victor was Kim’s dad who, after being widowed, had remarried, confusingly a woman named Kim. Janie used to refer to Victor’s Kim as:
Kim The Chickidoo
…to distinguish her from “our” Kim.
Not much memory remains of that particular evening. I’m sure Janie will have cooked a super meal and I’m sure that, by then, Janie and I took it for granted that I’d stay.
Janie’s diary says that she went to an SAC (chiropody committee) meeting on the Sunday afternoon. I recall that she was quite frustrated with committee stuff when we first met and that her “being on the committee” days didn’t last long into our relationship.
Nor did Janie’s midweek French lessons, not that they were getting in the wway of anything we wanted to do together…I think Janie felt she wasn’t getting much out of them.
I have more than a sneaking suspicion that Janie, Kim & Micky turned up with a view to surprising me that evening. I’m pretty sure I’d have written more in the diary otherwise. I also do not recall missing out on the writers’ meeting to be with those three, although I do recall us sitting together to watch the show.
The running order from that week is missing, presumed dead, sadly.
But I do, strangely, have the running order and writers’ list from the following week:
I say “strangely” because I wasn’t at the Canal Cafe the following week (Janie and I were in Stratford), nor indeed for the next few weeks, with a mixture of work and Janie commitments. But some kind person saved the running order and writers’ sheet for me.
Why?
Because that late October to early December 1992 run was “peak Harris” in the material use department. Eight of my songs on one show. Too many, frankly.
Whose handwriting is that renaming the show after me?
When Janie, Kim & Micky came to the show, I think there were probably only three or four of mine in the show. I say “only”, I considered three or four pieces to be a good return. I’m guessing:
I especially remember Kim latching on to the Kate Adie one – she still (27 years later) teases me with the opening line of it sometimes.
The irony of the following run, which was “peak Harris” material-wise and also “peak Harris” other commitments-wise is not wasted on me. Looking through my diary, I could only have got to see that run once, in late November, hot-footing it from a works team evening in the City, probably just to see the show.
The Director was Michael Eriera who was clearly not offended by my absence, as he and his team used a lot of my material the next time he directed, in mid 1993. I was a better attendee thee next time around for Michael.
But the $64M questions are:
who was the kind person who saved the 29/30 October 1992 papers for me in my absence?
who was the mischievous person who renamed the show on the writers’ sheet?
My diary is a bit of a confusion for that evening – indeed all that it reads is “Madness”…
…which I’m sure means “The Madness of George III”. But my theatre log is very clear that 17 October was this particular evening with John and Mandy and my diary also shows that “George III” reigned on 30 September for me:
What I think happened was that Bobbie, once again, could not make the planned theatre visit to see Madness of George III on 17 October, but was very keen to see that play. I vaguely recall Bobbie arranging a ticket swap with friends so that she/we could see “Madness” midweek a couple of weeks earlier and her friends got the prized Saturday night tickets that I had procured.
That freed up the evening of 17 October for Janie to meet John and Mandy and for all of us to see Death And The Maiden, which was still one of the hottest tickets in town that year, even though Juliet Stevenson (who had wowed audiences as the lead) had moved on.
Penny Downie played the lead in the cast we saw, which, as super subs go, is pretty darned super. Danny Webb and Hugh Ross played the male parts.
Janie and I are struggling to remember what other arrangements we made with John and Mandy around this evening. I think we might have had Chinese food in Soho with them before or after the theatre. Perhaps Mayflower? Or Joy King Lau in those days?
I also realise that my diaries at that time are littered with clues that John and Mandy must have recently moved house around that time:
Guessing that John and Mandy moved to Dangan Road that August, hence the address and phone number scrawled on 12 August……did I really escape the carnival 30 August to join John and Mandy in the George at Wanstead 30 August? Guessing that “birthday thing” 28 August would have been with my parents, but I’m not entirely sure about events of that weekend other than the 29 August hot date with Janie.
Anyway, on the day I am writing this up (29 August 2017), we shall be seeing John and Mandy later in the day, so I’ll pick their brains on these matters this evening and update this piece accordingly.
The play is set in an unspecified nation emerging into democracy from brutal dictatorship. Ariel Dorfman was a Chilean exile during the Pinochet years and the brutal regime is clearly based on that one. It is one of those hugely affecting plays about torture and the abuse of power. It brings to mind also One For The Road by Harold Pinter and Fermin Cabal’s Tejas Verdes.
I’m sure we did something after the play – perhaps we did eat afterwards. For sure we’d have needed a drink. For sure we found a way to discuss and decompress together for a while.
I remember being very pleased that John, Mandy and Janie all seemed to get along so well; in that regard alone the evening was a tremendous success (to use John’s favourite adjective). But it was also an excellent evening of theatre and I’m sure we must have eaten and drunk well…if only Janie and I could remember those details too.
Postscript: A strange coda to this story. Both Janie’s and my diairy say “The Madras House” for this evening, not “Death And The Maiden”. But my log says Death And The Maiden and I have no recollection of going to the Lyric with John and Mandy to see The Madras House – Janie and I saw that play at The Orange Tree many years later. Did we make a late switch of play choice or have the memories and documentary records got into a terrible muddle? I think probably the former.
Another of those early dates when the weekends were someowhat otherwise committed but Janie and I ended up doing somthing together.
My diary says “Annalisa?”for the Friday evening. Janie’s says Questor’s Theatre (with her mum) on the Saturday.
But we both went to Cathy’s party on the Sunday. I’m pretty sure this is Cathy Dyson’s party. I’m pretty sure we’re taking Stoke Newington and I’m pretty sure Cathy and Bruce Martin were an item by then.
The details of the events of the party are lost in the mists of time…
Not too sure what we got up to this day. In the early days of our relatioship, we had other commitments already pre-arranged. This particular weekend, Janie had her twin Phillie for the weekend, but was expecting to be clear for lunch at Kim’s on the Sunday.
I saw Caroline on the Saturday evening – almost certainly a dinner in a quite fancy but not OTT place) and had another of those “Bridge?” things in my diary for the Sunday. I’m pretty sure that means it fell through.
I have also written:
…not Kim…2.00…Jane
…so I’m guessing the Kim lunch idea fell through and that this was one of the first occasions that Janie and I had a late lunch and spent the latter part of a Sunday together.
