25 years ago, Janie and I decided to party like it’s 1999 at the start of 1999. What better to do that than a concert of baroque music at The Wigmore Hall.
These are the pieces we heard/saw:
Cantata “Cessate Omai Cessate”, Antonio Lucio Vivaldi
Sinfonia to Cantata BWV 49, Johann Sebastian Bach
Concerto for Oboe d’Amore BWV 1055 (also transcribed Harpsicord), Johann Sebastian Bach
Cantata BWV 82 “Ich Habe Genug”, Johann Sebastian Bach
Concerto for Viola da Gamba and Recorder in A Minor, Georg Philipp Telemann
Cantata BWV 170 “Vergnugte Ruh”, Johann Sebastian Bach.
Perhaps there was a change of programme or perhaps my notes missed out the Handel by mistake. I’ll check back to the programme when next I can face the thought of an archaeological dig into my programme collection.
Here’s a video of Clare playing a strange and ancient instrument – the nyckelharpa – I don’t believe I have ever seen this instrument played live:
Here is an audio YouTube of Charles Humphries singing one of the Bach arias we heard, vergnugte Ruh, accompanied by Kontrabande:
While here is the Bremer Baroque Orchestra (similar scale to Kontrabande if I remember correctly) playing the very Telemann concerto we heard back then:
I think I have the programme somewhere but this was on my mystery list until I found it in both our diaries while doing one of my “25 years on” trawls.
This was a “birthday treat” for Janie in which I expect i picked up the tab and Pauline, Duchess of Castlebar, graced us with her presence.
Janie’s not much one for opera but we all agreed that Carmen was a good place to really test that hypothesis. I had “done” Carmen as a small child of course – type cast as an urchin boy – another story for another Ogblog.
Anyway…
…this was the Jonathan Miller production at the ENO.
Edward Seckerson in The Independent sort-of liked it:
I think we were fairly indifferent to the production. It certainly wasn’t as good as the Putney Operatic Society’s version 25 years earlier…I wasn’t in it for a start.
Janie had known Laurie & (especially) Dot Johnson for a great many years – the latter being one of Janie’s clients.
Laurie was very well known in show business and media circles, primarily for writing TV theme tunes such as the following, which Janie and I both remembered fondly from our childhoods:
In 1997, it seems that Laurie, in an attempt to stave off dotage, was launching an autumnal recording and touring career with a new combo; Laurie Johnson’s London Big Band.
Dot kindly invited us to the 8 June concert and the star-studded after show party.
We were among the youngest people in the audience that night. Actually, I think our combined ages at that time (75-ish) might still have made us among the youngest people at the show that night.
Janie and I, seated among the guest celebs in that central block of seats deemed the best in the Barbican Hall, enjoyed watching the bobbing heads of the elderly concert-goers in front of us, making micro-movements in recognition of the swinging beat of the music.
Indeed, for years…nay decades after the concert, Janie and I would mimic the uber-syncopation, not least the cymbal beats, of the Big Band’s rendition of the This Is Your Life Theme:
That one seemed to go down especially well with the elderly bobbing-head brigade.
The after show party was very enjoyable. I guess that we technically met a great many celebs: Laurie Johnson, Ron Moody, Jack Parnell, Don Lusher, Kenny Baker, Benny Green and Tommy Whittle were all on the bill…
…as was a lovely young woman named Alexia, who was a singing waitress at a restaurant that Laurie and Dot liked. They had taken Alexia somewhat under their wings and were promoting her through this show/tour.
We didn’t meet John Dankworth & Cleo Laine that evening, much to Dot’s chagrin, as she seemed very keen for Janie to meet them, but for some reason (health we think) they were unable to attend. Nor was Lionel Bart there, possibly for the same sort of reason.
I do however remember chatting at length with Herbert Kretzmer, who was a good friend of the Johnsons and was very interesting company for quite a while at that function. Fellow lyricists and all that – me and Herbie had a great deal in common. 😉
Go on, bob your head gently to the swinging strains of the This Is Your Life theme again – you know you want to:
I made three mixtapes for Michael & Elisabeth Mainelli’s wedding, which were used at the informal party on the Sunday after the formal wedding. I kept track listings (dated 12 May 1996) and can therefore recreate the experience, 25 years later, mostly in embedded YouTube form. Occasionally such embeds get moved, removed or delisted, but you should be able to hear most if not all of them.
Here’s Tape Three, which I called “The Cynical Wedding Tape”. Side A continued the theme of a dance party mix from Tape Two, but all the tracks have an element of cynicism towards romance. Side B was intended to be an “after the main party” cynical selection, which I named “Sit Around & Think About It”.
A couple of the tracks on this tape have not yet found their way to YouTube in a suitable form (e.g. Ben Murphy’s recording of my own lyric, The Ultimate Love Song). I have uploaded MP3s of those tracks, so you can still hear them…if you dare.
Cynical Wedding Tape Side A: Dance Que Pasa / Me No Pop I, Kid Creole & the Coconuts Don’t Leave Me This Way, Thelma Houston Money, Flying Lizards I Heard It Through The Grapevine, Gladys Knight & the Pips Just Don’t Want To Be Lonely, Main Ingredient Why Do Fools Fall In Love?, Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers Thin Line Between Love and Hate, Persuaders I Will Survive, Gloria Gaynor Mistra Know It All, Stevie Wonder She’s Gone, Hall & Oats One Day I’ll Fly Away, Randy Crawford Will You Love Me Tomorrow?, Shirelles
Cynical Wedding Tape Side B: Sit Around & Think About It The First Cut is the Deepest, PP Arnold Falling In Love Again, Temperance Seven Don’t Get Married, Roy Bailey & Leon Rosselson Ever Fallen In Love With Someone…, Buzzcocks Freebird, Lynard Skynard It’s All Over Now Baby Blue, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band I Used To Love Her But It’s All Over Now, Rolling Stones Born To Shop, Guns ‘n’ Charoses Single In Spring, Roy Bailey & Leon Rosselson Breaking Up Is Hard To Do, Neil Sedaka The Ultimate Love Song, Ben Murphy
I made three mixtapes for Michael & Elisabeth Mainelli’s wedding, which were used at the informal party on the Sunday after the formal wedding. I kept track listings (dated 12 May 1996) and can therefore recreate the experience, 25 years later, in embedded YouTube form. Occasionally such embeds get moved, removed or delisted, but you should be able to hear most if not all of them.
Here’s Tape Two, which comprised my idea at that time for a dance party mix with a bit of a 1990s feel to it but mostly rooted in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, which is the era of dance music for which I sensed that most of the guests, like ourselves, could not resist dancing if they heard the right sound.
Frankly, looking at the mix today, 25 years on, I would still happily put this mix on if I wanted to get people dancing. Might need a few leaning props around the dance floor and some stretcher-bearers on standby for people of my generation.
Michael & Elisabeth Wedding Tape 2 Side A: Dance Fast We Are Family, Sister Sledge Twist & Shout, Chaka Demus & Pliers Harvest For The World, Isley Brothers I Feel For You, Chaka Khan Sex Machine, James Brown Love Machine, Miracles Incredible, M-Beat Featuring General Levy I Want You Back, Jackson 5 This Old Heart Of Mine, Isley Brothers Backstabbers, O-Jays Pump Up The Jam, Technotronic Featuring Felly Harlem Shuffle, Bob & Earl Land of 1000 Dances, Wilson Pickett
Michael & Elisabeth Wedding Tape 2 Side B: Dance Varied La Bamba, Los Lobos Stayin’ Alive, N-Trance featuring Ricardo da Force Sexual Healing, Marvin Gaye Now That We’ve Found Love, Third World Proud Mary, Checkmates Ltd Ride On Time, Black Box You Never Can Tell, Chuck Berry I Knew the Bride…, Dave Edmunds Easy, Commodores I Say a Little Prayer, Aretha Franklin Do You Love Me?, Contours 54-56, Toots & the Maytals Shake, Otis Redding If You Don’t Know Me By Now, Harold Melvyn & The Bluenotes
I made three mixtapes for Michael & Elisabeth Mainelli’s wedding, which were used at the informal party on the Sunday after the formal wedding. I kept track listings (dated 12 May 1996) and can therefore recreate the experience 25 years later in embedded YouTube form. Occasionally such embeds get moved, removed or delisted, but you should be able to hear most if not all of them.
Here’s Tape One, which comprised a fair amount from Michael’s own collection of recordings, mixed in with some of mine that I thought would go well with Michael’s own choices.
The other two tapes were more my own ideas.
Michael & Elisabeth Wedding Tape 1 Side A: Soft Rock Moondance, Van Morrison Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes, Paul Simon Eternal Flame, Bangles We Built this City, Starship Lets Stay Together, Tina Turner Modern Love, David Bowie Downtown, Petula Clark Cherish, Kool & the Gang Keep On Loving You, REO Speedwagon Come Monday, Jimmy Buffett Don’t Fear the Reaper, Blue Oyster Cult
Michael & Elisabeth Wedding Tape 1 Side B: Harder Rock American Girl, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers The Kids Are Alright, Who More Than a Feeling, Boston Just What I Needed, Cars Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen Travelling Band, Creedence Clearwater Revival New Speedway Boogie, Grateful Dead Rosana, Toto Because The Night, Patti Smith Group Total Eclipse of the Heart, Bonnie Tyler Stairway To Heaven, Led Zeppelin 99 Red Balloons (irritatingly short excerpt) Nena (singing in English)
As part of The Ultimate Love Song‘s 25th birthday celebrations (born 29 February 1992, so perhaps six-and-a-quarterth birthday…
…and because I find it hard to resist responding to requests (thank you, Andrew Poole)…
…I think I have fiddled around and successfully uploaded an MP3 of Ben Murphy’s rendition of The Ultimate Love Song, which was on Ben’s 1993 cassette album “Cover of the Rolling Stone” along with several other songs of mine. More on that anon…
…here’s The Ultimate Love Song, sung by Ben Murphy.
Myung-Whun Chung Standard 22 Feb 1999, Mon Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
