International Festival Of Fine Wine & Food, Olympia, 10 October 1997

The Wine Festival by Albert Anker

OK, it wasn’t all that long ago and Olympia didn’t exactly look like the above picture when we went there for the food & wine fair.

I’m pretty sure Janie and I went more than once to this event, but 1997 might have been the first time.

The Standard gave it a short preview here:

Fine Wine & Food Olympia 10 October 1997Fine Wine & Food Olympia 10 October 1997 08 Oct 1997, Wed Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

So there it is – a classy booze fest.

My then-mate-to-be, Alastair Little, doing the celebrity chef bit. I don’t think we went to that bit – Janie and I didn’t tend to go to the big showpiece parts of such events – we just liked going around, picking up ideas and sampling things..

Who’d have thought back then that I’d end up getting to know Al so well:

A Tragedy Of Epicurean Proportions, Saying Goodbye To Tavola, 25 April 2017

Janie barely remembers the event at all, other than the vague recollection of going to such things a couple of times.

It seems they still do something a bit like it at Olympia twenty-five years later, but in the spring…

…and also the late summer for posh grub.

I’m not sure whether it was this occasion or another visit to one of these fairs, but I recall a very beautiful “English rose” of a young woman marketing Kentish wines, persuading me to try her wares. At that time (or at least this particular wine) was very ordinary wine at an above ordinary price. I have a strong memory of trying to find kind, encouraging and positive words about the wine without seeming interested in actually purchasing the stuff. She smiled sweetly throughout the exchange, so I am quite sure I got away with it.

Trying to find the right words in 1997

Electra by Sophocles, Adapted By Frank McGuinness, Richmond Theatre, 9 October 1997

Blooming heck we were culture-vulturing that autumn. This was our third theatre visit in a week – on a Thursday evening, ahead of going to a food and wine fair the next day.

Worth it though. As I put it in my log:

Electric – excellent production. Worth moving ass on a Thursday for.

Fine cast and crew – captured on Theatricalia here.

Nick Curtis wrote very highly of it in the Standard, reviewing it at Chichester. (We saw it at Richmond, on its way from the West Country to the Donmar.)

Electra Curtis StandardElectra Curtis Standard 23 Sep 1997, Tue Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Whereas Paul Taylor, while rating it, compared it less favourably with the Shaw/Warner version a decade or more earlier:

Electra Taylor IndyElectra Taylor Indy 24 Sep 1997, Wed The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Look, Europe! by Ghazi Rabihavi, Almeida Theatre, Followed By Dinner At Granita, 5 October 2007

This must have been one of our biggest weekends of theatre and dining ever. Following a long night of Caryl Churchill and Nobu on the Saturday…

Blue Heart: Heart’s Desire & Blue Kettle by Caryl Churchill, Royal Court Downstairs At Duke of York’s Theatre, Followed By Dinner At Nobu, 4 October 1997

…we did the “theatre plus big night out dinner” thing again the next night.

Look, Europe! was, I think, a one-off awareness and fundraising evening for anti-censorship campaign Index, done under the auspices of Harold Pinter and primarily aimed and about Iranian censorship.

Fine cast too – joining Harold Pinter were Joseph Bennett, Anna Friel, Rhydian Jones, Andrew Lincoln, Roger Lloyd Pack, David MacCreedy, Nadia Sawalha, Nadim Sawalha, Christopher Simon and Malcolm Tierney.

David Lister wrote the event up brilliantly as a preview in the Independent:

Look Europe Lister IndyLook Europe Lister Indy 03 Oct 1997, Fri The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Janie and I were both very taken by the evening at the theatre, which was good drama and very thought provoking for its cause.

Dinner At Granita

Then a few doors down to Granita in Upper Street, which we had been meaning to try for ages. Apparently the spiritual home of New Labour, as Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are said to have made their leadership pact there a few years before our visit.

Tragically, not only were there no cabinet ministers to be seen in there on that Sunday evening, we didn’t even see Harold, Antonia and Co “after show”, which we thought must be a racing certainty.

We did still have a very good meal, though.

And to prove her superwoman credentials, after that action packed weekend, Janie went off at about 6:30 the next morning to treat her first domiciliary patient of the day. 25 years later – not a chance – we’d probably take the Monday off, if not the Monday and Tuesday!

Blue Heart: Heart’s Desire & Blue Kettle by Caryl Churchill, Royal Court Downstairs At Duke of York’s Theatre, Followed By Dinner At Nobu, 4 October 1997

Our take on this:

Interesting (weird) evening. Programme missing – only insert sheet.

Actually the programme might turn out to be a play text which might turn up somewhere on my bookshelves.

I wouldn’t mind reading these plays again. This was Caryl Churchill in impenetrable mood.

Gabrielle Blunt, Jacqueline Defferary, Karina Fernandez, Bernard Gallagher, Valerie Lilley, Mary Macleod and Jason Watkins, directed by Max Stafford-Clark.

Paul Taylor in The Independent was impressed:

Blue Heart Taylor IndyBlue Heart Taylor Indy 25 Sep 1997, Thu The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Nick Curtis from The Standard reviewed it a few week’s earlier in Edinburgh, also finding it good:

Blue Heart Curtis StandardBlue Heart Curtis Standard 22 Aug 1997, Fri Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

We are all agreed them – weird but good.

Dinner At Nobu

Then on to Old Park Lane Nobu for dinner. That place was the latest “in place to dine” back then, so we were keen to try it. Who’d have thought that, 25 years later, the signature black cod in miso dish would be something we can obtain from our local (Japanese) fishmonger and serve at home?

This was a couple of years before the Old Park Lane Nobu became infamous for Boris Becker’s broom cupboard romp and many years before Boris ended up in jail.

In 1997, Nobu had just opened to rave reviews. Here’s Fay Maschler in The Standard:

Nobu Maschler StandardNobu Maschler Standard 25 Feb 1997, Tue Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Helen Fielding in The Independent also waxed lyrical in amusing fashion about Nobu

Nobu Fielding IndyNobu Fielding Indy 09 Mar 1997, Sun The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

That was a lot of sensory stimulation for one evening – Caryl Churchill followed by Nobu. My guess is that Janie was very keen to try the place but could only get a late evening booking, so it sort of made sense to go after theatre.

To add to the excitement, we did it all again (in terms of theatre followed by dinner out) the very next day:

Look, Europe! by Ghazi Rabihavi, Almeida Theatre, Followed By Dinner At Granita, 5 October 2007

Smoke Gets In Your Isles, NewsRevue Lyric, 29 September 1997

Terrible forest fires in South East Asia is not really a funny subject and slow numbers don’t usually work in NewsRevue, but somehow this one did work and I recall it went down very well in the show.

SMOKE GETS IN YOUR ISLES
(To the Tune of “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes”)

VERSE 1

They asked me if I knew,
Why Sumatra’s stewed;
I of course replied,
Once a forest’s died,
It cannot be deep fried. (oh no).

VERSE 2

In archipelagos,
Each must hold their nose;
Through the forest fires,
Indonesia riles,
Smoke gets in your isles.

MIDDLE EIGHT

Those Malays,
All want to go away,
As none of them can breath now;
In the main,
Don’t take Garuda planes,
Because they cannot fly now.

VERSE 3

Those clouds will drift and go,
To Northern Borneo;
Through the darkened sky,
How that smog will fly,
Smoke gets in Brunei.

VERSE 4

This smog will run amok,
Soon to reach Bangkok;
Thailand, you’ve surmised,
Punchline’s no surprise,
Smoke gets in your Thais.

Below is a video with The Platters singing Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, with the lyrics on the screen:

Midori Chamber Evening, Barbican Hall, 27 September 1997

This might well have been another pair of hand-me-down tickets from one of Janie’s wealthy, music-loving, globe-trotting clients. Or perhaps Jilly at that time. My log is silent on the matter. It doesn’t feel like the sort of thing I’d have booked myself.

No matter – it was a very good concert, in that Midori is/was quite a special talent, who emerged as a child prodigy in the 1980s, then withdrew from public performance in the mid 1990s and since then occasionally reappeared. This was during one of her reappearance phases.

It was good to see her perform chamber style rather than with a big orchestra, although most of her concerts on that tour, by the looks of it, were big concerto stuff. In truth the Barbican Hall is not ideal for smaller scale works, but still it worked.

We heard:

  • Claude Debussy – Sonata in G Minor for Violin and Piano
  • Maurice Ravel – Sonata for Violin and Cello
  • Camille Saint-Saens – Fantaisie for Violin and Harp in A Major, Op 124
  • Gabriel Faure – Quartet for Piano, Violin, Viola and Cello No 1 in C Minor, Op 15

I remember especially enjoying the violin & harp piece. Very charming. Here are some other people performing that Saint-Saens work.

Monserrat, NewsRevue Lyric, 23 September 1997

I remember that this one was used and I remember that it amused several of the regular NewsRevue writers (as well as, hopefully, the audience). It’s an “aftermath of volcano eruption” story, basically.

MONSERRAT
(To the Tune of “Monster Mash”)

 

VERSE 1

I was walking down the street in a Leeward Isle,
When I saw a huge eruption in New Labour’s style;
Something hot was smouldering in southern ports,
Robin Cook was rowing with his muse, Claire Short.

CHORUS 1

She is a bat,
(Down in Monserrat);
In Monserrat,
(It’s a New Labour spat),
In Monserrat,
(Down in Monserrat)
In Monserrat
(It was in Monserrat)

VERSE 2

Ancient rocks descended on the Albert Hall,
Elton, Sting, Phil Collins, Ringo, George and Paul;
Many paid a hundred, others paid yet more,
Tho’ no-one left on Monserrat is faintly poor.

CHORUS 2

They passed the hat,
(Round for Monserrat);
For Monserrat,
(Now that the ground’s less flat);
Volcano’s shat,
(All over Monserrat),
It’s Monserrat,
(Oh Fuck Monserrat!!)

 

Below is a video of Bobby “Boris” Pickett singing The Monster Mash:

Click here for the lyrics to The Monster Mash.

Submission To Mark Brailsford Re NewsRevue, 23 September 1997

Mark Brailsford
News Revue
23 September 1997
By Fax

Dear Mark

Welcome back!! Sorry it has taken me so long to submit, but inspiration comes when it comes. I sent you my archive last time, which was not so long ago; I therefore attach only my latest songs.

If you want any older ones rewritten let me know. Also, if you need recordings of any of these, please call and leave a message today – I could drop them crack of dawn tomorrow if you need them.

Good luck and I look forward to seeing you soon.

Ian

The following songs are attached

Song Title
Original Title/
Artist Approx.. No. of weeks performed
7+ 4-6 1-3 New
bruce grobbelar’s hat young, gifted and black / bob & marcia N
monserrat monster mash / bruce “boris” pickett N

Bruce Grobbelaar’s Hat, NewsRevue Lyric, 23 September 1997

Let’s be honest about this – corruption in football and/or complex legal cases involving footballers is not really my sort of story. I didn’t even know how to spell Bruce Grobbelaar‘s name, nor which team(s) he played for, until I looked it all up just now (May 2019).

No, I must have been persuaded to write this lyric during a NewsRevue writers meeting, by concocting the opening line there and then. 

What little evidence I have suggests that this lyric was never used. The specific cases against Bruce Grobbelaar remain somewhat moot, apparently, while the general public opinion charge of dishonesty stuck.

BRUCE GROBBELAR’S HAT
(To the Tune of “Young, Gifted and Black”)

 

VERSE 1

Bruce Grobbelar’s hat,
Oh what a con pulled off by him;
Inside Bruce Grobbelar’s hat,
It’s filled with dung up to the rim;
If you’re digging real low,
There is one bet you should know;
Under Bruce Grobbelar’s hat,
Is a fat cat.

VERSE 2

Bruce Grobbelar’s hat,
That’s what they mean by a hat trick;
Talking Bruce Grobbelar’s hat,
It has more beaver than his chick;
When it’s hiding his bung,
There’s a stink like cows’ dung;
But in Bruce Grobbelar’s hat,
You’ve such a pratt’.

Below is Young Gifted And Black, performed by Bob & Marcia, with lyrics on the screen:

An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen, Olivier Theatre, 20 September 1997

Very good.

That was my vote…or should I say our vote?…on this excellent production of this oft-revived play.

I had seen it “back in the day” with Bobbie and Ashley Michaels…:

Went To See An Enemy Of The People by Henrik Ibsen (Arthur Miller Adaptation), With Bobbie & Ashley, Young Vic, 9 November 1988

The National production in 1997 was more “classic” Christopher Hampton adaptation with an exceptional cast including Sir Ian, Penny Downie, Stephen Moore, Lucy Whybrow and many others, directed by Trevor Nunn. The Theatricalia entry lists them all.

Nicholas de Jongh seemed quite taken with it…just “quite”:

Enemy de Jongh StandardEnemy de Jongh Standard 22 Sep 1997, Mon Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Our friend Michael Billington found it a bit too “classic” for his taste:

Enemy Billington GuardianEnemy Billington Guardian 22 Sep 1997, Mon The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Charles Spencer, like the others, made much of the fact that this was Trevor Nunn’s inaugural piece for the RNT. While not damning it, he does use the word “flash”:

Enemy Spencer TelegraphEnemy Spencer Telegraph 22 Sep 1997, Mon The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com