People’s Palace, Royal Festival Hall, Preceded By Eyes Lies & Illusions At Hayward Gallery, 10 December 2004

This was a super event; both the restaurant and the preceding gallery visit. Click here to see, on The Internet Archive, the book that accompanied the fascinating Eyes Lies & Illusions exhibition.

The People’s Palace wasn’t quite a private room, it was more a cordoned-off area, which i think detracted a little from that “private party, let your hair down” atmosphere we tended to aim for.

Not that it stopped people from enjoying themselves. It was a very popular event that year.

I think Michael provided the song that year – it’s hard to tell with his as I don’t have them date and time stamped, nor copyrighted with a specific year.

TOIL AND PLAY

(Sung to the tune of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”)

God rest ye Z/Yen par-tic-i-pants,

There’s no point in dismay

Remember Christmas parties

All end in disarray

Don’t save yourself from whiskey’s pow’r

You might as well a’stray

O tidings of bromo and fizz

Bromo and fizz

O tidings of bromo and fizz

From year to year we reappear

And wonder all the same

How business so chaotic

With such an awful name

Can still inspire Nippon songs

And ever-woeful games

O tidings of toil and play

Toil and play

O tidings of toil and play

But when to Ze-e-Yen they came

Where their dear project lay

And found us all hung-over

But still prepared to pay

We found our invoice quick and fast

And saved ’em from May-Day

O tidings of toil and pay

Toil and pay

O tidings of toil and pay