All Fools Together

All Fools Together

As Shirley and I are making our way slowly down The Thames to London over the next month I'm going to miss this month's Folk at The Oak and Gordon's gathering at The Victory Club, Napton there will only be a George at Kilsby part to the blog for April. There was a great crowd present for the All Fool's Evening at Kilsby, both audience and plenty of performers. Most performers provided some mirth with a joke or two, and there was only one that probably should have been left until later in the evening when the youngsters had been taken home. Top joker Steve had a repartee to shame Bob Monkhouse, there was no stopping him.

I got a surrogate comedian to tell a joke on my behalf, and she did a great job. My learning lesson, if your stand-in does a rhetorical joke, get in quick with the response rather than leave them at the mercy of the audience.

I opened with Simple Life and then was joined by Ross on Cajon to accompany me on Hole. Tony Wilding was in the audience and he has provided this link to Sound Cloud. Tony's Sound Cloud

My song is first, followed by some people who really can sing and play.

Tony caused a blush with his delightful and humorous

'Don't look good naked any more'. No one argued, and we were all relieved when he started his second song without proving his point. His second offering was a more somber one about Alice White. I'm still trying not to think about him naked.

Ken and Roland, performing as No Strings Attached have been developing their repertoire of thee part medleys, they did lose their way a bit in the middle, but I wish I could play half as badly. Their second piece was a flawless Steamboat Quck Step.

Steve was in the zone, as they say, again tonight giving us a couple of very soulful songs, North Country Fair and Mad World; both beautifully paced.

Paddy was, as hoped for, on top form for a humourous evening. His opening joke was so well set up, I was worried about the seriousness of the content given the presence of so many children and the violence being described, and then the punch line became apparent.

Donald has his mouth closed for a change.

Paddy has an enviable reputation as a comic song writer and performer, and he was on fire tonight with his songs, 'If It Wasn't For The Houses Inbetween', about property development around Crick, and then his sublime topical evaluation of the American election candidate Donald The Demagogue.

Next came Paul, and that joke. I didn't catch the title of his second song, but his first was a lovely, jazzy, Fly Me To The Moon.

Torgul, Sandi and Sue were firmly in the sixties this evening with Beatles, Things we said today, Da Do Ron Ron.

MDF were very light tonight without Mike,

Dave, John or Brian. Thank goodness Mark was on hand to play electric guitar and accordion. First turn at the mic was Tracey with I've got a girl crush

Then Ross Joe Jackson's 'Fools in Love'. It's the first time I've heard MDF do this song, and it suited Ross and the band a treat. I look forward to hearing it again before next April Fool's celebration.

To take us into the break, Judy found a delightful parody of the ancient mariner about Status Quo.

As Tony was setting up during the interval it made sense for him to open. We understood why hs camel joke was held over to the second half. Suzanne Vega's song 'The Queen and The Soldier' and 'The Rose'.

I was on a sugar rush, with Ross doing a sterling job keeping up on the cajon. Twenty Spoons of Sugar and Sugar Love.

No Strings' second half was a straight forward two piece set comprising what I thought was called 'High Bridge' and 'The Wanderer' which we all joined in the chorus, 'Away, away with rum, by gum, with rum, by gum, with rum, by gum'. I'm not sure it is the song of The Salvation Army, but it's a great song all the same.

Keeping to the established routine of funny jokes and serious songs, Steve concluded his contributions with 'Half The World Away', the theme from Bread and Nine Inch Nails' 'Hurt' (Johnny Cash version)

Birthday Boy! photo by Shirley

Local birthday boy Paul introduced himself, Steve very kindly loaned him his guitar, and despite declaring that he hadn't played for about five years in no time he was picking up the pace and growing more and more comfortable with a medley of 'Roll Over Bethoven', 'Not Fade Away', 'Ding Dong', 'High Heel Sneakers' and 'I saw Her Standing There'. I think he would have happily kept going, but we were up against the clock a little. Perhaps he'll come along again, and show us what we missed this time.

Tracey has a Girl Crush

Paddy delighted with his (well known) ex brothel parrot joke. I think he enjoyed telling it (again) as much as we enjoyed hearing it (again). He then he picked his way through a very slow and spooky sounding 'Ghost Riders in The Sky' before giving us our second poem of the evening 'A very English Thing', warning us of the perils of holding picnics at the cliff edge.

Paul's sheepdog joke was similar in tone to the earlier camel one. He then played instrumental versions of 'How Deep Is Your Love', and Beatles 'If I give My Love To You'.

Torgul, Sandi and Sue jumped a decade or two with Squeeze's, Labelled With Love and then finished back in the sixties, 'Then He Kissed Me'.

For some strange reason, I failed to note the first of MDF's second half songs. Perhaps it was because I was getting ready to join them for the closing song of the night, Whiskey in the Jar. I added accoustic

guitar and Mark played accordion, Ross bravely battled through, and took control as we were not quite together or possibly even in the right keys.

Many thanks to Tony Wilding for the photographs. Check out his new blog.
http://hotmusiclive.co.uk