Feelin' the Lurve

The 4^th Annual Night of Lurve love song competition took place at The George, Kilsby on Friday 2^nd February. Originally launched in 2014 as our warm-up for Valentines Day it has become a fixed feature in the Open Music Collective calendar.

There were a number of lessons that could be drawn from the evening. Mine, as compère, were quite simple; no beer near PA! For the performers there seemed to be a distinct advantage for those that played songs that were more familiar to them. Those that chose previously unperformed material suffered from the lack of exposure.

Seasonal Lurgy had once more taken its toll among the regular performers and I hope that those that found themselves thus afflicted are already much recovered. You were missed.

Because of the relatively short list, all of the entries were completed by ten thirty. This meant that there was time for the winning performers to have another turn at the microphone; and we still had time for a collective 'Wagon Wheel' jam at the end, courtesy of Steve Edgar.

While it was difficult for some to grasp, voting for oneself was allowable. If you thought that your performance was the best, then why not? But, in keeping with The Open Music Collective tradition, the voting did reflect the quality of performances on the night, and not the performers with the largest entourage. Interestingly, the band with the most members got the least number of votes.

Sadly, there was no contingent from Napton this year, and they were sadly missed, though this might have been a blessing in as much as someone else had a chance of winning for a change.

The evening got under way with the order of performances being drawn. In order to be fair, as there is a perception that later acts do have a slight advantage, possibly relating to the age of the audience and their capacity to remember, a randomising process took place. Thanks to audience member Janet for her assistance. On reflection, it may hav eproved completely unnecessary as the first two acts made their way into the topThis was followed by a summary of the voting rules and an explanation of the way the evening would run.

Then, before the first act, a poem.

Some Love Songs

some love songs they are very sad

some of them are funny

some bring a tear drop to the eye

some make your bits go runny

some love songs tell of longings

that threaten to explode

while others tell of true loves

a walking down the road

some love songs are for young folk

just starting out in life

looking for a tender husband

or a pretty loving wife

some love songs are for older folk

who haven't give' up yet

are just happy for some int'rest

and take anything they can get

it's a love song for a lover

it's a love song for a fool

it's for all those things you wish

that they had taught you while at school

it's the love songs got you ready

when things were about to start

it's what's happening in your loins

it's what's happening in your heart

some love songs they are tragic

when everybody dies

and some of them are magic

with rainbows and butterflies

they leave you feeling happier

though your heart is broke in two

and that's the most important job

a love song has to do

© George Houguez, 2018

The performers and their competition entries:

Photographed by Debbie Smith

The ice was broken by ODDS & ENDS, featuring Nigel Lewis and Darren Smith, with a little help from Hedley warmed up with Sam Cooke's 'Wonderful World'. They were staying safe with their entry numbera song we have heard them perform a few times their entry was Ben E King's 'Stand By Me'. This was well delivered and that was reflected in the scoring.

Second up was IAN, a regular contributor to the Open Music Collective, created mayhem when his guitar seemed quiet. Lesson number two, don't assume a performer won't unplug their instrument just to prove to themselves it was plugged in. How the speakers survived I'll never know. His warm up was the Todd Rundgen classic, ' I saw the light'. 

There aren't too many Tom Wait love songs to choose from, so Ian did well to find this one among Tom's repertoire as his competition entry; 'I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You'.

In an oversight and a half, SANDI & TORGUL were left off the list. Sorry! Fortunately, on the off chance of a late arrival, two spare places had been put in and they were given one of those. They warmed up with a Lennon and McCartney song 'Things We Said Today'. Their official entry was a song called 'I Can't Love You Enough', by someone with an L in their name; possibly Lavern Baker.

Frequent visitors PETE & MARION were the fourth up, warming up with Pete singing the lovely Lionel Richie song, 'Easy Like Sunday Morning', with Marion providing the "oohs" as backing vocals, and Pete improvising a delightful Kazoo solo in the place of the electric guitar. For their competition entry Marion was vocals for the Patsy Kline song 'Crazy'. The singing along started here, which might say something about the average age of the audience. Pete runs a very pleasant sing around night at The Bull, Clifton.

LEW BEAR

Lew has been threatening to visit us for such a long time, and it was great to have him with us this evening.

Lew warmed up with Robert Burns', 'Green Grow The Rashes O', a song about the pleasure he found in the company of lasses. Lew's competition entry was a song of his own, 'The End is Never Near'.

PADDY was on good form this evening with a couple of his own songs. Paddy's warm up was about all about gardening, 'Sowin' me seed bumkin' style'. There was a lot of forking, something about an overgrown bush and a clematis, but as I don't know much about gardening I didn't really understand much of it, and I've no idea why there was so much laughing.

His competition entry was 'The Anderson I Lurve'; a celebration of one of Paddy's cricketing heroes. This was sung to the familiar Bob Dylan tune 'Make You Feel My Love'. I jumped every time Paddy shouted 'Owzat!'

Every now and then we get a little glimpse into the lives of the performers as they reveal details or aspects that were previously unknown. This evening Paddy confessed to buying Cliff Richard as his first record, and then not being allowed to buy any more because of what his Mum considered was Cliff's depravity. 

MDF were without Banjo Grandad and The Gurl, one was making haunted train noises, the other was under a blanket covered in Vic; their absence was telling.

The warm up performance was The Cure's 'Friday I'm in Love'. We should have gone with this as our entry. It was a superb effort, possibly the best we have ever played it. Instead, our official entry to the 2018 Night of Lurve was Josh Turner's 'The Longer The Waiting'. We smashed this at rehearsal on Thursday night (honestly we did), and I was pretty confident of a place for the band if not a win. Our lack of practice told, and on the night we were terrible; the voting reflected it.

It has been a while since we last saw him, but for the love song competition, TONY COLLINS was back; no guitar, no auto harp but with his ukulele. Tony's warm up song was one we've heard him perform before, 

The Haughton Weavers' 'Rooms In The Sky'. His entry was what is possibly the best known love song of all time, Eric Clapton's 'Wonderful Tonight'. I've not heard it played on a uke before and it really suited the song.

The final performance of the evening fell to last year's runner up, STEVE EDGAR,  who also benefited from a little help from Hedley. This year he didn't fare quite so well in the scoring. His warm up song was Bob Dylan's 'One More Cup of Coffee'. Steve managed to sound suitably brooding and melancholy in what is quite a tricky song to deliver. Anyone who says bob Dylan can't sing should have a go at this one. 
Steve's competition entry was Ketty Lester's, 'Love Letters Straight From Your Heart'.

While #1 Roadie added up the scores I sang a couple of songs and then the results were announced.

The voting for the top three places was as follows

Third place – Odds And Ends – 8 points 
A box of  Roses chocolates and a compilation CD of love songs.

Second Place – Ian – 18 points
A bottle of Champagne, a box of Roses chocolates and a compilation CD of love songs

First Place – Lew Bear – 22 points
Dinner for two at The George, courtesy of Prasath, a bottle of Champagne and a compilation CD of love songs.

Ian and Lew were invited up to sing a few more songs. Ian giving us on of his favourite Tom Waits songs 'Chocolate Jesus' and Lew Bear with his own true story of a crow named Charlie, called 'Charlie The Crow' and a wonderful parody of Wild Rover


The evening ended with a melee of performers gathering for a rowdy rendition of Guy Clarke's Wagon Wheel with Ross and Ian providing vocals and everyone else joining in. 

We are back together at The George again for a regular Open Music Night on Friday 2nd March. It would be great to see you there.