Here is the long-awaited third FaB Club review! Written by Sonia, Robert and edited by Claudine!
At this third FaB Club, the person who normally does all the talking had a chest infection and no voice so she had to make do with wearing signs...
Luckily Claudine was supported by Dave and Laetitia who set up the room for us...Tina Tate had been "volunteered" to do the compering and proved to be a witty and entertaining host.
Gerry started things off with great singing and guitar work on a song called "Go, move, shift" relating the difficulties travellers have to deal with. He followed that up with Ralph McTell's "From Clare to here". What an excellent start to the afternoon!
Then Margaret twanged her "uke" to sing "Black Velvet Band" thanking Gerry for giving her the song when they first became friends..."Careless Love" was her next number, which she performed with her usual lively style and enthusiasm. Incidentally, Mag also demonstrated her knowledge of instrument construction when Robert pointed out her ukulele had no back, she explained women found this more comfortable!...
Bill, another regular performer, took the stage to sing "Rare Old Times" and "Spancill hill" in his relaxed style and without apparently taking a breath...what a performance! We are pleased to have him with us every Sunday!
Tina was then put on the spot as she is not familiar with all the performers...But she managed to find the next performer in the audience, well done!
Robert gave his first performance in front of sober...ish people...He played and sang "Special Way", a song he co-wrote with his friend Rob Darby. Then he tried to sneak off stage but was made to come back and sang "Me and Bobby McGee". Very impressive first performance, well done Robert!
Owen Gifford, a talented youngster from Hertfordshire borrowed his Dad's guitar to entertain us with an Eric Clapton number and "Time of your life" from Green Day. What a refreshing touch in our afternoon and a very promising start for Owen as a solo performer.
Tina just had time to invite our last guest of the first half: the unmistakable John Stafford who played his harmonica and sang "The water is wide" from the Pete Seager song book.
Our favourite barman Andy was very busy for the next ten minutes while everyone was catching up on music and life in general. The only quiet person in the room was Claudine (rare thing!) who, by then, had resorted to communicating on paper!
Tina opened the second half with a surprise when she made us all laugh with a Spike Milligan poem "Fred Fernackerpan".
It lead to more a nostalgic theme as Jo, who had recently received some new songs from her friend from Sidmouth, sang accapella about lost childhood :" Oh Grandpa, tell me about the good old days...".
Mick lightened things telling us he was a hermit (because he once was in a band called the hermits!) and giving the audience a chance to sing along to a Bob Dylan number.
It was time our usual free raffle...Thanks to Laetitia's innocent hand, Gerry got the bottle of wine and Robert the free entries!
We all had a chance for another number each... Gerry remained faithful to the spirit of the day as he sang "A mother's love is a blessing"; Robert gave us food for thought with another song from his friend Rob Darby...What kind of relationship was he talking about?
John managed to borrow Mick's guitar and then Mick had to re-tune it for his number! Typical!
Thankfully, Owen rounded our afternoon off very competently with Don Henley's "The boys of summer" and another Green Day number:"Basket Case" which, would you believe, is one of Claudine's old favourite number! Hmmm?...
Tina was relieved when at last she got given a script to conclude the afternoon as Claudine was consistently mute...A few thank yous and our future date:
20th March...
Hope to see you there!
