LLX; The Home Bartender's Songbook

He Goes

I am quite English. I remain reserved whenever possible, and I find it by and large extremely possibly due to the fact that I've practised it all my life - which is to say, even when I am very impressed by something, I keep that a little bit to myself. I am so English that I have never, for instance, "whoop!"-ed someone while applauding.

...until this Saturday night. Okay, as whoops go it wasn't a great one. I'm never going to be an audience member in an American talk show, but it was something as far as I was concerned. The cause of this uncharacteristic exuberance? The London Lindy Exchange's Saturday evening party, and specifically Gordon Webster and Friends, who at the end of their second set played the most amazing version of "I like pie, I like cake" that I have ever heard - that, I might hyperbolically argue, any living human has ever heard.

I have half-heartedly moaned in past about how live band songs are long compared to recorded ones, but I was unaware that when a song goes past a certain length it acquires mythical properties. I would guess that "I like pie, I like cake" went on for what must have been fifteen minutes, and kept getting more and more astounding. It was fast to start with, got faster, got slower, got even faster, appeared to end, continued, got slower, quieter, louder, quieter. It defeated almost all the dancers - I had to drop out before even the half-way point of the song due to a stitch in my side that felt like I'd been punched in the ribs. My hands were sore from clapping, and I could see that I was not alone. Bravo, Gordon Webster and Friends, bravo. You broke the dance floor in the best way possible. And you made me whoop.

(In smaller matters, I wore my DubLX entry bracelet - hand woven by the Dublindy team - to the party, and was pretty impressed when the guy handing out the LLX entry tags recognised it... Little things!)

She Goes

You don't need me to bang on about how excited I was to have a weekend long Lindy exchange on my doorstep. Anyone who has met me or read this blog will probably guess by themselves that I was virtually rubbing my thighs and salivating at the thought!

Friday night I played it very cool, volunteering in the cafe all evening. I had to work on Saturday you see, and with this in mind I enforced a dance ban on myself, I didn't bring my dance shoes, my water bottle or a change of top. I even stubbornly refused to go and watch the band, knowing my hard line would crumble quicker than a digestive dunked in hot tea.

I did allow one- and just one- dance before I left. It was absolutely bang on. And then I had to run away into the night, already impatient for Saturday!

And Saturday. Oh my. I got there nice and early, around 8.30, to make good use of the spacious (and very nice) dance floor. But then suddenly, it was 4am! I mean, how did that happen? One minute I was fresh as a daisy, the next I had used up my spare tops and was a hot mess searching for that elusive last snack bar before the long bus ride home.

Sunday lunchtime I woke up A C H I N G and pretty flipping smug about it. The smugness increased when I realised that I wasn't on cafe duties as I'd thought, just helping set up the after party. Yess, more time for dances!

And the after party... Well. If I told you I have no FOMO about missing the afternoon send off today, would that indicate how absolutely satisfied and overflowing with swung-over dafterglow I am?

As for the music... I've said before how much I love live music, and this weekend was no exception. I'm lucky to be friends with some of the incredibly talented musicians who played- and I fell in musical love with them all over again. Watching how they interact with other musicians that they don't normally play with, and still sounding tighter than a, well, anyway... Excellent work, chaps.

An unexpected cameo of the lead singer/trumpet player from the band who played at my first ever social dance (back in my NYC days!) was the cherry on the cake.

Such a great weekend. Very happy spoon.

He Suggests

Interested in watching a comedy set in the London Lindy-Hop scene? Perhaps in funding it? Perhaps even in appearing in some of the dance scenes? Of course you are. Then you should follow this link: Leads and Follows