Afternoon tea and late night rock
Yokospungeon's birthday bash yesterday. A dozen or so of us took tea at the Waldorf. We dressed, as someone put it, "like escapees from an Agatha Christie book". I affected a rather rakish cravat, and wished I'd brought a pipe to pose with. Pete found himself unable to escape saying "quite!" and "indeed!", and we generally had a good time playing up to it all.
The afternoon included a really rubbish historical tour of the hotel, which covered five rooms and a window. The tour hosts, Flavia and William, were a strange self-defeating double act. Much was made of the famous Palm Court (which now has no palms), the model for the dining room on the Tee-tan-itch (as Flavia pronounced it), but we would have preferred a historical tour along the lines of; "this is the very bedroom where Edward VII first seduced Lilly Langtry...this is the window Lord Fotheringham threw his wife's lover through in 1923...". The most interesting tidbit of information was that the art deco stained glass window was done in such bold colours so that pigeon droppings on the outside wouldn't show through.
Tea was fabulous, with excellent scones and top quality cakes. I had my first ever cucumber sandwich with the crusts cut off.
Afterwards, we went to the Queen Mary for boat drinks.
but the day didn't end there. Yoko changed her 1930s twin-set for rock chick gear, as she knew about a secret Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction gig. inkognitoh and I ended up accompanying her to the Intrepid Fox for the gig. Trying to play down our spiffy afternoon tea outifts, given that the rest of the audience were a phantasmagoria of leather, chains, denim, long hair, tattoos, fishnet and enormous boots. We met Yoko's old friend Jase (seemed a really nice bloke), and waited for the band to start.
Which, an hour and a half late, they did. Lots of lovely loud heavy rock. Prime Mover was the only track I recognised, though. The camo netting on the ceiling was pulled down by the audience at one point, a story which will doubtless mutate into "I was at the gig where they blew the roof off!". Yoko scored us free T shirts, as well as authentic sticks of "f***ed by rock" rock.
We stayed in the club for a while after the gig, but eventually had to go out into the relentless rain and trudge our way to night buses. My shoes were waterproof, but not very grippy in the wet. I had that classic night bus misery of seeing one zip past me just as I got to the stop, and knowing that I was therefore going to have the longest possible wait for the next one.
Finally got home by four a.m., utterly drenched.
A good day. I think we all enjoyed ourselves. And there aren't many days when one gets to take tea at the Waldorf and shake Cobalt Stargazer's hand.
The afternoon included a really rubbish historical tour of the hotel, which covered five rooms and a window. The tour hosts, Flavia and William, were a strange self-defeating double act. Much was made of the famous Palm Court (which now has no palms), the model for the dining room on the Tee-tan-itch (as Flavia pronounced it), but we would have preferred a historical tour along the lines of; "this is the very bedroom where Edward VII first seduced Lilly Langtry...this is the window Lord Fotheringham threw his wife's lover through in 1923...". The most interesting tidbit of information was that the art deco stained glass window was done in such bold colours so that pigeon droppings on the outside wouldn't show through.
Tea was fabulous, with excellent scones and top quality cakes. I had my first ever cucumber sandwich with the crusts cut off.
Afterwards, we went to the Queen Mary for boat drinks.
but the day didn't end there. Yoko changed her 1930s twin-set for rock chick gear, as she knew about a secret Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction gig. inkognitoh and I ended up accompanying her to the Intrepid Fox for the gig. Trying to play down our spiffy afternoon tea outifts, given that the rest of the audience were a phantasmagoria of leather, chains, denim, long hair, tattoos, fishnet and enormous boots. We met Yoko's old friend Jase (seemed a really nice bloke), and waited for the band to start.
Which, an hour and a half late, they did. Lots of lovely loud heavy rock. Prime Mover was the only track I recognised, though. The camo netting on the ceiling was pulled down by the audience at one point, a story which will doubtless mutate into "I was at the gig where they blew the roof off!". Yoko scored us free T shirts, as well as authentic sticks of "f***ed by rock" rock.
We stayed in the club for a while after the gig, but eventually had to go out into the relentless rain and trudge our way to night buses. My shoes were waterproof, but not very grippy in the wet. I had that classic night bus misery of seeing one zip past me just as I got to the stop, and knowing that I was therefore going to have the longest possible wait for the next one.
Finally got home by four a.m., utterly drenched.
A good day. I think we all enjoyed ourselves. And there aren't many days when one gets to take tea at the Waldorf and shake Cobalt Stargazer's hand.