Herring...

Playlist
Various – 1973 Hit Singles Playlist
Hasse – Salve Regina

Soundtracked by the hits of 1973, it was back to HMV again today and I bought two discs of 18th Century music...

The first is of Johann Adolf Hasse, who was absolutely Top of the Pops in the period between Bach and Mozart and a "pivotal figure" in the development of opera seria and 18th-century music (it says here)...

The second is a collection of music played in Dresden during those days and also features Hasse along with Heinichen, Vivaldi, Fasch, Zelenka, WF Bach and Jacobi while throwing in a couple of pieces by Heinrich Schutzfrom the 17th Century, just for good measure...

This music is just soooooo good - so tuneful and uplifting - not like all that modern nonsense...

In the evening we were off to a comedy show with stand up of this parish, Mr Jim Park but, as we weren’t meeting till 7, Anne and I went for a couple of drinks beforehand with colleagues Kris and Caroline...

Jim had reserved our tickets and arrived at The Stand just as we were collecting and paying for them....

A very tasty chilli (acquired with the aid of Jim's "comedian discount") got a very entertaining evening off to a good start...

The compere, Susan Calman was right on the button and soon had the sold out room in the palms of her hands...

The opening act, Irishman Keith Farnan was very funny indeed – of course the Irish accent always gives a comedian a head start in winning over the crowd...

Jim’s mate and Yorkshireman of the night, Gordon Alexander made good use of a few props, including some flash cards and Lidl’s Valentine’s Day leaflet advertising condoms at 22p each....

Neil MacFarlane I’d seen before and, whilst he had some good lines, perhaps the company he was in this evening put him under too close scrutiny...

Jim, in his capacity as our only chum who is a stand up comedian, was able to give us his insights re each act...

The headliner was the man we'd come to see - Richard Herring, one of our favourites – if we only catch one show in the Edinburgh Fringe it’ll be Mr Herring’s...

The majority of his all too short 20 minute set was from his 2007 show “Fuck Me I’m 40” but I still found it hilarious and, after the show and considerably too much to drink, I strode up to the man, shook his hand and told him so...

Here's his post from today - which doesn't actually mention tonight's show or the fact that a drunken, overweight, bald musician shook his hand after the show and told him it had been "excellent"...

We left Jim at the club and headed home on an Airport Bus followed by a walk in the cold to Crispycat Towers...

For today’s pic, I thought I’d put one up of Jim – in researching this I found some pics of us in our group Capital Models back in 1980. Jim's the exuberant looking drummer bottom left and you can also see a very fresh faced Mr James Jamieson playing bass...



A good night...

To bed with Mr Hasse in my ears...

Highlight of the Day : Richard Herring