S.T.F.U.!

Last night was quite a hectic one, I popped over to Ross T's to collect the DVD-Rs with the Smoke output from last year. I then noticed on returning that I had a few discs already myself consisting of material from January although to be honest it wasn't really our strongst month this year. However I appear to be missing the disc with the Red Nose Day shows so if Tilley's reading this, I hope you'll be kind enough to return it to me! I understand that he plans to turn up at a few dos himself next week in what will be our last of this academic year. Let the cider flow!

Anyway, straight after that it was down to the Jazz Cafe and Jocelyn Brown performing live. I'd say that this is my least favourite gig of the year but this was nothing to do with Jocelyn at all or her superb support act Jay-Lal who came on stage just as I had arrived.
The venue was heavilly rammed and some of those who turned up were very antisocial. One in particular who I really wanted to but avoided slapping was a girl who had obviously had a lot to drink who in between every performance kept on screaming the opening lines from "Somebody Else's Guy" which I thought was just plain rude.

The Jazz Cafe is not the sort of venue for such ecstatic behaviour. I even felt the nerve to ssh a few of the people standing next to me who felt the need to talk during the performance at high volume. There was one point when Jocelyn was doing a personal anecdote in between one of the songs when she said "can any of you guys at the back here me 'cause there are people talking" which resulted in a very loud cheer agreeing with her. The S.T.F.U. sign on the main stage is there for a good reason standing for "Shut The Fuck Up During Performances Thanx" Why would these people pay a lot of money to go to such a gig in a small intimate venue just to be very selfish during the performance itself?!

The performance from the lady herself, however was superb giving renditions of all the hits that have made her the star she is in the last 30 years . It all kicked off with "Keep On Jumpin'" followed by a stunning cover of "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" as well as some of her new tracks including the Jon Cutler collaboration "One" from last year. We were also treated to her version of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" as performed with Inner Life which really lifted things up and strained my throat to an extent and we even got two of the tracks she performed with Incognito; "Night's Over Egypt" and the legendary "Always There" which was so good to hear live in it's original key of F Major for the first time.
Unsurprisingly "Don't Talk Just Kiss" wasn't included in her set!

After finally performing her belter "Somebody Else's Guy" she decided to finish off with a Gospel song mentioning that the reason we were here was because of gospel music and I think you know how it goes from there. I thought it would be the best time to head back over to Harrow and luckily the tubes were still running.

From there it was straight to the Lapstone Gardens and another end of term party where the place was packed. A few people from the previous night were there including Penny, Alejandra and Lewis, as well as Seb, Jon and Matt, Martin P, Pippa ST, and even three members of Team Buff! I was a bit weak on the alcoholic side of things as I'd only brought the cherryade from my fridge along with me but I think I managed to survive sober for the amount of time I was there.
Then again it's probably the last time this year I'll be seeing most of these people so it's another reason for me to gloat at those who have got exams.