Claridges and Club Hell

Phew! It’s been a busy week in the decadent world of Twin and Tonic and a week of stark contrasts; of posh hotels and hellish pubs, of champagne and beer, of subtle entertainment and full throttle exuberance.

We’d barely recovered from the hedonism of The White Blackbirds Vintage Pyjama Party last week when the Twin and Tonic Cadillac rolled up outside Claridges Hotel’s Ballroom on Thursday night. The event was the unveiling of the new luxury LovePods jewellery range from Pandora to a finely dressed assortment of journalists and retail buyers, and Twin and Tonic were expertly booked to provide their own unique style of musical entertainment.


Lined with purple velvet curtains and with huge purple velvet flowers suspended from the ceiling it was as though the ballroom where we were to play had been designed by Prince, and it did indeed provide a suitably palacious setting to peruse the illuminated glass cabinets housing the jewellery. And that is exactly what the guests did as they entered our little Kingdom through a raised screen, as we opened our first set with an extended introduction to the beautifully delicate Dream a Little Dream. It was a sensory orgy that greeted them as not only were their eyes allowed to marvel at the jewellery and their ears delight in our especially crafted set, but their taste buds were indulged by a selection of canapé’s from in house chef Gordon Ramsey.

We now had the chance to delight in this decadence for ourselves as we rested our music making fingers, hands, feet, and vocal chords. We also had opportunity to mingle with the beautifully turned out ensemble of people gathered, who by all accounts had appreciated our music. I met the photographer for the evening Mikael Jaegerjensen who, after discussing our respective past lives in Copenhagen, showed me his excellent photo’s from the evening.

Our second set raised the tempo ever so slightly and so, encouraged by the free flowing Champagne, our guests first began to nod and sway and then dance along to our retro sounds. The event was truly a great success for all.

The rosy glow of success was still fresh our faces as we arrived at the Cross Kings pub in Kings Cross the next evening for the contrasting gig: Club Hell. Twin and Tonic are not ones to take short cuts with anything when it comes to a performance, so our concert luggage was packed with devil horns, devil tails, red braces bow ties and dresses, and all over red body paint.

After keeping it conservative at Claridges we were ready to loosen our cravat’s and perform with wilful abandon to a crowd that oozed with a desire to dance. From the first song to the last they did just that, particularly enjoying singing along to the words of Milord and pulling their favourite dance moves from their well stocked closets to our unique version of Back to Black.

After two great gigs in the space of two evenings it was no small wonder that our heads were weary as our chauffer picked us up in the Cadillac to take us back to the T&T Boudoir. Dreams were filled from images of the last two evening’s entertainments and imaginations delighting in what was to await us at The Smithfield Tavern in less than a week’s time.