Blitz party - WW2 pics of Twin and Tonic's Gran and Grandad

This will be our second time doing the Blitz party and we are all very excited about it!

We were very pleased to be involved in the first Blitz party and it was a huge success! Truly a night to remember; it was like stepping back in time as everyone was dressed up in WW2 uniforms; soldiers, sailors, 40s girls in tea dresses, dapper Gentlemen and lipsticked ladies.

We are very pleased to be performing at the next event on Saturday 6th June.

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To help us get into the spirit we have been looking through our grandmother's old photos. She was in her late teens - early twenties throughout WW2 and lived in the East End at the time. She worked in factories making aeroplane parts during the war and our Grandfather who was an engineer also worked in the factories; he was also a member of the home guard.

Grandad in the homeguard - 1940

He was not allowed to join the army as he was an engineer, considered an essential, skilled worker; his pal Burt (also an engineer) was desperate to join the army and fight for his country, he ended up taking 3 days off work to try to join but he ended up having to pay a fine and spending 3 days in prison.

Grandad 1940 working at a factory called 'Pyrene' on the Great West Road.

Grandad at work - 1940 (a rare picture picture of him with hair!)

Great Uncle Alvan - 1934

Great Uncle Alvan 18th November 1939

The Lang sisters working on machines during the war at the factory where Gran also worked making parts for aeroplanes - 1940.

Our grandmother has shared her memories with us and despite it being a time of war; of poverty and uncertainty; the over-riding feeling is of spirit; good times and making the most of what they had. She looks back on those times with fondness and a twinkle in her eye.

With the Blitz parties I think that we can bring back some of that great community spirit, gallantry and good times.

Playing with Kitty at The Smithfield Tavern

Talk was fast and loose in the Twin and Tonic Cadillac as we journeyed from the T&T Boudoir to our latest musical excursion at The Smithfield Tavern in Farringdon. We understood that we would be sharing the stage with our friends Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer and Kitty Bang Bang (certain to be a pleasure), but it was a venue unheard of and previously untried. What was to be expected?

The late afternoon sun was certainly much appreciated by the city office workers gathered outside the smart looking venue to celebrate the end of the working week with a beverage or two. Tempted as were to join them, we needed to make haste and prepare our equipment for sound test.

The interior of The Smithfield Tavern was a simple delight. As smart as the outside, it managed to combine a sense of spaciousness with a sense of cosiness thanks to a combination of high ceiling, sloping eves, and tasteful decor. The long narrow bar culminated in a small performing area at the back where we were to play, alongside the house upright piano that was suffering slightly with a broken wheel and pedal and slight tuning deficiency. Although we were to be six this evening (Sam our guitarist was performing elsewhere), our well practised pragmatism and clear understanding of the principles of feng-shui enabled us to find a stage arrangement that was condusive to a good performance ahead.

Kitty Bang Bang graced the venue with her luminous presence as we rested before the first of our two twenty minute performances. She was to dance with us to the very appropriate Strip Polka, so talk was centred on the intimate details of this conjoining. We also had the pleasure of the service of a particularly friendly French member of the bar staff (forgive me for not knowing her name), who arranged for us to have drinks delivered to the stage and delicious sounding food prepared for the interval.

There was a slight concern as we took to the performance area that the sun outside might prove to be too much competition for our music inside, but it was proven not to be the case as the swinging sounds of our opening number, I Got Rhythm, flowed through the bar and teased the clientele to explore its origins.

There was a great sense of anticipation as Louise welcomed Kitty forward and Max played the opening notes of Strip Polka on his saxophone. Eyes bulged as Kitty danced on her toes in a gorgeous figure hugging golden dress, and must have been close to leaving their host bodies altogether as the garment was shed in perfect time to our music. The crowd whooped and cheered in appreciation as the song ended and we all left the stage, no doubt eager for our second set to commence.

Our French waitress had excelled herself by arranging not only food and beverages but a table outside for us, and no sooner had we sat down than our food had arrived- the chips of potato fried in duck fat proving to be a particular delight. We were joined by our photographer friend Mikael Jaegerjensen who had taken the time to come and see us having met us originally at the Blitz Party, and then again by chance at Claridges last week. Although not officially working, he was kindly taking pictures of the band on a curious red camera that resembled one of those wind-on photo viewers one used to use as a child.

Our second set was designed to be more up tempo to encourage more dancing, and it had the desired effect from the off. Alistaire and the delightful Dominique, proprietors of the establishment, showed everyone how to do it as they took centre stage whilst encouraging others to join in. The set was a riotous success and the crowd again enthusiastically showed their appreciation, this time accompanied by shouts of “encore!”. As not to disappoint, we allowed them one further indulgence as we performed Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.

Unusually for us these days we weren’t the headline act of the evening, but that honour couldn’t have fallen to a nicer fellow than our old friend Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer. His set was enjoyed with the usual hilarity, my personal favourite being a song about Radio 1’s Tim “St John” Westward with a chorus starting “What ever happened to Timothy, I was at prep with him you see”. Jolly good!

Another gig over and another satisfied promoter and public. After performing four times in the last fortnight the Twin and Tonic Cadillac took us straight our renovated 1934 Sikorsky S-42 Clipper to fly us to our private island off the western peninsular. Don’t worry though, we’ll be back in good time for The Blitz Party on the 6th June. It’s a popular event so remember to purchase your tickets well in advance.

Cheerio!

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.

Twin & Tonic in Drapers Record

Vintage Pyjama Party

I’d been looking forward to the Vintage Pyjama Party gig for ages- how couldn’t you get excited about a gig boasting “bathing beauties in a cocoa bath”, “strip twister”, a peep show from the Alternative Miss World, “an operatic Bo Peep”, and a midnight séance? And the venue was something special too- Stoke Place Hotel (that’s Stoke Poges not Stoke-on-Trent in case you were wondering) is a beautiful old country mansion that apparently been used for the set of a couple of James Bond films and the odd episode of Dr. Who. I’ve become used to playing weird and wonderful gigs with Twin and Tonic, but this had the potential to blow the nipple tassels off the rest.

My email inbox in the run up to the gig was full of the usual logistical emails- sorting out the set list, working out how to get us and our gear to and from the venue, sorting out our costumes, sorting out the guest list etc. Now you would have thought all this would be doubly difficult with a venue 45 minutes out of London but no- The White Blackbird team (and especially Johnny Vercoutre and Polly Betton) sorted everything out for us- a van was to pick my keyboard up from my flat the morning of the gig and deliver it back to me the next day, we were booked on a choice of coaches coming out of London, we had a room at the hotel to store our stuff- amazing! It certainly beats waiting in Shoreditch for a taxi in the cold for an hour and a half at 4am with a bag as big (and almost as heavy) as a grown man.

There was an excited mixture of people on the central coach heading up to the venue on the sunny Friday evening. Some were already in costume (ranging from standard patterned pyjamas with Bart Simpson slippers to negligees and suspenders) and some attempted to get ready on the coach. Chatter was typically fuelled by innocent looking bottles of pop laced with a spirit of choice- ice tea and vodka seemed to be the favourite near where I was sitting.

There was no mucking about for me when the coach pulled up by the croquet lawn outside the grand entrance to the hotel- it was straight to the ball room for sound check. My keyboard was already there in one piece (amazing!), and the fantastic sound man Dan was busying away getting everything sorted, even taking the time to tune Yannick’s drums for him. The rest of the band arrived shortly after (Karen and Louise looking absolutely stunning as always) and it was straight down to business. Sound check over it was up to our room for final adjustments to our costumes and a band huddle, and then at last we were ready to get stuck in and enjoy the evening.

The whole hotel had been taken over by the party, full of wide eyed gorgeous looking people exploring the decadent delights on offer. There were queues on the stairs to see a puppet show and the girl bathing in the bath of cocoa (I missed both but heard that they were both pretty special), people of all ages shapes and sizes were getting stuck into the pillow fighting with a vengeance, Londoners were going gooey eyed as they cuddled brand new spring lambs in the garden, and the bars were full of mingling groups slowly loosing their inhibitions as they innocently quaffed their tipple of choice.

I don’t drink before a gig, so was in my own little world of sobriety as we kicked off our set to a packed ballroom with Jeepers Creepers. People were dancing from the start, flashbulbs from the camera’s were going off around us (especially when Karen and Louise dropped their peignoirs to reveal their corsets and stockings half way through Strip Poker), and everyone seemed to be lapping it all up. We finished with the usual crowd pleasers Back to Black and Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy and got a great reception at the end. Great crowd, great gig.

It was route one to the bar for me as soon as the last chord had been played, very appreciative of the people who took the time to congratulate us on the way. My mate Paul pushed me to the front shouting “Sober man coming through- get this man a drink!” which a very sweet girl in a red dress duly did, ordering me a double absinth which I necked in one. With that sudden injection of disco juice I had no choice but to head straight to the dance floor, finding my mate Renee and kicking into gear with some boogie woogie moves to music being supplied by the DJ (Hitman Hearne, the same guy who picked my keyboard up that morning). That was pleasantly interrupted shortly afterwards by the fantastic burlesque dancer Millicent Binks, who provided a bit of titillation before the Hitman Hearn kicked back in again to take the dancing to another level.

As the effects of the disco juice started to wear off Renee and I went to have another explore. Newly formed couples in various states of undress were entangled on every available piece of furniture in the Twister room, the bars were providing more lubricant for new relationships being formed, but the biggest change was the pillow fighting room where just about every feather filled pillow had been destroyed covering the entire room in plumage that was being thrown about as people danced creating a scene that could have come straight out of a fairy story.

I headed back to the Ballroom where I found Yannick unconscious on one of the tables as people danced around him. It was now 2:30, and I realised I had the job of getting our totally inebriated drummer to pack up his drum kit before the coach left for London at 3am. Shouting at him to wake up didn’t yield a reaction, slapping him across the face did little more, so I resorted to pouring a glass of wine over him and dragging him off the table onto the floor. Regaining some semblance of consciousness his drummer instincts kicked in and he started the job, although so slowly I knew he had no chance of getting it done by 3am. I asked our guitarist Sam to sort Yannick out while I went to the coach to prevent it from leaving until we were ready. It required all my charm reserves to persuade a coach load of exhausted revellers that waiting in the car park was preferable to making their way back to their comfy beds and duvets back in London town. The central coach eventually left about 20 minutes after all the others.

I woke up the next day with a very sore head but a big smile on my face. Johnny delivered my keyboard to the flat that afternoon, regaling me with stories of carnage from the night before, and potentially setting up a musical collaboration sometime in the future (watch this space!). He seemed to really enjoy our set and suggested that we might get a booking for the next party. Bring it on!!

Jonny Crabb, Twin and Tonic