Sunday 1st December 2013

Another day another gig gone and relegated to history. Last night we played at the former royal household that was originally surrounded by fields full of pheasants hence its name The Pheasantry. Yesterday felt very far away from lush fields filled with game as it was all game of a different sort on this 1st day of December as hoards of keen shoppers took to the streets in the mad scrum of Christmas shopping. The streets are so beautifully decorated this time of year and there is clearly no shortage of budget in Chelsea for their Christmas lights and in the word of Craig Revel-Horwood they look A-Maz-Ing!

The Pheasantry's past incarnations were a Russian ballet school, Eric Clapton's home, a set for a Beatles album, a feminist debating room where Germaine Greer penned her 1970s The Female Eunuch and now played host to the (not so famous) mutterings of me talking about the life and films of Doris Day. The venue is now part of Pizza Express' portfolio of venues along with Dean Street and Maidstone. It was a full line-up of Mad Men with Dave Mannington debuting in the bass chair.

Fashion - shallow? Some may argue as much but the beauty of clothes appeals to the love of aesthetics as we Librans are so when doing my usual trawl around the charity shops of Canterbury I came across an original late 50s early 60s dress. It was bright red and was to be my dress of the Christmas season. To me it typifies the 60s of shape and style over trying to flatter, flatten and create the hourglass shape as per the ball dresses of the 40s and 50s. So I couldn't resist wearing it tonight.

I'm always trying to find new facts out about Doris and her life especially if they are amusing. One fact that I found recently was that the BBC banned Move over Darling for its lyric content. It raised quite a titter in the audience and then I realised there was a BBC employee watching, Radio 4 and Dragon’s Den presenter Evan Davis!

As a fan of anything Christmasy and that we had slipped into December I took the opportunity to do a Christmas song.

A good time was had by all as we took a shortened skip through the 20 years Doris was active in films and I enjoyed my complementary Gardinera pizza on the train back to Herne Bay!