My best mate Keith is 60 today.
On Sunday, there is a “big” (60+ people) party at his house.
We have secured Keith Christmas to come over and play a 90 minute set, along with local musicians, poets and other contributors (wine, cheese, gin, etc.).
Having never done this kind of thing before, any thoughts/suggestions/dos and don’ts gratefully received.
(btw, I am a big, KC fan, but have already been informed that he will not/can not play some old)
What will you all do if Christmas comes early?
Thanks…
Don’t micromanage, don’t stress. A great number of people will wander off and have a fag in the garden, a few might be entranced, some people will consider this the greatest night of their life, many will be indifferent. You cannot control or influence this.
Be attentive to the turns without being over-indulgent. Class will out.
I did a similar thing for my 50th birthday in 2005. My hero Jackie Leven kindly agreed to perform for a very modest fee. I rented a couple of rooms above a local pub, borrowed a PA from a mate and corresponded with Jackie and his agent by email. The agent send me his standard rider specifying a very specific brand of vodka – which made Jackie laugh, and he didn’t touch it, sticking to whisky and beer during the gig. We drank it ourselves later. Jackie also kindly agreed to play a few specific obscure requests which he performed beautifully on the night.
Come the gig and Jackie was an absolute gent, putting up with my ineptness for the soundcheck and performed two wonderful sets for my (largely) attentive friends and family. I recorded it and torrented it on Dime.
Advice? I have none other than be absolutely respectful to Keith Christmas and just act normally. If you have invited anyone who might be, erm, “inattentive” (drunk), arrange for them to have another room available maybe or have a quiet word in advance… worth doing a bit of an intro for the performance perhaps. My intro for Jackie Leven was well over the top and concluded with the (stolen) words: “On your feet or on your knees – the transcendent Jackie Leven!!!!”
Hope it goes brilliantly. I’m sure it will. Let us all know how it goes. I last saw Keith Christmas in 1972 and he was fantastic then. I’m sure he is even better now.
Awestruck!!!!
Ruddy heck. I couldn’t have wished for a better celebration for my own half century. Don’t suppose that torrent is still around? I’d love to hear it.
Get the soundcheck done before anyone arrives. There is nothing in life more boring than a soundcheck.
Yes. The one thing that always stuffs up these occasions is the sound. PAY someone to deal with it.
Is this thing on??
At the risk of stating the obvious, keep your mate Keith insulated from everything except having a good time, it’s his day/night, try and keep any hassle out of his sight and just let him remember it as One Of The Best Nights Of His Life, he’ll thank you for it…
Thank you to all for the replies to date.
“At his house” means in a tent in the garden, so if it p!sses down, things will remain dry-ish.
It seems Mrs Christmas is coming over on the ferry too and KC is looking forward to it (including his seafood platter “rider” tomorrow).
(My) Keith is already stressy about things, but sure it will be alright on the night.
As you asked, an update will appear on Monday…
Create a wall display of great Keiths! Keith Harris (and Orville!), Keith Chegwin, Keith Richards … Penelope Keith … er …
Have a “guess the Keith” competition, where party-goers pretend to be a famous “Keith”! Give prizes for the best-received!
Create a “Santa’s Grotto” for Mr Christmas to perform in, and have him wear a jolly Santa outfit and give out gifts!
Recruit a trio of leggy lovelies to twerk behind Mr Christmas as the “Keithettes”! Dress them as elves for even more Seasonal fun!
I always remember him doing “Robin Head” on OGWT. Hilarious.
… Being more helpful, a few lights is good. I saw Kim Richey at a house concert and even a few fairy lights marking out the stage and a couple of angle poises made a big difference.
Have some sort of stage lighting – even a few lamps and the room lights turned off. I had a band who are now quite big and ended up turninig half the house lights off in the life saving club hall to create an “effect”. Pretty lame really.
See if your local disco hire place has battery powered LED uplighters. Chauvet make some “affordable” ones (relatively) and it’s easier than running loads of mains cable around a tent.
Perhaps a string section – or a mellotron-ist(?) – for the full effect of this minor masterpiece.
Who the blazes is Keith Christmas?
There is that…
Was beginning to wonder if I was the only one here who honestly has never heard of Keith Christmas. I refuse to Google. My best guess is he released an album in 1969 that made Nick Drake look like he was mainstream. I fully expect HP and Peter Gabriel were amongst his many fans. Saying all that I hope the night goes brilliantly…
Played on some chap’s album Space Oddity.
That’s the highlight but he refuses to ‘play old’? Keith certainly ploughs his own furrow doesn’t he?
I did see Mr Holidays at some point, and there was an album I heard, but he didn’t make that much of an impression at the time (about as much as early Nick Drake or Gary Farr, rather more than Bill Fay, less than Michael Chapman) But there were a lot of albums-only singer-songwriter acts back then, mostly playing support. It must have been a hard life, and I’m pleased to see that at least one of them is still out there driving his own Transit to gigs!
Not a transit, this is his transport and dwelling on tour.
Oh that’s nice!
Stoner 70s folky, fun lyrics, nice style. See Incredible String Band for fellow travellers.
Neat summary. See also Mike Absalom. Keith has scattered a generous double handful of great songs, another bucketful of really good songs, and a lot of stuff that’s well worth hearing across several decades. There’s a brilliant 2 disc retrospective available, the name of which escapes me, that is well worth the investment.
I’m surprised you don’t know of him Steve.
I’m aware of him because I remember when I was at school a group of Genesis fans (I was never one of those) went to see them and a fair few of them were raving the next day about the support act, which was of course Mr C.
Given he was liked by the Genesis fans, I was discouraged from listening to him and don’t believe I ever knowingly have heard him.
Keith Christmas -> Christmas Humphreys -> Humphrey’s Cat -> Cat Stevens.
It’s all connected, maaan.
So…
It p!ssed down from pre-dawn until about 16:00.
Things started around 15:00 with a local folk trio, followed by some poetry readings. Freshly-made gumbo/tomato soup/curry was consumed, as was plenty of cider and local real ale (“Pushang”!).
Mr Christmas was on stage around 18:30, participating in q&a’s both before and after his very entertaining set. As it was still daylight, only minimal lighting was necessary. It seems he had a good time as well as the 50 or so attendees.
Both Keiths happy!
That’s great Biggles…what a brilliant birthday for your mate.
peotry is for wets and weeds chiz and i diskard you uterly.