Hello everyone,
I hope your week has gone off to a great start. As many of you know, it was Kirstyfest on Sunday 13th October, gathering in Soho Square at 12pm. I went with my Mum this year. Also, my Auntie and Uncle came to the event. I greeted everyone and gave the welcome speech at the bench before we sang ‘Soho Square’ and ‘Don’t Come the Cowboy with Me Sonny Jim!’ with Dong-Woo Kang playing the electric guitar. Dave Watts filmed the ‘Soho Square’ performance and uploaded it to the ‘Kirstyfest’ Facebook group.
https://www.facebook.com/dave.watts.798/videos/1676371392935886?idorvanity=552711574916196
Steve Jacks put up a short video of ‘Don’t Come The Cowboy With Me Sonny Jim!’.
https://www.facebook.com/steve.jacks.7/videos/568274575763025?idorvanity=552711574916196
Afterwards, we went to The Wheatsheaf for more celebrations. The Spice Of Life was initially booked for this year, but they had a refurbishment. The upstairs room in which the performances took place was small compared to the basement room we use at The Spice Of Life. The Wheatsheaf was full and we couldn’t fit everyone into the upstairs room, so some people had to be downstairs.
Paul Chinniah was the first one to perform. He did a great version of ‘Moving Out’ downstairs before he went upstairs to play ‘Chip Shop’. Steve Jacks uploaded a clip of the performance afterwards.
https://www.facebook.com/100000268773835/videos/pcb.2546682238852443/874984317945394
I was the next person to perform ‘They Don’t Know’, ‘Chip Shop’ and ‘The Hardest Word’. I also sang ‘Roman Gardens’ with Dong-Woo Kang on guitar as a tribute to Kirsty’s brother Hamish who passed away on 25th September. It’s a song Hamish wrote with Gavin Povey. As many of you know, Kirsty recorded it for the ‘Real’ album in 1983. A short video of my ‘They Don’t Know’ version was uploaded by Steve Jacks.
https://www.facebook.com/100000268773835/videos/pcb.2546682238852443/840550281557432
Dong-Woo sang wonderfully for the first time, even though he felt nervous! He performed ‘Can’t Stop Killing You’, ‘Halloween’, ‘You Broke My Heart In 17 Places’ and ‘He’s On The Beach’.
Next, Paul Chinniah performed ‘Moving Out’ again with an additional bridge he wrote himself. He subsequently did ‘Days’, ‘Head’, ‘Bad’, ‘Goodnight Paris’, ‘See That Girl’ and ‘Shutting The Doors’. I joined in singing ‘Terry’ with him.
Tom Wright, who performed and attended Kirstyfest for the first time this year, played ‘Fifteen Minutes’ and ‘They Don’t Know’. Lastly, he performed ‘Walking Down Madison’ with Dong-Woo.
Afterwards, Sue Lovell sang and played the ukulele on ‘As Long As You Hold Me’, ‘Other People’s Hearts’ and ‘Dear John’.
A short clip was uploaded by Susie Child of Sue singing ‘You Just Haven’t Earned It Yet, Baby’ with Dong-Woo playing guitar.
https://www.facebook.com/549993473/videos/pcb.2551298148390852/403864332767770
Like last year, we held an auction for the Music Fund For Cuba. It was a signed black and white photo of Kirsty taken by Rocky Schenck from the ‘Galore’ photo session. It came with a certificate of authenticity. The proud new owner of the photo and certificate was Peter Boynton.
Afterwards, we did the quiz for this year. I created and read it out to everyone. Most of them found the quiz fun, but tough. ‘Chip Shop’, who were the winning team got 10 out of 20 and won the Kirstyfest cup. They also received HMV gift vouchers and a card I wrote to them, with a photo of Kirsty on the front.
Louis was there with his dog and it was great to see him. During the event, I also met musician and Kirsty collaborator, Philip Rambow, who was lovely.
Dong-Woo created a Spotify list of Kirsty songs that were played during the breaks. I chose the second half of the playlist.
We had a brilliant time and I hope to see some of you in 2025!
From Ruby
![They Don't Know [Take 2]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/1sd6HD0fFaQ/0.jpg)
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