Another great turn out at Kemi’s Cafe last night and an incredibly diverse set of stories.
We started with Bell Roberts who took us on a humorous romp through her life as a robust and independent child in 1940s Wales, a teacher in 1960s London and more recently an award winning author. Next David Norton recalled his time as a DJ in Manchester (aka Gun-chester) in the 1990s. After setting the scene and evoking the times brilliantly he told of an encounter with an insistent Salford lad who requested tunes whilst wielding a telescopic baton, an Aeries, he apparently had to have things his way!
We finished the first half of our evening on a more peaceful note with veteran folk singer and peace activist Frankie Armstrong telling how she won over a gaggle of noisy anarchists at a CND protest with her song Shall There Be Womanly Times or Shall We Die? She then performed the song with the assembled audiences enthusiastic participation.
After the break Billy Hardy took us to the heart of his devoutly Catholic family in Scotland and conveyed the excitement and annoyance caused by his mother’s cousin’s ascent through the ranks of the Church. First Parish priest then BIshop then Cardinal and, so they thought, potential Pope. Unfortunately unbeknownst to them the estranged Cardinal had died five years before the vacancy in the Vatican arose.
Huw Evans then told us of a disastrous inter-railing trip with his then girlfriend which seemed to involve being mugged on an hourly basis and culminated in near psychotic paranoia on Huw’s part, false accusations of theft and eviction from an idyllic campsite. Partly as an antidote Huw then treated us to a song about love and friendship.
Our final story came from John Williams who’s early career as a writer involved scouring America for interesting tales he could sell to UK newspapers. Through a series of wallet shrinking mishaps our hero eventually found himself in a Jacksonville diner at 3 in the morning with a middle aged woman who despite the fact she was wearing leopard skin spandex apparently “looked very much like a man”. A befriender of death row inmates his interviewee had recently wed a serial killer and was determined to tell John every gory detail. His eventual escape came as a great relief to everyone present.
Once again we’d like to thank all of the tellers for their generosity and their wonderful stories and the audience for being so supportive (and for joining in with the song when asked).
Watch this space for the next event and if you’d like to tell a story get in touch with us on 07976 312 055
thanks again
Steve and Maria
