And this time, I am glad I didn’t. A learned, culture vulture friend invited us to an intimate evening with Christopher Hamilton and friends at St James Cavalier last night. It started early, 7.30, but started with a bang. I wasn’t quite sure what we had let ourselves in for, but up for almost anything, we remained open minded. The small stage of the music room had a piano and two bar stools. No decoration. No nothing.
Christopher came on stage and presented himself with a song. A witty, ditty type number which reminded me of Flanders and swann and I wished I had known his style earlier so I could have sold the remaining seats to like minded individuals.
He in turn introduced Shimi Goodman who had a Rhett Butler look about him but his own voice. And boy, what a voice! His first song had me shivering by the second verse and in tears by the end. An unassuming Madalena Alberto came on next and belted out another tearjerker.
The mascara was gone by the time they got to doing a duet and they even managed to take my breath away. I literally had to breath in at the climax of the song, it was so powerful.
I’m absolutely gutted that there wasn’t much publicity (due to time constraints) around this event, and more gutted that I didn’t know enough about Christopher Hamilton before. But now we know, there are no excuses valid for missing his next show on our shores. Watch this space.
