familiar faces

Thursday 15th March 2007

1:49 p.m. CET There weren’t many people in the bar last night but those that were there seemed rather enthusiastic, in fact I had already had three requests before I sat down to play! Started off by playing mostly pop but as the evening progressed I found myself mostly playing jazz. Mid-way through the evening a couple came in who I recognised; they were on the York for a round trip at the beginning of November last year. As before I played You’re A Lady for them, and they were very appreciative. Played a few instrumentals later on in the evening as well, including Ballade Pour Adelaine, and Streets of London.

Friday 16th March 2007

11:27 a.m. GMT Last night was possibly the best I have had since I joined the Bruges a month ago. There was a good atmosphere in the bar the whole evening, it wasn’t too busy or too quiet, I had several requests throughout the evening (again I had some even before I had started playing!) and most of the people there were attentive. The proceedings flowed nicely and people were singing along to some of the songs which is always a plus. Played a couple of numbers that I don’t tend to do regularly, namely Man On The Moon, and Bright Eyes, which both seemed popular with the audience. Rounded off by playing Summertime (which was also a request from the same group who were in the night before), then I did Bridge Over Troubled Water and Yesterday as encores, which also went well. Was the first time this week that I did a full last set. Even after I had played my very last song people were still asking for more.

Last night’s success was very timely, after what had been a bit of a mixed week. It’s always nice to know when people have appreciated what I do, it makes it all seem more worthwhile.

And on that note, apparently the General Manager gave Kieran some good feedback about me earlier in the week, saying that he thought I was doing a good job, and that he had noticed that there were often several people in the piano bar after eleven o’clock; that must be a fairly new thing.

There was a spectacular sunset in Zeebrugge last night (even more so than Sunday’s), I took some photos of it which came out quite well, but don’t quite do it justice, as it looked more breath-taking to the naked eye. Here is one of them.