name that tune

Wednesday 26th November 2008

4:42 p.m. Sadly, as is often the case in this country these days, the snow didn’t last long, it had almost completely melted away by Sunday evening.

Sunday night started off fairly quiet but got busier as the evening progressed, and my last set was probably the best. Monday night was fairly quiet all evening, but having said that I still had a good response from the audience. I played several requests, including one by Abba, and Everything I Do for one of the bar stewards. At the start of my last set there were two Scottish women sat by me who requested some Christmas songs, so I did brief renditions of Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer followed by White Christmas, which they seemed to relish! They then suggested I could do a round of ‘Name That Tune’, so I pitted them against two young lads who were also sat nearby, playing snatchets of various popular tunes plus some more obscure ones. Owen came up mid-way through, and when he saw that I was doing a kind of music quiz he ran and got a bottle of wine to present to the winner. It was the first to ten and the women won 7-3, so I presented them with the prize. The quiz proved to be a good diversion and it was nice to do something different.

Last night was exceptionally quiet; up until the end of my first set I had forgotten why, but one of the barmen reminded me that it was the special darts-themed mini-cruise, featuring Eric Bristow and Keith Deller. In terms of passenger numbers the ship wasn’t especially busy, but I think most of the socialising public were watching as there were no more than ten people in the Sky Lounge at one time during the evening! They were in the show-lounge playing doubles with volunteering punters, which was quite entertaining.


[One of the mixed doubles darts games in full-swing, with Eric Bristow to the far right, and Keith Deller in the middle having a team talk with his amateur throwing partner!]

Only one more week to go of this contract.

11:55 p.m. Tonight was a lot busier than last night, despite it being the second night of the darts. I think the majority of the people in the bar were from the continent, so they probably had little interest in the proceedings downstairs. Again my last set was probably the best, there was a friendly group of Germans sat at one of the tables beside me, and they made several requests including one for My Way, which seemed to go down particularly well, as did Ebony & Ivory which someone else requested, despite not having performed it for a while.

snow

Friday 21st November 2008

11:59 p.m. I have only had root-canal once, and I can say that it was less painful and more rewarding than this evening.

Sunday 23th November 2008

9:13 a.m. Had a lot better night last night. The bar was just as busy as the night before, but the atmosphere was generally warmer, there were several groups in who were pretty lively and making requests, and one of them was sat right beside me throughout the evening.

The sea has been pretty rough again the last couple of nights, particularly Friday. In a way it is quite fortunate that the piano isn’t on wheels as it might have rolled away! (This might sound like fantasy, but when I was working on the York, a woman there told me about her days when she was working on a cruise ship in the south Pacific, when it was hit by a freak storm, and the grand piano in the cocktail lounge was on wheels and wasn’t tethered, and in severe pitching it rolled across most of the width of the bar, straight through a plate-glass window onto the outside deck!!!)

I was up early enough to have a cooked breakfast this morning, on my way to the crew mess I glanced outsid and noticed that it had indeed been snowing, there seems to be a couple of inches covering at the moment, and judging from how dark and heavy the clouds were looking, there may well be more to come… I was talking to one of the Filipino croupiers the other day, and she was telling me that she was hoping that it would snow as she has never seen it before. (I did think about knocking for her earlier, but I don’t think she would have been asleep for long so I decided against it.)

time with the twin (ship)

Monday 17th November 2008

10:02 a.m. I am on the Pride of Hull for a 2½ week stretch. I’ve just done my first round-trip, and both nights went fairly well. Saturday was busy as usual, and there were several couples and groups who were in for most of the evening, and some of them made requests. Last night was a similar story.

Owen Vaughn is now the resident entertainment manager on this ship, replacing Karen, both of whom I worked with recently on the Rotterdam at one stage or another. Also, the resident band are now Full Extra, who were on the Rotterdam with me last summer, having just come on in place of Top Secret, who were a performing as a duo on the York and the Bruges back in the day, but are now a four-piece ‘band’.

Tuesday 18th November 2008

4:22 p.m. Last night was painfully quiet, almost as much as when I was on this ship before, in February of last year – at some points during the evening you could have heard a pin drop in between songs! I didn’t sing at all as I was feeling unwell.

Friday 21st November 2008

10:07 a.m. Tuesday night was pretty much the same as the night before. Wednesday night it was slightly busier but not much, even so I did sing a few songs which went down well but the majority of the evening I was playing instrumentals. Last night was busier still, and more like the kind of evening I am accustomed to, with the bar relatively busy throughout the evening, and as such was a bit more fulfiling and enjoyable. There was quite a mixture of people in, young and old, British and European, and there were a few groups and couples who stayed until the end. I played various numbers, including Greensleeves which had been requested and I can’t remember performing before, and it went down well. I finished up by playing a partly experimental fusion of Misty and Gymnopédie. I had some nice comments from people afterwards.

Last night was the first night this week when the sea was notably rough, with a wind force of around force 8-9. Thankfully though it didn’t seem to affect me at all. It is nice and sunny in Hull this morning, although typically cold for this time of year. Apparently there is snow forecast for this area tomorrow, I wonder whether there will still be a small covering by the time we dock on Sunday.

Tonight is the only Friday night sailing from Hull of this contract, and I’m hoping that my voice will be up to it, as I have still to shake off this lingering cold. I have been plying myself with copious amounts of fruit juice and vitamin substitutes, as well as the usual medicines, so hopefully this will accelerate the process!

they came in droves

Saturday 1st November 2008

1:09 p.m. Last night was the second of two ‘Mad Friday’s of this contract, and also the first of the two-night Hallowe’en-themed mini-cruise. As such the ship was obviously very busy, although the piano bar was busiest during my first set, as I think the majority of people inclined to the show-bar after that. Having said that it was still a good night, and I took the opportunity to play some numbers that I hadn’t played for a while, namely Baby Grand, Phantom of the Opera, All Of Me and Video Killed the Radio Star, all of which went down very well. I had a few requests also, mostly during my last set, after I had been down to the show-bar to see a bit of the proceedings. I have never seen the show-bar so packed. The ship was at full capacity last night and the majority of the passengers were probably crammed in there at that point. You could hardly move! I took some photos as well, here are the best ones (the resident band, Night Queen, with Gareth singing lead vocals – taken from the balcony, Boney-M, and me, Kylie (Children's Host) and Gareth (in full Joker costume!) in the DJ Booth. More pictures on my web-space).




I got to meet Boney-M briefly as well; I took some water to them in the dressing room just before they were about to go on-stage.

Sunday 2nd November 2008

10:27 a.m. Last night went well, still not exceptionally busy but there were more people in the bar than the night before. Not the best night I’ve had on here, but not the worst either. There were a few people in who I recognised from the night before, who made some requests, including one family who turned out to be from Derby, for whom I played Memory and sang it for the first time, which went quite well despite it being unrehearsed.

I got to see a bit of Mist last night as well (the illusionists), which was quite impressive – I have never seen live levitation before! I didn’t manage to get any pictures though as no photos were allowed during the performance.