A Very Cherry Christmas party

Ah, it’s been a busy old week. As I’d mentioned, The Lovely Eggs and Schwervon gig on Tuesday was magnificent. On Wednesday and Thursday I was very busy with uni work. All was going well, I had a lot to do but was running to schedule. I had a number of important things to do on Friday, a lot of seminars to go to and forms to drop off, but unfortunately on Thursday night I started with a migraine, I hoped it would be gone by Friday morning but, of course, it hadn’t, I had to cancel all my appointments (I could barely send the e-mails so making my way into town seemed a very bad idea!) I then spent the rest of what should have been a productive day trying to get ridof the migraine and panicing about everything I was missing, also I was worried it wouldn’t ease off in time for the Cherryade Christmas party on Saturday. Luckily, by Friday afternoon I’d started to feel much better and so was up bright and early on Saturday to go into town and get last minute bits for the Christmas gig. I still wasn’t feeling quite right so went home and had a nap in the afternoon before Adam picked up Jimmy from the Bobby McGee’s from the bus station and brought him back to Cherryade Towers.

It was lovely to see Jimmy, we haven’t seen him in ages and it’s always great to catch up! Unfortunately Eleanor couldn’t be at the gig because she was at a fashion show in London showing some of her wonderful dresses, she’s a very talented dress maker!

Jimmy managed to add plenty of new pictures to his latest project ‘Elvis and the ladies’ (pictures of girls holding a Lego Elvis) that night managing to get pictures with most of the leading ladies of the Manchester music scene who were there that night, all the photos are on Facebook if you want to see them!

I went and changed into my fairy outfit (it has to get worn as much in December as possible cause I love it and can’t wear it the rest of the year! Anyway, once I was ready and had prised Adam away from the snooker we all set off to Café Saki to be there for the soundcheck and setting up.

Soph was already there and had everything under control. Soph is incredibly organised and just generally amazing, the night would never have happened without her!

Anyway, all the bands turned up, soundcheck went ahead and we were ready to get started on time. Only problem was that it was still a bit quiet though this was soon remedied as lots of people arrived just in time. Rebecca (looking lovely in her newly made elf outfit, she’s incredibly creative!) kicked off proceedings by reading her beautiful Christmas poem before explaining the rules of Christmas song bingo (everyone got a bingo card with names of Christmas songs on it which they had to tick off if they heard the songs while we were djing between bands, prizes for a line and full house!) and then introduced Jimmy who played a brilliant solo set and everyone loved him, who doesn’s? He asked Lauren from Shrieking Violets and Marble Krusher to join him with a bit of impromptue trumpet playing on ‘There’s A Place’ and played a selection of favourites and new songs and got the night off to an awesome start!

Next came The Shrieking Violets who played a really lovely set, they’ve got some beautiful songs and are great musicians too, I love Natalie’s distinctive voice as well! After that came Doris and the Jumpers, they seem to get better every time I see them, their songs are amazing and they shone despite a few sound issues, especially impressive was April’s dressing as a parcel for the performance of their Christmas song with Natalie Shrieking Violet on violin. Unfortunately, it all got a bit quiet after Doris and sadly there weren’t many people left to watch the last band of the night, The 10p Mixes, who played a wonderful set mixing their own songs with a selection of festive covers including Christmas Is Cancelled (originally by The Long Blondes) and Fairytale of New York, those who stuck around were in for a real treat!

Adam and I played Christmas songs between bands and for a little bit afterwards before packing up at about 1.30am.

I’d like to thank Soph for making the whole night happen and generally being a brilliant friend and organiser, Dave and Kirsty Under Achievers for letting us have our Christmas party downstairs at their fab night, Rebecca for compering and reading her poem, Jimmy McGee, Shrieking Violets, The 10p Mixes and Doris and the Jumpers for performing and everyone who came down to watch! We had a great time!

Christmas love,
Rach Cherryade xxx
Ps advent update: December 14th chocolate tree and a picture of Hello Kitty dressed as Santa in fake beard and all!