This weekend we had our first Kroaky Kidz parties -- three separate groups of teenagers. I am glad to report smiling faces and happy parents! We were finally used our biggest room, which has a stage and on-stage monitor. It was really good to see the kids singing classics like "Barracuda"! I had never even heard of that song before coming to the U.S. -- it's now firmly on my playlist, though I haven't tried to sing it yet. We are taking a lot of bookings for kid's parties for the Christmas season, so call now to make sure you don't miss out.
In huge news, we put some star balloons out on the road, which seemed to have the immediate effect of attracting lots of people coming in to have a look around. Seems people like balloons...
On Saturday, Mary and I decided to make use of the facilities ourselves. Y'see having fun karaoke nights is part of our ongoing program of "quality control". Well the wine was good, the quesadilla was surprisingly tasty, and the service impeccable! But we really do need to get a better version of the Human League's "Don't You Want Me" and Frankie Goes To Hollywood's "The Power of Love", both of which sounded like someone made it using a kiddie piano and some pots and pans. This is surprising because the general quality of our songs is fantastic. (I replaced the offending songs with new versions today.)
I tried some Roxy Music, Kenny Rogers, ELO, Bette Middler (for some strange reason, Mary seems to think my version of "Wind Beneath my Wings" is highly amusing) and some old songs like "Sylvia's Mother" from the 70s that I hadn't heard since then. Perhaps there was a little too much wine involved in those decisions. I wanted to do "What's Up", but it was a failure -- far too high for me, although I got some points for Pulp's "Disco 2000". Why didn't we all meet up in the year 2000?
Having completely conquered Meatloaf's "Two out of Three Aint Bad", Mary is now making steady progress on James Blunt's full catalog. So a fun night and day was had by all, kids and adults alike.
