Quite excited, the group is called Lunch At Allen's. Truthfully, I'd forgotten what it was, hubby bought my ticket months ago, and I thought it was a play. (Old age rears its ugly head!)
Turns out, it consists of a group of four Canadian legends:
Marc Jordan,
Murray McLauchlin,
Cindy Church
and Ian Thomas.
They met regularly at a pub in Toronto on The Danforth, called Allen's, hence the name. Having grown up in Toronto, and listened to all of them now and then, I recognized landmarks in their songs (e.g., Down at the Henry Moore).
Murray McLaughlin (B. 1948) has a marvellous discography, and he is a fabulous.
Ian Thomas (B. 1950) has written his second novel, and has much talent in many areas of endeavour! Younger brother to actor Dave Thomas, they were born in Hamilton.
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| Me, in the 70s on Walker Ave., Toronto |
Marc Jordan (B. 1948) grew up on the same street in Toronto as I did: Walker Ave. He is eight years older than I, is married to Amy Sky, and lives in the US, having left for Marina del Ray (a hit song he wrote!) in 1977. Our paths didn't cross much!
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| My old house on Walker Ave., 2004 visit The Boston Ivy, on the back wall -Noma Lights factory, was the size of a hand! |
I entered into a bizarre dialogue (Strike one!) with the woman beside me, who clearly owned this set of seats. It was a packed house. In fact, there was a group block of seats -people who all knew each other. She had sung at the 50th wedding anniversary party of the talkers behind me.
She looked over at my purse and said, "You know that there is someone sitting in that seat?"
"I'm sure there is," I replied in the packed house. (Although my purse was on it, s/he might have been invisible.) "Do you want me to trade seats with him so you can sit together?"
"No. I'm happy with my line of sight, in this seat." (I didn't offer to trade with her! I was confused.)
"No, I meant trade with him." (Mr. invisible!)
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| My aunt and uncle lived in the semi-detached on the left. The last owner has eschewed grass for garden! |
"I thought I'd put my purse on the seat until the people sitting in the middle arrived." (How many times have you had to stand up while late arrivers took their seats?!)
"Oh, they won't come this way, they around the other way." (Ya think?) I was two seats in, remember, and there were 6 empty seats to her right. Just sayin'! Sure enough, four people arrived, all from this group of friends. I stood and let them by.
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| 25 Walker Ave. (right), I lived here for 19 years! Postage stamp front yard in downtown Toronto. |
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| My late parents lived here from 1950 - 1991! |
They have 4 guitars, piano, mandolin, and it was wonderful voices, wonderful music and rich instruments. Aside from the cold that two of them had, and the other two had gotten rid of, apparently. They coughed into their elbows, and I felt badly for them. Having sung in choirs for many years, I know how hard it is to sing when you are under the weather.
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| I remember being able to wear a miniskirt! Me an' my brother in 70s on Walker Ave. |
Each band member took a moment to speak about, and then sing, one of their songs, the others doing terrific back-up. All have had many hits, are prolific songwriters, and many Junos between them. There were many jokes about age, as all are experienced musicians. The audience is quite the grey-haired set, and we could appreciate the banter.
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| My brother, me and the family VW! |
I enjoyed the concert. I just couldn't abide the talker behind me. (Strike three!) Too much public cell phone use, and TV watching, makes people think they are sitting in their living rooms and they talk through public performances. I turned around and glared as I missed the entire intro to one of Ian Thomas' songs.
I was uncomfortable with the ownership of the woman beside me, who didn't speak to me again after she corrected me.
I was happy to go home and watch a video, Margin Call, with hubby! It was the story of the 2008 market crash from an investment company's point of view. Very realistic, according to hubby, who has gone through a fair number of business alignments in his work life!
Lunch At Allen's Perfect World - YouTube
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkcCIAFWBUY13 Feb 2008 - 4 min - rileylaker
"Perfect World" Music video from the Lunch At Allen's featuring Murray McLauchlan, Marc Jordan, Cindy ...Lunch at Allen's - What Kind of Love
www.youtube.com/watch?v=V17SeooJw2A4 Mar 2008 - 3 min - rileylaker
Album: Catch the Moon (2007)
4 comments:
Except for the chatty person beside you, I'm sure you enjoyed the music. And a trip down memory lane visiting houses where you lived.
Into every life a little rain must fall. The "bag" beside you was a bummer. Now I'd love to listen to these performers and I'm sure you had a good time.
Say, quite the "babe" on Walker ST!!!
Sounds like a lovely evening despite the talker.
My husband is a music one either but I grew up with music. It's been a long time since I've enjoyed a public program.
It's nice you have so many photos to document your life. I don't have as many as I'd like.
The concert sounds lovely except for annoyances #s1, 2, and 3. I HATE that people act like that -- and common decency aside, I can't figure out why do they would pay good money for a concert, play, movie and then, as you say, chat, eat make noise etc. as if it were their own living room. Especially when it is people our own age (if "we" act like that there is no hope for the younger gens.)....I appreciated the rant (knowing I'm not alone) as well as the pictures and thoughts of the lovely concert!
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