we three kings

I haz kittenz

So, we just went to St Mary’s Church in Walthamstow Village as The Girl is in her school choir, and there was a concert including the choir and the orchestra.

I have to say, the choir were actually pretty good, and much as I tried not to cringe, there is something just toothachey about amateur violins and flautists!

Anyway, at one point we had to sing “We three kings” and on our way home, I was singing the alternative version that I used to sing when I was little, which went:

We three Beatles of Liverpool are
Paul on a bus
John in a car
George on a scooter
Blowing his hooter
Followed by Ringo Starr

The Girl thought that was extremely funny – and then The Man went one better by telling us the version that HE used to sing as a kid:

We three kings of Leicester Square
Selling knickers, tuppence a pair
They’re fantastic
But no elastic
That’s why our bums are bare!

I have never ever heard of that one before – would be interested to know whether anyone else sang either of them.  Was there a North/South divide – and if so, why was it the wrong way round?

simon callow’s christmas carol, arts theatre

Simon Callow

I saw that Simon Callow was doing A Christmas Carol a couple of months ago, and my immediate thought was “I am going to HAVE to see that!  It’s Simon BLOODY Callow!!!”

Simon Callow is a legend  (he was the only decent thing in that roadcrash that was Four Weddings & A Funeral) and he very obviously has a love affair with Dickens – if you check his IMDB page, there is a lot of Dickens appearing!  And that’s not just playing IN Dickens, that’s actually playing Dickens himself (even in Doctor Who!).

And this is what this was. This was simply Simon Callow on stage with just a few chairs, a bit of background scenery, the occasional sound effect and at one point, an open fire.  This is Callow telling the story of A Christmas Carol as Dickens would have done – narrating the story and acting out all the characters himself.

As far as I was concerned this was 90 minutes of Callow-filled festive story-telling joy.  He was amazing.  His voice resonated, and considering this is a one man show and this was opening night, there were only a couple of places where he faltered (at least only a couple that I was able to pick up on – the most amusing being when he mentioned the ‘fost and frog’ *snigger*).

We came out of the theatre uplifted and as if we had experienced a real treat.  It was fabulous!

And just as fabulous was the fact that getting the tickets (I managed to get them free!) meant that I finally got to meet the lovely @Mutster101 who I have known for 10 years online but never managed to meet in so-called ‘real life’.  And the prospect had excited me even more than our theatre experience.  and he didn’t let me down

Happy, happy times – and I felt full of Christmas spirit…right up to the moment that I came home and heard what a little bint-bag my daughter had been.

*sigh*

I shall leave you with Callow being Dickens back in 1996.  this was nothign like our experience, which was far more up to date, atmospheric and in which he actually moved around, dancing and jumping on chairs.  This was as Dickens would have done it.