We celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary by ticking off one of Mary's bucket list items: a hospitality box at the Royal Albert Hall.
Last year for the big one, our 25th, we made it just the two of us in a hotel in the Lake District with a very nice meal. This year might have been similar but Ronnie Scotts decided to celebrate their 60th anniversary with a special concert in the RAH. As a member of Ronnie Scott's Mary gets advance notification through the mailing list. She saw this event and was able to grab the last available hospitality box.
The box seats eight. The first four were easy, my best man Pete and his wife Amanda, Mary's matron of honour Geraldine and her husband Alisdair. That's left two seats and too many siblings. So we invited Mary's old boss, and now friends, Grant and his wife Helen to complete the set.
The floor of the house was set up cabaret style, like a giant version of Ronnie's club.
Geraldine and Mary.
AJ Rahney at London Jazz News writes:
"On stage the Ronnie Scott’s All Stars house band quintet led by Pete Long, and Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Orchestra, accompanied a terrifying cast of talents, each of whom brought their own personal connection to the club." Full review...Artistes included: Judi Jackson, Ian Shaw, Natalie Williams, Curtis Stigers, Liane Carroll, China Moses, Nigel Kennedy, Ezra Collective, Kinetika Bloco, Courtney Pine, Kurt Elling, Imelda May, Roy Ayres, Madeline Bell and Van Morrison. One of the more surprising performances was Nigel Kennedy playing Jimi Hendrix but apparently he has been doing this for 20 years [Google "Nigel Kennedy Jimi Hendrix"].
Ronnie Scott played the tenor sax and so were many of the early artists he booked. As a tribute the final part of the evening was 60 sax players on stage and parading around the hall.
We had our own dedicated waiter and ample food and drink included in the price.
A great way to celebrate our wedding anniversary in style with the best of friends.
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