The details of the secret finale were kept so tightly under
wraps that the gig was undoubtedly the most hotly anticipated of the final
weekend. Sold out just hours before the doors opened, queues of people
surrounded the circumference of the Salon Perdu with an atmosphere of intrigue
and excitement beginning to develop ahead of the doors opening at 8.30pm. And
we were not disappointed!
The daytime venue was transformed into a nightclub of the
past, with character actors in costume from every decade of history and booths
of games, photo props and of course Wychwood brews at the bar. Portrait artist
@jessicaonpaper was present, offering free portraits to the evenings guests,
and the wonderful Horse Orchestra were
wandering about amongst the audience getting us hyped up for another set from
them during the evening. Handing out raffle tickets, gold and silver tickets,
the character actors made the evening a consummate performance, as did our
beautiful Madame Perdu, a fabulous character who reportedly had been travelling
with the tent since 1917, the release of the first jazz recording! The evening
focused on the development of jazz over the last 100 years, and was excellently
conceived. Dinosaur pianist and trio leader Elliot Galvin served as our cocktail pianist for the evening,
playing jazz standards with a modern flair, intermittently between Horse
Orchestra and amongst improv scenes from our character actors.
A special mention deserves to go to our spoken word artist for
the evening, whose name we unfortunately were not provided with! However, the
artist was a wonderful sport, agreeing to an improv rap with Horse Orchestra
drummer Rune Lohse providing a beat.
He was so enthusiastic about bringing spoken word to the world of jazz, and so
passionate about the roots of hip-hop that he was genuinely endearing, not
simply because he silenced the whole spiegeltent with his incredible talent.
This was an evening of sparkling excitement, glitz and
glamour, and a perfect finale to the days performances. The only thing to
complain about is that The Big Brass
Love-In began at Matt and Phreds at 9.30pm, and the Secret Salon did not
finish until 10.30pm, meaning that to stay at the Salon (rightly so!) meant
that the first set from Llareggub Brass
Band was completely missed! A small price to pay for a fabulous evening’s
entertainment.