Spirit of Play

We're no strangers to love.

But that Rick Astley, I mean, come on . . . he knew what he was talking (or singing) about, didn't he?

The alarming truth is, although most Spirit of Play rehearsals have been held at a fine place called Alaska Studio (or Studios, they can't quite decide which it is; their latest claim to fame is here), we've also sneaked off to the Studio Lounge in Borough, which is undergoing a luvverly revamp, doesn't smell in the slightest, but will once the usual 10,000 maniacs have been through it, spilling beer and climbing all over the amps, in the usual manner of heavy metal bands, drooling lunatics and madrigal choirs the world over. So I recommend it for all musicians with olfactory sensitivities to consider.

But what's the Studio Lounge's real claim to fame?

OK. Here we go:

Rick Astley supposedly recorded "Never Gonna Give You Up" there.

I know. Amazing. There it is. Three minutes thirty-three of pop history. And all that (non-jazz).

In other words, the Studio Lounge used to be Pete Waterman's Hit Factory (not to be confused with the New York studio of the same name).

Some people are excited by this sort of thing.

But I'm afraid it made me think that the song is actually a bit too long. By about three minutes and thirty-three seconds . . . .

These hostile vibes towards a perfectly innocent little ditty that's made millions of people happy (for three minutes and thirty-three seconds; the fools!) can only mean that in about a week's time I'll start humming it and running through the chords in my head.

Then I'll wait until nobody is within earshot, and I'll start playing it on the acoustic.

Then I'll start playing my post-ironic cover version in public and feeling very clever.

I'll probably smile, wryly, once or twice (yeah, that's great, you're, like, so ironic . . . and all that . . . non-jazz).

And finally I'll remember that I heard a guy play "Hey Now" in the same manner, at an open mic night on November 1, 2009 . . .

and hang my head in shame.

Like Rick said: "we know the game and we're gonna play it". That acoustic-cover-of-fabously-unhip-pop-song thing has kind of been done already.

Bah. Hum. Bug. Back to the post-ironic drawing board.