I left my bag in the Atrium last night. I'd been working on my news theme in the computer lab, and at around 7pm I decided that it was about time I packed it in and went to meet the others at Varsity. So I logged off, fired up Depeche Mode's Violator (not a bad album for 75p), and headed into the night.
Without my bag. In a way I'm glad; it was quite heavy and I wouldn't have wanted to hold onto it in Varsity. And hey, it's not like anything was stolen; it was still there this morning, so no harm done.
Anyway, the reason behind our outing to Varisty was, of course, karaoke. Everybody was eager to get their hands on the cash prize, or at the very least the food vouchers.
We were all in fine voice. Soph was the first up, and she did her usual rendition of You've Got A Friend, and obivously it was very good because Soph has, as Gem put it, "the voice of a black woman". Gem did a soulful Black Horse & The Cherry Tree, but not before James had made his rather growly mark on Mustang Sally.
"Hang on," I hear you cry. "Who's James?"
Well prior to last night, I wouldn't have been able to tell you. I met James for the first time yesterday, and it turns out he's Soph's new workmate. He's very Scottish.
Anyway, after Gem had been up it was my turn. I managed a solid, if slightly nervous, go at Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here, cunningly chosen because it has several longish stretches without vocals, which meant time for me to relax.
Josh and Rich were there too, but they seemed fairly adamant that they weren't gonna sing. Josh said he would if they had one particular Arcade Fire track (Sprawl 2 or something, I don't know, it's off the new album and I've not really gotten into it properly yet) but, alas, they did not.
So the rest of us got up and had another go. Gem did This Kiss by Faith Hill. Soph did It's Raining Men, and that was fun. James did something, I forget what. I did ITEOTWAWKI (AIFF)* by R.E.M., which was rapturously recevied. I think I did well to find a song that was both impressive and easy to sing; I already knew all the words and, well, there are a lot of them, so I think people were impressed. One guy even shook my hand, and another offered me a record deal, but I turned him down because, as we learned in Musical Cultures, only 0.4% of artists who sign with a major label make any money off it.
After that, Soph and James had another go - a duet this time, on Summer Nights from Grease, and it seems that somewhere down the line I forgot how dirty that song is. Gem did another one too, something by Lily Allen, which seemed to be about how her boyfriend can't satisfy her in bed. So...yeah. I didn't have another go; I decided that I wouldn't be able to top my R.E.M. cover.
Other highlights included two guys singing Barbie Girl to each other, doing the right voices and all, as well as one poor man struggling through Sex Bomb (Josh and I were trying to work out he whom he most sounded like; it started out a bit William Shatner, dabbled in Jim Carrey-esque shouting, before settling firmly in Stephen Hawking territory).
However, there was one man who was head and shoulders and chest hair above everyone else. He sang Nessun Dorma in the style of Pavarotti, and my word did he belt it. It's not often one sees a standing ovation at the Varsity karaoke night, but there it was. It certainly brought a tear to my eye.
So that was karaoke night. I had been tempted to leave early, but I'm glad I didn't, because I would have missed one of the greatest performances of our time. And a particularly sensitive rendition of Tenacious D's Fuck Her Gently.
Oh, and there was no cash prize. Turns out that's the Sunday one; the Thursday one's just for laughs.
Joel.
P.S. Soph and Gem (and James, under protest) went into town afterwards, but I elected not to go with them. Instead, I sat in the living room with Cliffey. He read some philosophy book. I read some book on music education. He ate muffins and frankfurters. I ate bread and peanut butter. It was nice.
*It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine). Afficionados abbreviate.
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