GERARD KENNY at The Anchor Inn, Hartfield, East Sussex. 2nd May 2002.

This was an unusual gig for Gerard. He was playing in an English Pub restaurant and the building dated back to the 14th century!
Also, he was not playing a grand piano, there was no room for one of those. It was a good old fashioned upright piano, well,... goodish. The Anchor is his 'local' and money was raised on the night was for the village's Golden Jubilee celebrations in June. At just after 9pm, he started with "God save the Queen". Of course we usually finish the evening with that one, but nobody left. Gerard continued in his structured way with "Piano Man", then a sing-a-long with "Bye Bye Blackbird" and the "So Young" was changed to '"So Old" then, "The second time around" both sung for him and Jenny.
There was a table of golfers present, so the next song was "Straight down the middle", which is Gerard's most recent new hobby.
Then the structure changed as Gerard asked for 'requests from the floor' and as they came in money was put into a pint pot for the fund.
"Honky Cat" was followed by "Isn't she lovely" which was changed to "Wasn't she lovely" and the lyrics adapted to 'feature' the Late Queen Mother.
"The Entertainer", was followed by "A nightingale sang in Berkley Sq" and dedicated to his mother-in-law whose was with Jenny's party.
More requests, "Georgia, I am a singer, Daniel, Weekend in New England, I could be so good for you, New York New York, All that jazz, a short version of I got it from Agnes", and the first half ended with the "Birth of the blues".
During the interval Jenny noticed me, said hello and missed her step and fell at my feet.
I don't usually have that effect on women. In the next half, more requests.
"Don't take candy from Strangers", "Mrs Robinson" was changed to "Pamela Robinson", who was present, then "Lady is a tramp".
Then the low point, two golfers got up and sang "Flower of Scotland", and amazingly, to show how clever the man is, Gerard managed to follow them on the piano.
Gerard sang "Danny Boy", "Smile", "I'll be seeing you" and "Chicago". Another 'local' Susie, got up to sing "Big Spender" and "Desperado", and our man backed her perfectly.
"Mack the Knife, Mandy, 1,000,000 love songs" came next.
moments later, Susie was back with "Oh Carol", but between each line we all sang 'in bed' After "Son of a song and dance man" and "Wind beneath my wings" came the finale, the raffle, and I didn't win. Gerard's devotees were all there. Rosie and Pat, Rosemary and Peter, Malcolm and his wife and son, several from Swindon and Newbury and one from Horndean, and me.
This was Gerard going back to his roots with 'piano bar' playing, unusual for us, but excellent, as always.