First Night Follies at the Bar
Great stuff in the interval, let alone on stage, at last night’s opening of Flamenco Flamen’ka at the Lyric. Sir Nicholas Lloyd, head honcho of PR outfit Brown Lloyd James, went to the bar and offered to pay with his “to do” list.
Having ordered gin and tonics and champers all round, he flamboyantly flashed what he thought was a big crisp one in the barman’s direction. The said bottle batman was surprised, nay astonished, to find himself perusing a sheet of paper bearing such hastily scribbled legends as “Collect dry cleaning,” “Buy new socks,” “Ring ALW.”
His friends, record producer John Craig and music publicist Jackie Gill, took it all in good spirit, suggesting it was high time Nick stopped airing his dirty washing in public and concentrated on the real work in hand, ie buying their refreshments.
Job done, they all settled down for the second act, Lady Lloyd — journalist and chick-lit novelist Eve Pollard — joining up with them all at the after-show party, no doubt with more instructions to add to the famous document.
The incident reminded me of a similar occasion at the Palladium some years ago, when Bruce Forsyth — now hosting Strictly Come Dancing, on which Flamenco Flamen’ka’s director, Craig Revel Horwood, is a splendidly mean and nasty judge — was in the chair.
Before the show started, and long before the Palladium’s famous square stalls bar had been dismantled in favour of the current airport lounge arrangement, Forsyth was ordering a huge round for the interval.
It was a dazzling display as he quizzed his guests and shouted the orders at the barman. So dazzling, in fact, that the entire place fell silent while he turned the ordering process into a fairground sideshow.
He finished. The barman stopped scribbling and without lifting his head from the notepad, simply asked, “Name?”
Brucie was rendered literally speechless. Dumbstruck. Covered in rage, confusion, even a shadow of doubt, perhaps, that there was still one man left alive on earth who simply had no idea who he was.
But at least he hadn’t brandished his shopping list at the poor ignorant fellow.