The Geezers and their friends from Bow were wide awake to hear the words of ‘By the Sleepy Lagoon’, the instrumental theme of Desert Island Discs, during a captivating evening of stories and vintage songs from Kate Garner. Kate has a lifetime’s experience of performing old songs and rooting out the stories behind them.
Tales of her own life and career thread together Kate’s performance of songs from her vintage songbook. Many we knew well and sang along with gusto. Others were new, like the lyrics to ‘By the Sleepy Lagoon’, and Kate’s own ‘Platinum Queen’, which in 2022 brought her a letter of recognition from Queen Elizabeth.
That Kate is an accomplished stride pianist is maybe less of a surprise when you know she’s the daughter of Chas Hodges of Chas & Dave. The evening was full of family photographs and her stories of growing up on the road with her dad and of her own successful career as a singer & songwriter.
We heard Kate’s own songs, songs by Chas & Dave, songs from dance bands and the music hall, folk songs and parlour songs. Kate ended with ‘We’ll Meet Again’, famously sung by Vera Lynn, and it was a sentiment shared by us all as we look forward to hearing Kate again.
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Find out more about Kate at https://www.kategarnermusic.co.uk/a
This performance of Kate Garner’s Vintage Songbook for the Geezers and Bow residents was sponsored by Clarion Housing Group’s Clarion Futures.
