I had popped into King Bar after visiting to the Toy Museum with my son to show him where Daddy hosted the weekly quiz and karaoke nights and met my old friend Oğuz Demirtas setting up his guitar equipment. I was a bit surprised at this because I was due to host the Karaoke there just a few hours later but Levent told me we could do the evening between us.
I met Oğuz a few years ago and even videoed him performing in Tudors Pub one night with his band at the time, Voyn.
I think the first time I heard him play was at the Pyjama Party where he had the honour of staring at my arse for most of the night.
When I arrived later we had a chat about how we would organise the night and then he performed an acoustic set to a few friends while we waited to see how many more people would turn up. Towards the end of the acoustic section, quite a few people had come for what turned out to be a Birthday Party.
Although I had invited over 100 people on facebook, 13 of whom said they were coming, only my good friend Nicole turned up so I sat and chatted to her as Oğuz kicked off his electric set. He got me up to join him for Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’ so that I could introduce myself after it and explain in my best pigeon Turkish about the Karaoke.
The Birthday Party had masks of the Birthday boy made up and everyone was to wear one as he arrived to the bar, even the statues.
As it turned out I was the first double of himself that he saw upon entering the bar. He was then presented with a cake which was later dished out to everyone and was, as is the norm for birthday cakes here, super tasty!
I had managed to get one Australian dude to volunteer a song for Karaoke but he said he wanted to get drunk-er before singing it. However, a drunk Englishman wasn’t so shy and asked me to play the Proclaimers song. I automatically thought it would be ‘500 Miles‘ but after some clarification it turned out that he wanted ‘Letter From America‘, which is a song about the Highland Clearances of Scotland.
It turned out to be another case of the singer not knowing the song too well, so I had to help out in the loosest possible sense of the word, because it was not exactly suited to my silky vocal chords.
Oğuz was doing a great job of entertaining people but I was pleased when I got a message from Anıl asking if I was still doing the Karaoke as I knew he would certainly add some class to the party.
When Oguz was having a break I played some party tunes and the English gent turned on his charm by getting down on his knees for Madonna’s ‘Like A Prayer‘.
Someone must have sent out a report on the proceeding on Social Media or something because next thing you know, a man with a Saxophone walked into the Bar. He started blowing and the party kicked up another gear.
There had been a little dispute over the price of drinks earlier with my English and Australian Karaoke singers but I spoke to Levent and he sorted it out. Several Rum and Cola’s and a few Tequila’s later all was well and everyone was very Merry indeed and that’s putting it mildly.
I then spotted Miguel whom I had met a few times before, the last time being on St Patricks Night when I turned up with a few wigs of which he was happy to try on and pose for a few snaps. Here he is in normal life.
I had Zano at a Footie Night where the quality of his headphones impressed me a lot. He offered his services if I organised a night that required a DJ. It has been noted, so we will see what happens with regard to that one. I certainly liked the music he was playing on his space age headphones.
Here are some highlights of the music from the evening. I am sure you can see it was a great party.
I met the Birthday boy outside and we had a very enjoyable chat about politics etc. You know, one of those chats that happen after several beers and a few shots. I was going to take a selfie of just the two of us when some lovely ladies said goodbye to him, so of course I had to grab them to add some glamour to the photo. 🙂
The Photos
Cheers!
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