Greg Diakun Remembers: Playing Requests in the Yacht Club

[5Deck10]

Hello fellow travellers! I've been inspired by Louis' crew blog to start my own here from the perspective of the piano in the Yacht Club on the World Cruise of 1992.  I've several objectives in mind:

• To organize and amplify my own memories
• To reconnect with QE2 friends
• To finish music I began writing at sea, or that's been inspired by this travel time around the world

I'll need your help with photos. I'll gladly provide the music. But first, some legal assurance for all concerned: Any audio files I may post are copyright River Rise Music Ltd. (my publishing company) and licenced (cleared) exclusively by me for use on this topic in this particular QE2 forum.

I'll be happy to take your requests! Bear in mind that due to these licencing restrictions, I'll be featuring my own copyrights exclusively on this voyage. But that still leaves us a vast repertoire to draw from....my original songs written onboard, original public domain arrangements, and even spontaneous musings at the piano inspired by your favourite standards...

Enough. Let's begin....Here's your request card and an empty glass waiting to be filled by your server. It's 7:00 p.m. and time for the first set. We're way up in the stern and feeling the vibrations from the massive diesel engines at work as they propel us through this magical evening on the Atlantic. The white Schimmel grand is sparkling, and just tuned this morning in New York prior to our 2:00 p.m. embarkation....

Pull up a chair, order your favourite drink, lean forward, and listen to my story....

[5Deck10]

This story begins not on the ship, but on a bicycle in rural Ontario, Canada. I've been living here for a year or so, and on this particular day I'm cycling from the garage where I've left the car for service. It's a few kilometers along a country road to get back home. I'm just up the hill, ready to turn into the long drive when a 16 year-old pulls into my right of way in her father's Pontiac Parisienne.  Smack.....crunch.....tumble.....fractured pelvis.

I won't be working for a while. Painful to sit. Can't drive. Can't really play the piano....my pedal foot isn't working....I call Daniel Thibault at Tube Productions in Montreal and tell him the bad news....I won't be able to take that contract on the Sea Goddess.....(In retrospect, this was a blessing. Another musician, the late Gary Faryna, used to tell it like this:  "I've been in the Don, (a notorious Toronto jail) and I've been on the Sea Goddess, and the Sea Goddess was worse" A few weeks pass, and Daniel calls me again. How am I doing? Better. Something brand new has come up....a position on QE2...He says it would be a great way to recuperate. I'm restless. My answer is yes.

June 21st 1991

The summer solstice. I fly to New York and board the ship for the first time. Not knowing any better, I stroll up the passenger gangway and start asking questions of the cruise staff in the Midships Lobby. They're busy and not particularly helpful. It's all so routine to them. Understandably. Eventually things are sorted out. I find my private (passenger) cabin on 5 deck. As I'm unpacking I'm visited personally by Brian Beaton, Cunard's Entertainment Director in New York. I've been haggling with Daniel over the terms of my contract, and Brian wants to make sure I've shown up.

As it's my first time on the ship, Clare (from Wales, and leading the band in the Lido) is covering my shift at the piano in the embarkation lounge. Clare, like all the Welsh, has a sweet and natural singing voice. She had a lovely way of phonating simple, everyday words like "potatoes". I've a recording of this, but can't release it to the universe without her approval, so you'll have to take my word for it.

[Blue Bombay]

Hi Greg

Nice to see here my old friend.I am all sure everyone is dying to hear your stories.Ill do the honour and serve the drinks around................Gin tonic for me to start.  



Louis

[Blue Bombay]

I rejoined the ship in Southampton on the 15th June then we done the Crossing to New York arriving on the 21st

Heres my entry for that day

21st June 1991

At 7H30 this morning we docked portside to Berth 3,Pier 90.

I was on cleaning gang duty today so didnt get a chance to set my feet ashore.

We had no passengers in transit so the ship was very empty this morning.

By noon all embarakation staff on duty to report in,shortly after embaraktion commences.

At 15H00 we departured for Southampton,also on the same time there was an hour forward.

Later in the afternoon there was Boat Drill for embarked passengers.

That first night you joined did you play already in the Yacht Club? If so i did see you that first evening ( i dont remember ) because i was working then in the Yacht Club.

Louis

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

Great memories coming here! Thank you, Greg, for having started this new onboard diary!

Now, I am dreaming over my request card while enjoying the G&T Louis has just brought, as we settle down for a lovely programme.

[5Deck10]

That first night you joined did you play already in the Yacht Club? If so i did see you that first evening ( i dont remember ) because i was working then in the Yacht Club.

Yes, we met and worked in the Yacht Club together that evening, Louis. I had been spared having to play for embarkation on this occasion, as a courtesy from the cruise director. After taking stock of my cabin, and submitting some travel expenses to the purser's office, I found my way to the new venue I'd be holding my musical court in for the next 88 days. I passed the Theatre Bar. David Moore, and his band mates, Richard and Dave, were breezing along nicely through Jobim's "Wave".  Dave's playing was the first music I heard on board. Through both my contracts, I would continue to marvel at his deft jazz phrasing, and easy vocal command of a vast repertoire of standards.

What did I play that first night to get things started?  Possibly Rodgers' & Hart's "Manhattan", as we'd just left the city, maybe a little "Moonglow" and some "Days of Wine and Roses". Tunes that still fall naturally under my hands no matter where or when the circumstances though, I've long left this sort of performing behind.

I could carry on with these 88 days in the summer of '91, but our topic is the '92 World Cruise. Let me say this about trans-Atlantic service, though: Through all my travels, I've never found any place more satisfying than QE2 on those five days at sea, especially on a westward crossing. I've never felt freer. To be removed from it all, yet surrounded by the best of it all. To be in the midst of an abyss, yet supremely protected from it. To be disconnected from every worry and care of civilization, yet have all the benefits and comforts. To be on QE2, the determined ocean liner, on her very own ocean.

[5Deck10]

Sunday, January 5th, 1992

The "Grand Expedition" begins. First a short flight from Toronto to New York. The plane banks over the west side of Manhattan.  Way down below, QE2 has already arrived and is holding her own against the skyscrapers. Today begins a journey of both leaving and returning to New York City. The circumnavigation will take 100 days.

Finding the 5 deck cabin is easy. It's the same one I occupied just a few months ago; allocated to all Yacht Club entertainers. Chris, previous pianist, has generously left a bottle of champagne. The toast will have to wait. I'm scheduled to play for embarkation, and it's late. But it's exhilarating to be on board again. There's Peter Longley, the Cruise Director. Before I can even say hello, he points me to my station at the piano. Passengers are arriving, and the appropriate musical atmosphere is required; now. Playing for QE2 embarkation is a rather anonymous and largely symbolic affair.

First I was late. Now I'm agitated. But all the passengers are simply busy finding their cabins. All except for one gentleman. He's neatly dressed and sitting quietly alone to my left. My fingers are ready to strike the first chord. I look up to acknowledge this audience of one, and recognize Victor Borge.

My agitation turns to nervousness. He begins a conversation and offers a master class on the topic of the small arm under the piano lid. Do I know it's purpose? No. He walks over to the right of the piano and pulls the little wooden stick outward. "This is where you hang your jacket". He does so. Voila! That settled, would I please play "Somewhere My Love"?

Everyone's caught up in the excitement and anticipation on board. But I'm a little wistful. I'm leaving loved ones behind. The waters deepen and so does a sense of separation. It will take two weeks to find the rhythm of ship life. New York dissolves. The ocean beckons. QE2 answers. Here's "Fading Away":

http://www.divshare.com/flash/playlist?myId=10410336-5d4

 

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

Great to see you arrive and begin to settle in, Greg! So this was your second time on board...

I'm scheduled to play for embarkation, and I'm late. But it's exhilarating to be on board again. There's Peter Longley, the Cruise Director. As I walk up to say hello he points me to my station at the piano. Passengers are arriving, and the appropriate musical atmosphere is required; now. Playing for QE2 embarkation is a rather anonymous and largely symbolic affair.

Don't know about anyone else... but for me, the music in the Midships Lobby (which was harp during our time) on embarkation was the first thing I ever saw and heard on QE2, the very first time I boarded, and on later occasions, it always brought the happy feeling "I'm back!" every time I returned. And as we knew we would be meeting the harpist again in different places every day on board, we also really listened when we arrived, as we wanted to get a feeling for her type of music.

So, at least for me, not anonymous, but hugely symbolic!

Thank you for the taste of your music this morning -- looking forward to hearing you play in the Yacht Club many time during this cruise.

[Rob Lightbody]

Love the atmosphere you're conjuring up there Greg, I could almost be there in my mind.  Welcoming people on board the luxurious, wonderful, unique QE2 for 100 days during the latter days of her heyday, before QM2 was even imagined.

[ancoaster78]

Wonderful! Musicians is not an area of the crew I have heard much from, really looking forward to this blog developing, and listning to the tracks too!

Somehow I think music and travel go so well together, can hardly imagine QE2 without its music....

Thanks for coming here to share it