The Yacht Club

[5Deck10]

The Yacht Club

[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.

[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 

[5Deck10]

One of the things I loved about this gig were the passengers' personal links with repetoire. For example:

I'm about 20 minutes into the 7 p.m. set on a trans-Atlantic trip, summer of '91.  A calm nonagenarian (is there any other kind?), on my immediate right is listening intently to Begin the Beguine. As I finish the tune, he reminices about travelling with Cole Porter on a cruise in the South Seas in the 30's. Well, what can you say to that!

These days I'm playing Kiss me Kate at the Stratford Festival. If you're passing through Canada this summer don't miss it. John Doyle directed. The story is as engaging and fresh as ever.

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

Good to see you back, Greg! The Yacht Club has been far too quiet for the past while, and I am looking forward to hearing your tunes again 

I'd love to read more of your memories too, when you have a moment to share them.

Sadly, the Canadian Stratford is a bit out of reach for me -- enjoy the festival and the summer!

[5Deck10]

OK Isabelle, since you asked...

January 1992. A day or so out to sea after New York departure there's a meeting for all cruise staff in the Theatre. The cruise director presides. Peter Longley eloquently frames the expectations for service on the World Cruise for us. He underscores how the World Cruise is "different" from other QE2 service:  The World Cruise passengers, many who travel this route year after year, have a higher expectation of us, than say, the run of the mill Trans-Atlantic/Med Cruise sort. As we're approaching Fort Lauderdale, Peter encourages us to fill any wardrobe deficiencies; white dress shoes, for example. Mercifully this particular item is not a requirement in the music department.

Later, up in the Yacht Club, a lone gentleman from somwhere in America's South asks for Maple Leaf Rag. It's been going stale in my mind for months & months,  but I manage to dust off all four portions of it. Good thing. His $100 bill prior to his departure two nights later is an auspicious token of the trade ahead.

Folks from the American South in the Yacht Club always seemed to have a great enthusiasm for all music both popular and pianistic. Many years later, near Charleston S.C.,  I looked back and wrote "Take Me With You":
http://www.divshare.com/flash/playlist?myId=11593480-dec

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

Higher expectations, but also greater recognition of talent, memory, service, availability...!

You must have been very chuffed when the dust came off the tune and your hands found all the right keys. Did you have a lot of music sheets with you, or were you playing solely from memory?

Very very interesting for us to hear about those pep talks and the expectations of the senior QE2 crew.

That wee tune will now play in my head for a while -- and I am already looking forward to the next one!

[5Deck10]

Music Sheets? Not on my watch, Isabelle. All performances were from memory. I liked to keep my eyes on the passengers, or preferably, their decollété. Scores and recordings were stored in the cabin for rehearsal purposes; which reminds me....

A few weeks into the '92 World Cruise I started missing having 24/7 access to a rehearsal piano. QE2 had a rehearsal room, with out-of tune upright, backstage of the Grand Lounge. This room and its piano were in high demand, there being 5 staff pianists on board at any given time, and featured entertainers and show ensembles also needing rehearsal time in their coming and going. Sometimes I would work at the mahogany Steinway in the Queens Room, but that was only accessible, discreetly, after hours, while passengers slept.

I noticed a piano keyboard sitting on a table against a wall in the Mauritania Restaurant. It seemed neglected.  Surely it wouldn't be missed. I carted it off to my cabin one night, and stored it under the bed. Now I could just plug it in and practice whenever the mood struck.

Weeks later I mentioned this fortunate find to David Moore, leader of the trio "Atlantic Avenue". He chuckled. Part of his performance circuit included occasional dinner sets in the Mauritania. In recent weeks he and his mates had been released from these calls. No one could find the keyboard, and no one wanted to listen to a bassist and drummer trading fours over dinner. By now, the circumstance had become status quo. Dave recommended I just keep the thing in my cabin. And that's what I did.

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

Great stories! Still chuckling here... 

I wonder whether anyone ever took a picture of that mysterious rehearsal room, backstage of the Grand Lounge?

And how about the grand piano in the Theatre? Chris and Rachelle write in their "QE2 : A photographic journey" that this had to stay there as it was simply too big to be moved... I wonder how it ever got there... and when? Was it there, Greg, when you were hunting for a piano to work on at night, after almost everyone else had finally gone to bed?

And as regards sheet music -- was there ever a time when you told passengers requesting music to come back tomorrow? I imagine you always tried to play today's request today... 

[5Deck10]

I played the large Theatre Steinway during the Sunday morning worship services ministered by the Captain. The five pianists were scheduled to share this duty on a rotating basis. During my service, I volunteered for all of them. I found the services to be both humbling and moving, especially the ritual of concluding each with the Sailors' Hymn, to the motion of the swells below.

During the '92 World Cruise I also volunteered for a small group of Episcopalians who worshiped separately. I had lots of spare time. It made sense to keep busy. I enjoyed the variety.

If I didn't know a request, I would simply say so, or offer up something else, often by the same composer. A friend used to say "I know 5000 songs, and you ask for 5001! Another would say "I don't play that one but here's another with many of the same notes."

The unfolding of a programme over the course of an evening in the Yacht Club was a lot more dynamic and spontaneous than simply fielding requests. Conversations lead to songs, songs to conversations. Listeners respond to the spontaneous shape of the musical adventure and the style of the performance as much as the repertoire.