The Phoenix Artist Club: great venue, Christmassy fun!
family, music ·The story so far: Colin, pianist with "Two Flutes and a Flirt", managed to get the group a slot at the Phoenix Artist Club's "Christmas Spectacular". A few rehearsals, and a few more bottles of wine, and we were ready to give it our best shot. With the gig booked for 23rd December, if you were to argue that Two Flutes and a Flirt left their first gig of 2012 rather late in the year, I could only agree!
We had a rather fun journey in to Soho from Amersham where we live: I brought our three kids on the train with me, meeting up with Mrs H at the venue. Somehow, we also managed to squeeze in some emergency Christmas shopping en route, and caught the lights on Oxford Street as an extra bonus.
Funny how you can walk past somewhere and never realise what's there, though: I used to work in Covent Garden, and must have walked past the venue, on the corner of Charing Cross Road and Phoenix Street, many times as I trawled the music instrument and technology shops in the area, without taking in what was there. As it turned out, I had been missing a trick.
Arriving on this particular cold Sunday evening, we headed straight down the stairs when we arrived, to find ourselves in a wonderfully intimate and inviting space. With tables set out for the event, staff dressed up, music playing and pretty Christmas lights twinkling above us, we immediately felt welcome and ready for a fun time. With Mrs H arriving shortly after, we were then in a position to settle down at a table and launch into mulled wine and mince pies before getting ready for our little performance.
The room was by now full of people coming to see the show. We set up our instruments and, after a brief introduction from the multi-talented Colin, launched into the first of our numbers. My son reports that people enjoyed our little performance; certainly, we had plenty of fun playing! Mid-set we were interrupted by the appearance of Father Christmas, who handed out chocolates to the children (of whom there were a number in addition to our three) and generally built up the gregarious atmosphere of the gathering. After he went, we finished off our set and brought the flute/flirt action to a close.
At this point we had to leave, since our youngest was all set to "lose the plot". 
We managed to hold out a bit longer than expected due to a brief return from Father Christmas, who is obviously a bit of a regular! We did manage to catch the first part of Colin's cabaret set before going, though, which I believe was to be followed by performances from some excellent West End soloists.
The main thoughts I was left with, thinking about the evening as we travelled home on the tubes and trains, were:
1) We will definitely be back: the Phoenix Artist Club is a lovely venue where we would love to spend some more time
2) It is always fun playing flute, so I hope we book some more gigs soon for Two Flutes and a Flirt
3) The things you appreciate are often those that the most thought and effort have gone into: this definitely applies to the event and the venue. I would recommend a visit if you are near!
Post script: oddly enough, at a party on our road later that evening, it turned out that our neighbour went to a works event at the club just a few days before. Small world!