Thursday 18 & Saturday 20 July 2024
Watch The Jive Aces: Bring Me Sunshine Video here
Our London visit this summer has been amazing. So many adventures, more than we could manage to blog about, but now it’s drawn to a close. The time came for us to hug our hosts but promise return next September. Our reservation is already on the books. And! We have plans to dance tonight when The Jive Aces perform on The Pantiles in Tunbridge Wells in Kent on Thursday. Unfortunately our plan to take The Tube from Hampstead to Charing Cross was foiled by a disruption on the Northern Line so Lorenzo quickly arranged for a private taxi for us. The driver arrived quickly but since driving takes longer we found ourselves running late for our 10:45 AM train. This was one time that we were thrilled to learn our train was running late. Just 15 minutes but that was enough to make the connection. We’ve been fans of this band since 1999 and have in the past traveled from North Carolina to Florida or to Virginia to dance to their music, then in London last year we got to hear them play at Ronnie Scott’s in London. We started planning to dance to their music tonight after we got a video message from Vince “Professor” Hurley back in April. When we arrived we were delighted to discover that the bandstand was located just outside The Tunbridge Wells Hotel where we had a room reservation but then dismayed to learn there was a waiting list for dinner reservations. Kudos to the manager, AJ who managed to wrangle a reservation for us after he learned that this was the prime reason for our visit, that we’d been fans for twenty-five years, that we’d come from the other side of the Atlantic to hear these guys play, then saw the excitement with which the band members greeted us while they were doing their sound check. It was a glorious evening between the perfect weather for al fresco dining, the incredible music, and the excitement of the other dancers. After the show we got chatting with some of the band members. When they learned that we’d be in Portsmouth next before sailing out of Southampton on Sunday, they proposed we meet for brunch at The Ship & Castle Pub in the heart of Portsmouth on Saturday. It was positively delightful to hang out with them for conversation over a meal and to meet their friend Laurie London. Already we’re scheming to figure out a way to catch an opportunity to meet up with them again soon because they indeed do bring us sunshine!
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