Thanks Mark, Trev, Mark, and Joe for the PM.
Anne's "celebration of life" thingy took place today (Sat 15th Feb, 2:30-5:30pm UK time). We had to be back in Canada this week due to other responsibilities (we had been in the UK for 6 weeks), so missed it, but all the prepwork was done in advance. Anne would have approved of how things went.
She gave STRICT instructions that this was NOT to be a sad event. She wanted balloons, photos, smiles, tea, coffee, happy talk . . .
and rock music !!!!
Anne’s music tastes were varied, but the songs she was exposed to during her teenage years (big Bruv is probably a bit to blame for that) resulted in a lifelong appreciation for rock & heavy metal.
Her first rock gig was in 1986 (Twister Sister - seemed appropriate), and her last was in 2018 (Iron Maiden - also appropriate). Anne had no problem brushing shoulders with predominantly male rock crowds, and even felt comfortable in “pit” areas (no seating and a constantly moving/jumping audience). She also looked back fondly at her attendances at several of the Donington “Monsters of Rock” festivals, standing proud alongside our "gang" in packed crowds of 55-110,000.
Although there are dozens of songs that could have been picked from the years following, we concentrated on the 80’s for her event playlist. She loved the 80's - OTT hair, politically incorrect videos, and a cheerful “hell yeah!” attitude that no decade since has come close to matching.
The playlist showcases some of the songs that Anne treasured over the years . . . mostly “up” music (as she requested), but with a few emotional ones that we couldn’t leave out because of what the bands & songs meant to her.
Here's the YouTube playlist I created for the event -
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 1xfcJwYnms
I'm thinking some of you folks will appreciate them too
.