Having had a phone call from a friend of many years, Eddy McNulty, I duly turned up at the 4P's ( The Four Provinces Pub) in Coventry for a soiree on New Years Eve.

The usual festive crowd had gathered in the bars, and although everyone was well behaved, acoustic music was out of the question, with a girl saxophone duo playing full blast through a p.a.

The Answer?

The Bottle Store.

A separate small room across the courtyard from the pub itself, It holds perhaps thirty people (perhaps forty if they are friendly!) and by 9pm we had assembled. Eddy had organised a gathering including Pat Cooksey and his family, Sean and James Cannon, Clive Ryder, Brenda and I, and many other friends.

The music started at 9.15pm and went on till 2.30 am

Pat was in fine form as usual, Sean's voice was magical and James' solo contribution was super, as well as duos with his dad.
Clive is a brilliant instrumentalist and joined in with everyone all night.
What I particularly appreciated was the ad hoc contributions from people who popped in for a while, or from friends who don't normally perform. A sung duet from Eddy and his friend Brendan was amazing!

As you can imagine it turned out to be one of those evenings which you will always remember and I thought since Pat is known to many Mudcatters you might like to know about it.

I'm sure there are many similar musical moments in our collective memories, but I thought I would love to share this one with my friends on Mudcat at the beginning of 2006

A very Happy and Prosperous New Year to you all!!

Dave Bennett and Brenda