Neil's UK birthday party

Jean Bovis has kindly given me permission to post her review and some pics from Neil's 60th birthday party in the UK- thanks Jean :-}  Sounds like you had a fabulous night too......

LONDON, ENGLAND, Neil Diamond Birthday Party, 20th January, 2001, to celebrate Neil's 60th Birthday.
Writing by Jean Bovis, photographs by Jean and Tony Bovis.

If we had delayed our departure for London until a little later on the Saturday morning we might not have made it; as our neighbours told us there was three inches of snow after we left. In those circumstances we would not have got our car up the hill and out of our cul de sac; and then the other hills, (nor would a taxi for the train station) so we were lucky.

We arrived at the Eccleston Hotel, Victoria, London, at about 12 noon, and had a sandwich lunch with Roy and Monica Fisher. Then lots more fans started arriving, it was so lovely to see them all again, the last time that we saw some of them was at the concerts, and then Woburn Abbey the summer of 2000.  In the afternoon there was an auction of part of the record collection of a fan who had sadly passed away, the proceeds going to charity. This took quite a long time, but was interesting and in some parts very funny. Ian was there with a huge stall of records etc, I obtained the picture disc Primitive from him, now I am happy to have all 4 of the collection. June and Don, (The Diamond Connection) and I, shared a stall - June with her TDC things, and I had some odd and ends I wanted to pass on.

Then came a break for tea and cake, and lots more chatting with friends.  There was the usual group photograph and if the party gets any bigger then it would have to be taken in two halves I would think? We all signed a card for Neil, as always (I hope he actually reads all the comments on there?)

Later, I changed into something that glistened for the evening "do". And a group of 12 of us sat at a huge table to do the quiz and later for dinner. This group consisted of: Karin and Hans (from Germany), June and Don Allen, Tony and me, Annabel, Michael, Angela, Sheila, Lindy, and Carey.

We had lots of fun and a good laugh, as always.........the tables were decorated with red, white and blue (of course) England and American flags, lots of silver strands, and balloons, with coloured serviettes on the tables too.  The walls of the room were incredible. Decorated with lots of posters, album covers, and fantastic drawings and cut outs of frogs wearing trousers and crowns, that Sandra and Margaret had made.  It all looked stunning.

 

 The cake, was really Neilly, it was the waistline with a belt and even the belt-loops , and the top of blue jeans, with a pocket that had a picture of Neil and one of his Labradors. It was a shame to cut up the cake and and eat it - but we did!
(I always say this!)

"The girls" had worked so hard to make the whole room look gorgeous and very festive. Evelyn really is a marvellous organizer. Everything was planned to the smallest detail. All of them working so hard, and with love, to make it look "so good, so good...." We are grateful to them for all their hard work and the stylish presentation of the party.

The disco was brilliant as always, with some of the lesser known songs (good to hear them too) as well as the biggies.  And, a young man, Richard, from Scotland, did a Karoke version of Sweet Caroline, and it was incredible. We all stood and jigged around on the dance floor, "ah,ah'd" and "so good'd" for all we were worth. It made his day and it made mine too, one of those very special sweet moments that can happen with Neil fans, "if you know what I mean?"

The food was very appetising, sweet and sour pork, savoury things, Indian platter and my favourite - fresh salmon; with salads, rice, pasta - and the sweet was a trifle with cream. I was very good and didn't pig it, even Ian was impressed and said my portion was moderate.

We danced ourselves silly, "once again", and then Tony and I got really tired at about 1.30am and sloped off to bed. Actually slept very well in the hotel which is unusual for me, but a fan somewhere, (that is electrical - not a Neil-fan) woke me up at 6.00am.   Then we said a sad, long, goodbye to all our friends in the lobby as they all drifted off with their lift, in their cars, or to catch a train.  And in Karin and Hans' case to catch a plane back to Germany.

A big thank you goes to Evelyn for all the careful planning, the success of the evening and for all the money she raised through party tickets and the raffle - for charity. Thanks also to Sandra, Margaret and all the rest of the group of fans who worked so hard and with such style to make the evening a huge success, once again. Jean

For more pics and to check out Jean's wonderful website
click here

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