Les’s big birthday party with surprise guests
This was a very special birthday, Les’s seventieth. He knew that the party for 240 guests was being held at Aynhoe Park, hosted by his sons Nigel and Colin and Nigel’s wife Gemma and Colin’s girlfriend Carolyn. What Les didn’t know was that they had booked his favourite rock band Status Quo as a complete surprise. (They even had a paramedic on standby for anyone overcome with the shock of them bursting out of the marquee!) Les’s wife Fay was in on the secret too, we had to be very careful when we arrived at their house for some pre pictures, that we didn’t let anything slip. Their lovely rescue dog Barney was the inspiration for the party, the joke was Les loved the dog more than the family, so it was only fitting that the ‘Barney lookalike’ was the host. Barney was everywhere, even projected onto the exterior windows of the house and brought to human form by Hamish Guerrini of the legendary secret venue Rabbit Hole. This was a party on epic proportions in the most perfect setting at this beautiful Grade 1 listed Baroque house, which is home of their friend James Perkins, himself a party host extraordinaire on a grand scale, who added much to the party spirit. The moment Status Quo were revealed was amazing, the marquee had two reveal curtains, the first curtain, labelled the ‘rubbish reveal’ was a rouse and excuse to bring Les to the end of the marquee to receive his birthday cake. Status Quo, were hiding behind the second curtain and as Nigel and Colin turned Les to face what looked like just a black void, a great mass of sound welled from behind the curtain and the light behind cast shadows … the curtain dropped to reveal the band with full staging to the thrill of Les and his guests. There was a combination of so much incredible talent to put this party together we will be posting a full supplier list at the foot of this post. Gemma and Nigel, thank you so much for entrusting us with your incredible event, we always love working with you both xx
