Darlings! The news may be all doom and gloom. Britain's back in lockdown for at least a month from today. Trump vs Biden is beginning to look more like some grand guignol horror story the longer the US election count goes on. Terrorists are amassing across Europe. Worst of all - the very last episode of Gardener's World for 2020 has been broadcast on the BBC!
However, there are some things in life that are worth celebrating. The 60th birthday today of the exotic gentleman in the above picture, René Froger being one of them. Who? I hear you ask...
Mijnheer Froger is not only the successful scion of a proud tradition of levenslied singing [his father owned and ran a music bar in Amsterdam, adjacent to our fave eating-place when we are there, Van Dobbens], it was after one of his solo concerts back in 2004 that he, together with fellow Dutch singers Gerard Joling and Gordon Heuckeroth* founded one of our own all-time favourite "supergroups" ever, De Toppers!
Forget your whale-watching, your Taj Mahals, Machu Pichus, luxury hotels, cruises, whatever - to be in the audience at one of their concerts is Number One on my bucket-list of "things to do before I die"!
So, without further ado, dear reader...
THIS is how you make an entrance!!
Where it's covered in all the coloured lights
Where the runaways are running the night
Impossible comes true, it's taking over you
Oh, this is the greatest show!
And, to think - there are still one or two (possibly blind, possibly mad) people out there who do not realise that I am gay...
To finish [as if there is any way to follow that], as it is Guy Fawkes Night (Bonfire Night) here in the UK...
...some fireworks!
Fijne verjaardag, René Froger (born 5th November 1960)
[*Gordon has now departed; current "additional Toppers" are Jeroen van der Boom and Jan Smit]
