Well, the birthday party went very well and the birthday boy, i.e. me, had a great time. At the risk of a cliche, family and good friends are the important things in life.
We had an attendance of upwards of 50 people, and with some movement between the upper and lower levels of the house, and a bit of hanging out in the garage near the beer fridge by some of us, it wasn't overly crowded or congested. it was great to see a few friends I haven't seen in person for quite a while, 25 years in one case, and that people made the trek from as far as South Australia and Queensland to be there.
We haven't had this many warm bodies in the house at once before, and an interesting phenomenon became apparent. As those who've been along for the ride will recall, we put a lot of thought and effort into the energy efficiency of our home. Being the middle of Winter here, on the night it was real cold outside by Australian standards, about 2 degrees Celsius. Inside the heating was set to 20 as usual. By the middle of the evening people were starting to complain it was a bit hot and ask for the heating to be turned down. Well, it wasn't the heating, it had long since paused as the inside temperature rose to 23. Turns out the place is well enough insulated and sealed up that the body heat of all those people was being contained. There was some suggestion that we turn the cooling on but that seemed stupid to me, so we just cracked the door out to the deck to alleviate the situation. I've had gatherings of this size in previous houses and not had this issue.
I had created a musical play list from my pretty extensive collection and just for the hell of it I'll share it here, any comments welcome. This was on random order play, so these are in no particular order.
Suffragette City - David Bowie
Rock and Roll Music - Beatles
Calling Elvis - Dire Straits
Memphis Tennessee - Faces
All Right Now - Free
Rock and Roll - Led Zep
Little Queenie - The Stones (live version from Get Yer Ya Ya's Out, greatest live album in the history of music)
Baby's Gone - Axiom, local Australian band from the '60's, lead singer Glenn Shorrock who was later in the Little River Band which had a bit of international success
Itchycoo Park - Small Faces
All I Wanna Do - Sheryl Crow
I Fought The Law - Richard Clapton, local Australian talent, covering the song Gene Pitney did originally
Stay With Me - Faces
I Can't Explain - The Who
Old Time Rock and Roll - Bob Seger
Homework - Mick Fleetwood Blues Band
Boys Light Up - Australian Crawl, local Australian band from the '80's
Load Out - Jackson Browne
I'm Going Home - Ten Years After
Won't Get Fooled Again - The Who
Maggie May - Rod Stewart
Poison Ivy - Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, local Australian band from the '60's, covering and cranking up the old Coasters song
Mannish Boy - Muddy Waters
Polk Salad Annie - Tony Joe White
Black Magic Woman - Santana
Too Rolling Stones - Robin Trower
Seven Days - Ronnie Wood
Lazy Sunday Afternoon - Small Faces
I'm Gonna Love You - La De Da's, local Australian band from the '70's
Sweet Jane - Lou Reed, live version from Live in Berlin
Ain't To Proud to Beg - The Stones covering the Temptations
Turn Up Your Radio - Master's Apprentices, local Australian band from the '60's
James Dean, Eagles
Crossroads, Cream, covering and cranking up Robert Johnson
We Gotta Get Out of This Place - Animals
Love Her Madly - Doors
Maybelline - Chuck Berry
Bombora - Atlantics, legendary Australian surf band from the '60's, lead by my now octogenarian mate Jim whose guitar skills I would love to be able to emulate
La Grange - ZZ Top
Cold Hard ***** - Jet, Australian band from the early 2000's
Paying the Cost to be the Boss - BB King and the Stones
You Can't Always Get What You Want - Stones
I Only Want To Be With You - Dusty Springfield
Needles and Pins - Searchers
Radar Love - Golden Earring
Confidence Man - Jeff Healey
Slow Turning - John Hiatt, live version from Live at the Budokan
Doo Wah Diddy - Manfred Mann
Shape I'm In - The Band
Rocky Mountain Way - Joe Walsh
Tumbling Dice - Linda Ronstadt, covering the Stones
Youngblood - Bad Company covering the Coasters
I Saw Her Standing There - Beatles
Taking Care of Business - BTO
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl - Them
Rock Me Baby - BB King
Little Ray of Sunshine - Axiom, see earlier
Route 66 - Stones covering Bobby Troup
Call Me The Breeze - Lynyrd Skynyrd covering JJ Cale on the live One More From The Road (before the plane crash)
Hard Driving Man - J Geils Band, live version from Full House, well up there on the list of best ever live albums
I Saw Her Again Last Night - Mamas and Papas
Sultans of Swing - Dire Straits
Texas Flood - SRV
When Love Comes to Town - BB King and U2
Come Tomorrow - Manfred Mann
King of The Blues - Gary Moore
Used to Love Her - Stones
When I Was Young - Animals
Who'll Stop the Rain - CCR
Let's Spend the Night Together - Stones
Hippy Hippy Shake - Georgia Satellites
Girls On The Avenue - Richard Clapton, see earlier
Dust My Broom - Hound Dog Taylor and the Houserockers
Tush - ZZ Top
Lola - Kinks
Tokyo Joe - Roxy Music
Police Police - Atlanta Rhythm Section
Ramblin' Man - Allman Brothers Band
Somebody to Love - Jefferson Airplane
The Doctor - Jackson Browne
Substitute - The Who
Cut Across Shorty - Rod Stewart
I Feel The Earth Move - Carol King
100 years Ago - Stones
Wishing Well - Free
Can't Turn You Loose - Max Merritt and the Meteors, legendary Australian/New Zealand soul band from the '60's, covering Otis Redding
At the end of the night a few of us repaired to the lower level living room for an impromptu jam session which was a lot of fun. This included a good mate I was in a couple of pretty ordinary garage bands with a very long time ago and we relived a lot of old memories. You know how it goes, the older we get the better we were.
Anyway, as I said on the night, I won't be turning 70 again, so I'm glad I made the most of it.