REDUX Such a Night: Damian Lewis at the EFG London Jazz Festival 2022

“Jazz is a broad church. That’s why we chose a Tabernacle. Place of residence. Place of meeting. Tent of congregation. Tent of meeting.”

-Damian Lewis

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I had a 72-hour lightning trip to London for a special weekend with fan friends and a fantastic evening of music at The Tabernacle London in Notting Hill with the one and only Damian Lewis. It was such a night that, one week later,  I am still the under the spell of Damian’s spectacular performance and ready to tell you all about how our Ginger Elvis has ruled on the stage and off – he has made time for everyone, VIPs and fans alike, after the gig. So please come join me in the beautiful and inspiring  music hall that is The Tabernacle London, and live or re-live ( if you were lucky  enough to be there) every single detail from that glorious evening.

Shall we?

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A Spy Among Friends, Episode 6: No Man’s Land

The East German authorities built the Berlin Wall to stop people from escaping to West Germany.  Most of the 155 km wall was made up of 3.6m high concrete panels while the rest was barbed wire. A heavily guarded no man’s land (the title of the episode!) known as the “death strip” ran along the Eastern side of the Wall. More than 7,000 East German soldiers manned the watchtowers and the bunkers. It was the best-lit area in Berlin thanks to the lamp posts every 30 meters. In addition, there were alarms, ditches, barbed wire, guard dogs and weapons that automatically fired shots at the escapers.

A Spy Among Friends finale opens at one of the seven crossing points between East Berlin and West Berlin. As I try to understand who is in the car approaching the checkpoint to get into East Berlin…

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A Spy Among Friends, Episode 5: Snow

A Spy Among Friends is the kind of show where one should pay attention to every detail. For me, this extends to episode  titles. Snow.  It is a polysemous word. The first thing that comes to mind when snow is concerned is, of course, the small white pieces of ice that sometimes fall from the sky when it is cold. However,  as a verb, snow also means to deceive or trick someone with persuasive talk. And it is exactly what spies do, isn’t it?  So it snows in Moscow in this episode while the spies keep snowing each other 🙂

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A Spy Among Friends, Episode 4: Vodka

The Russian National drink names this episode and is a recurring theme in the story.

Na Zdorovie!

Important morning in Moscow for Philby. He has an appointment at Lubyanka, the KGB headquarters, for his debrief. The CIA agents are watching him dress up from the CIA safe house across from his apartment. As he prepares to leave, Philby remembers the press conference he had 10 years ago to deny the accusation that he was responsible for helping Donald MacLean and Guy Burgess escape to the USSR. Continue reading “A Spy Among Friends, Episode 4: Vodka”

Eight Years with Damian Lewis

OH. MY. GOD.

Fan Fun with Damian Lewis is eight years old today!

Eight years?!?!?!

YES, eight years!

I vividly remember the conversation I had with Lewisto in the last weeks of 2014 about whether it would be worth keeping an online fan diary about Damian Lewis. Being the rational guy that he is, Lewisto suggested I do it  only if I was confident I could commit for at least two years so it would be worth the effort.

2 years?!?! We just quadrupled that 😀 😀 😀 Continue reading “Eight Years with Damian Lewis”