....and not a creature in the house did stir.

Too damn right.  Those fortunate enough to be at Banburys Mill Theatre on Wednesday 8th August 2001 were treated to a performance of such rarity and quality that they were, quite literally, transfixed.

Anna Ryder and Julianne Regan produced a show that started on a high, and just got better.  From the opener Appletree Man featuring guest guitarist Marty Willson-Piper (of All About Eve and The Church) through to the closer Carey, the whole evening was about two girls having fun playing and singing each others songs.

Anna moved effortlessly from keyboard to guitar to French horn throughout the evening, sharing lead vocal duties with Julianne.  Both girls sang extremely well, and were aided in that department by the backing vocals throughout of Kate Luxmoore, Chris Knibbs, Oonagh Ryder and Chris While & Julie Matthews.

Despite the number of guests - and lets not forget final guest Ric Sanders - the focus was most firmly on Anna & Julianne.  In that respect it was great to see the (dare I say) largely goth crowd (opinions differ on that, I thought it was a "Cropredy-ish" crowd - but having said that, some people in the audience were definitely wearing black!) warm increasingly to Anna throughout the night.

The balance of the material seemed just about perfect.  The set, a mixture of the each girls songs, also saw the outing of some new numbers written especially for the evening, with lyrics by Julianne and music from Anna, and included a number each from Sandy Denny and Joan Baez.

Special mention must go to Chris Knibbs (djembe, trombone, guitar) and Kate (bass clarinet, clarinet) who provided show-stopping percussion accompaniment to first half closer Mr Lovely - whistles, klaxons and bicycle pumps amongst others.  Simply hysterical.

This was a wonderful show that I hope someone captured for posterity.  Being a one-off event, it was hardly surprising that the performance lacked polish but, for all that, the girls sparkled and quite clearly enjoyed being in one anothers company.  Girls just wanna have fun....

I hope that the girls will work together again, and it would be nice to think that they'll record in the not too distant future.  For now, however, I have a wonderful memory of a fantastic evenings entertainment which will live long in the mind.  I cannot help thinking that those in a certain church not too far away (Vikki Clayton's pre-Cropredy gig) somehow missed out.  Given that a few made it to both gigs (How was this possible !!??!!), I figure that this debate will rage a while.