Tonight Kees and I went to see '10.000 zakdoeken' (10.000 handkerchiefs). A play with Heddy Lester and Myra de Jong. She became famous in the Netherlands with singing in the Eurovision song contest, De Mallemolen van het leven (the merry-go-round of life) in 1977. But in that time she also had wonderful one woman shows. A bit cabaretesque, a bit chansonniere. She has a great, husky voice and her brother, Frank Affolter, wrote lovely songs for her.

I was a Fan. A real Fan. Her first shows were in the big theatre in The Hague, Dilligentia, but she never sold out, so the third show in The Hague she gave in one of the smaller theatres, Pepijn. But then she did four consecutive nights! So I could go four times! The forth time Kees came too and with the whole band and a couple of other visitors we ended in a bar in de Frederikstraat.

She had a fan club then and of course I was a member. There was a fan day in Amsterdam, in the theatre/restaurant of her parents, but we couldn't make it then. But the fanclub did make tapes from the shows, so I ended up with cassettes of her. Later we put those cassettes on a CD and now the songs are on my hard disc.

She did a part in Fame, which I went to see earlier this year and I gave my card to her manager, told him about the CD and asked whether she would want one. Her partner wrote me an email, telling me she doesn't do mail or computers but that she'd love to hear from me.

So tonight I took the CD. And watched her perform. She's still as wonderful as ever. And I'm still a Fan. I go again coming Saturday. We had a drink afterwards, I gave her the CD, we talked a little about old times. But I have to work tomorrow. And I have a very busy week. But I go again next Saturday and we go and have a drink afterwards.

mmmmmmmmmmm


Wonderful.

Listening to her songs now.