A the year of 2023 is rushing headlong into the wind, a recent missive from the Mari Wilson mailing list informs us that it’s not too late to be planning for Christmas cheer when her 2023 Christmas Party tour will be making its way through Britain with not just Ms. Wilson and her Wilsations onstage, but a coherent dive into full-on 60s Pop aesthetics with The Mike Flowers Pops and the Meyer Go-Go Dancers adding to the Mari-ment.

While we know and love the oueuvre of Ms. Wilson like the back of our hand, I had to admit that The Mike Flowers Pops was something that I completely missed out on due to it happening in the 90s! Mike was casting a 60s Lounge eye on [then] contemporary Britpop which he reckoned could be enhanced by added strings, bassoons, and swinging horns. So this will no doubt be a complementary part of the package.

I vividly remember the 90s Neo-Lounge Revival® but my experience of that was strictly from the US side of The Big Pond. Mike Flowers was a heretofore unknown quantity to me, but apparently his 1995-slash-1965 cover of Oasis’ “Wonderwall” managed to just barely miss the Christmas UK #1 spot that year! An even higher accolade was the approval of Lou Reed, who didn’t know Oasis, but thought that the Mike Flowers version of “Wonderwall” was the funniest thing he’d heard in years. I’ve never actually heard Oasis, either, so I have at least one thing in common with Mr. Reed.

Added terpsichorean support will be from the fringe-dwelling Meyer Go-Go Dancers as seen above.

Mari Wilson Christmas Party 2023 | UK Tour

• Dec. 7 | Subscription Rooms | Stroud, UK
• De. 11 | The Apex | Bury St. Edmunds, UK
• Dec. 16 | The Stables | Milton Keynes, UK
• Dec. 17 | Bush Hall | London, UK

So if this Christmas you’re gonna party like it’s 19…66, this will be the scene to make. Be there or be quadrilateral.

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