Adi Tal played cello – “zombie Bach”, no less – to set the spooky scene; then Brix Smith – dressed as a Edward Gorey-style dead Victorian child, sang ‘Mr Pharmacist’ (in a special ‘Mr Exorcist’ version) and Donovan’s ‘Season Of The Witch’ backed by Steve Shelley, Thurston Moore (in a sphinx headdress) and Deb Googe (as Dracula); then Bobby Gillespie did unsettling covers – The Cramps’ ‘Human Fly’ and Bowie’s ‘The Jean Genie’ – while Thurston played guitar.
Finally the winners of the Most Pagan, Scariest Face and Spookiest Walk competition were awarded their prizes by resplendent ringmistress Pam Hogg, and then a mariachi band serenaded us and led us to the Rose & Crown over the road. Old rock stars, you see, do not die – they re-emerge on All Hallows’ Eve for a curious village-fete-cum-wedding-disco.
Pale ale and red wine was served next to the cupcakes on a trestle table, a frankly alarming level of grown people were in fancy dress, and there was the unsettling feeling that we shouldn’t really be celebrating samhain in a 16th-century Anglican church, even if it has been deconsecrated.
Any residual guilt was expunged, though, because the whole shebang was in aid of The Manna Society, a local homeless charity, and because it was really a lot of spooky fun.
All photos by Sam Platten
