Frankie has been my friend from our wild teenage days. It was the era of Punk and later New Romantics (New Wave). We hung out with skin heads - the non-racist kind that still existed in those days before the extreme right took over that movement - and with the most extraordinary people. In fact, Frankie was one of these!
We had both moved to England in the meantime - separately of course. I returned to Germany at some point but he stayed in London where he is now running a therapeutic massage practice and has developed special scented
candles that are low in pollutants when burning and could even be used as massage oil while warm. Take it from me, they are lovely. He brought them along and so we celebrated the party surrounded by the most beautiful scents!
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| My handmade card for the biggest Frida-fan of all: Frankie! |
For this special half century birthday, Frankie decided to have one get-together with all his important friends and family and since his mum still lives in our hometown the party was to be held there. The venue was in an even more remote place in the countryside near our town complete with a very unusual wood fired cast-iron heater oven that reminded me of canon come steam engine. It was a beautiful afternoon and the mood was golden, not just because of the autumn sunset but also because all the inter- and outernational guests made it so. I must say, I have never met such a harmonious crowd of people.
As usual, I didn't just take pictures but also talked to a lot of his friends, most of whom I had not met before. I had a great time hearing everyone's story! Of course, I also loved seeing all our mutual friends from back in the day and my sister who was always part of our crowd and is to this day one of my best friends. The Dutch gang - part of an ABBA-Fan-Club Frankie has been a member with for decades - brought along an extra guest: Abraham. Apparently, you get to see him when you turn 50 and also something to do with mustard that I did not quite understand. Abraham was placed next to the small stage to observe the proceedings.
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| Billie Ray Martin |
One of the highlights of the evening was the performance of Billie Ray Martin who's singing career took her all over the world and who now resides in Berlin. She has been Frankie's good friend throughout all these years. Her voice is absolutely amazing and she was not so secretly backed by her biggest fan in front of the stage... Frankie!
George, a DJ from Hannover who has been a huge celebrity there since the New Wave-days took over the set after Billie's performance and played tunes from back in the day to the latest remixes. As expected Frankie grabbed the mic once more to sing himself and everyone joined him in this ... dancing the night away!
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Thank you for this lovely evening, Frankie and friends! ♥ ♥ ♥
