Doing the bizarre in Chorlton ……… when Klingons met bossa nova

Now I am always in awe of my friend Pierre, because odd things happen to him, like the time he participated in the first performance of "The Girl from Ipanema" sung in Klingon.

And for those not in the know, the Klingons, along with the Romulans, Vulcans and Andorrans were rivals and later friends of the United Federation of Planets which stretched out across the Galaxy in the 23rd century.*

All of them have appeared in countless variations of the Star Trek franchise across the decades from the first TV series which aired in 1966 and have included 11 films, an animated series as well as books, podcasts and festivals.

So, it is not surprising that to add to the authenticity of Star Trek the languages of these Galactic peoples have been developed, leading to that memorable line in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country when Chancellor Gorkon, says “You have not experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon”.

To which I can now add that first performance in Chorlton  of "The Girl from Ipanema" sung in Klingon.

It happened at the Chorlton Folk Club where “Everyone is welcome to our weekly live music event, come and find us upstairs at South West Manchester Cricket Club, in Chorlton, Greater Manchester, Uk (Ellesmere Road, M21 0SG). Come along to play, sing, recite or watch”.**

Pierre had gone along at the invitation of a friend and the rest as they say was an anecdote recounted over a cup of coffee in our kitchen yesterday afternoon.

Of course inventing languages for books and films is not new.  

Any one born in the middle decades of the last century will remember Professor Stanley Unwin who my Wikipedia tells me, “invented his own comic language, "Unwinese", referred to in the film Carry On Regardless (1961) as "gobbledygook". 

Unwinese was a corrupted form of English in which many of the words were altered in playful and humorous ways, as in its description of Elvis Presley and his contemporaries as being "wasp-waist and swivel-hippy". 

Unwin claimed that the inspiration came from his mother, who once told him that on the way home she had "falolloped (fallen) over" and "grazed her kneeclabbers".***

Later it was taken to an even more risqué level by Julian and Sandy in the wireless series Round the Horn.

And that is it, leaving me just to say that the image is a paper Mache model from a sales promotion by Habitat, and the reasoning is that simple one that pictures of Klingons are copyright and I for one never want to upset a Klingon.  

Location; Chorlton

Picture; courtesy of Habitat, circa 2000, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Although to be strictly accurate the Vulcans were never rivals but wary friends from the outset who noticing Earth had acquired warp propulsion decided to take us under their wing. Star Trek: First Contact, 1996

**Chorlton Folk Club, Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/groups/110940546436/

***Stanley Unwin, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Unwin_(comedian)