Is it The End for the Black & White Committee?

Short answer is no but certainly in it's present form. The last of it's type, the Black & White Committee's annual ball at the Sydney Town Hall will be the last in it's present form. The Black & White Derby - where bright young gals reel in little wooden horses- is kaput. At this year's event the 80 year old tradition was put to bed.
But the Black & White Committee who have raised tens of millions of  $$$ over it's 80 year history will emerge next year in an exciting new form and we'll be the first to being you the news. Until then, here are a few snaps from the evening and a short video to show you what you missed. The B&W hard working ladies raise much needed funds for Vision Australia.

Tidbits

The Hairstyle of The Month award in September goes to New York businessman Richard Feldman who was spotted at the annual Quest 400 party in NYC.

 Perhaps he shares a hairdresser with our favorite ex-Prime Minister Bob Hawke. The two could be long lost cousins!

Spotted on the Blue Carpet for the premier in London of the new Beatles film Eight Days A Week last Thursday, music personality Simon Napier Bell who these days spends his time touring the world and lecturing on music as seen in our snap taken in India.
Simon wrote a song we all love :"You Don't Have to say You Love Me" made famous by Dusty Springfield and Elvis Presley. Napier-Bell attended the film along with Yoko Ono, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.

Not long ago Simon hosted a BBC series on rock'n'roll managers and he is currently filming a documentary on British gay life (in our snap he is interviewing actor Simon Callow) . OK we are a bit prejudiced here- Simon who is half Australian is also a business partner of Whispers in a film project among other things. But you really should read some of his books including the fascinating "I'm Coming to Take You To Lunch" of how he managed to get the pop duo Wham to be the first pop act to appear in Communist China ( Whispers was there!)


Coming shortly : all the news on the 80th Anniversary of the Black & White Ball at the Sydney Town Hall.

















Here is Dusty singing Simon Napier Bell's You Don't Have To Say You Love Me.

A Right Royal Mix-Up!

On Friday evening the Sydney Town Hall will be decked out in it's finery for the 75th year gala Black & White Ball which will raise much needed funds for children who are blind and vision impaired.


For decades the Black & White Ball was the pinnacle of Sydney's social calendar when Eastern Suburbs socialites would frock up in their best ball gowns and dinner jackets. Tonight is expected to be a very special evening and the young debutantes who compete in the Derby (they reel in sponsored wooden horses across the dance floor !) should be trembling with the excitement of it all.


Alas, there has been a bungle.

The head table is always reserved for an Admiral of the Navy, an Air Force representative and possibly the chief of the Australian Defence Force and the most important guest of all, the State Governor.

Marie Bashir MIA

All guests are seated before the National Anthem is played and the official table parades down the red carpet to take their seats.

This year, HM The Queen's representative and patron of the charity Governor Marie Bashir will be missing. And why ?. A mix-up with the date according to our mole disguised as a bunch of white gladioli in the charity committee's board room in Double Bay.
First Elizabeth11 snubs Sydney, now the Governor is snubbed !.

HRH Princess Birgitta 

Relax though. Royalty is within our midst.Her Royal Highness Princess Birgitta of Sweden and Hohenzollern is in town for a few days of R & R.
She's the sister of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and is married to Prince Johann of Hohenzollern. You may have spotted them at British Royal Family weddings. In the seats over at the side reserved for European royalty (they were at William & Kate's wedding).

Birgitta is in town to play golf and see old friends.
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Someone who was snubbed her entire life by the British Royal Family was the Duchess of Windsor who married HM The Queen's uncle Bertie which led to his abdication.

At the Hampstead Theatre in London tonight, a play called The Last of The Duchess based  a book by Lady Caroline Blackwood opens. It tells of the last days of the Duchess as Blackwood attempts to interview her in Paris but is blocked by her ruthless lawyer Suzanne Blum (played by Sheila Hancock in the play) who it was said kept her prisoner in her final years.