Playing the Tourists album reminded me of one of those daft Worldcon ideas that the world was saved from through overwork of those who might have perpetrated it. In response to the inability of Boston fans to pronouce ConJosé, I came up with the idea of an official convention band: ConJosie and the Pussycats. This would probably have ended up as a masquerade entry, the conceit being that we would be the half time entertainment. We would have had to come up with some sort of excuse as to why we couldn’t actually play, so as to save fandom from my appalling singing – bad sound system, not getting paid enough cream, something like that. In any case I was far too busy to push the thing through, and I’d never have managed to lose enough weight to look good in the costume. But I’ve aways wondered what we would have played had we been able to do that set.

Much as I might have wanted to slip in a few Ramones tunes, I think it fairly obvious that the Pusscats would have been an eighties power-pop band. So here are some suggestions for the playlist:

– Blind Among the Flowers – The Tourists
– Echo Beach – Martha and the Muffins
– Walking on Sunshine – Katrina and the Waves
– Girls Just Wanna have Fun – Cyndi Lauper
– James – The Bangles
– Reasons Why – Merril Bainbridge

We would, of course, have to play Do You Know the Way to ConJosé, and just for old times sake I’d like to throw in a few 70’s classics, just to show that we could rock if we wanted to:

– Honaloochie Boogie – Mott the Hoople
– Suffragette City – David Bowie

To close I’d be tempted to throw in Jeff Beck’s Hi Ho Silver Lining, just to get the audience singing along, but I don’t know if the song is as deeply ingrained in Americans minds as it is with us Brits of a certain age.

Any other suggestions?