Ears down for Musical Bingo

As a sporadic blogger I generally don’t get many invites to blogging events so I was pleasantly surprised to receive an email to Musical Bingo, an evening claiming to be an original, interactive club night.

In keeping with my trying out new things and saying yes to life I jumped in with both feet and kept my expectations in check. I’ve recently kicked my meeting-new-people fear into touch so all I had to worry about was my normal going to a new place issue. In short I arrive early, cannot find the entrance (especially I find in Shoreditch, which seems to have abandoned the concept of signs on buildings…) then spend several minutes wandering round and round checking and re-checking Google Maps in case I have got the location completely wrong.

All invited bloggers were given the opportunity to chat before hand which I feel is a nice touch by the organisers. We’d been sending messages via Twitter to break the ice, having a nose at each others blogs, getting excited and practising our serious bingo faces (ear tilted slightly up, concentrating face, pen at the ready).

Held at Concrete in Shoreditch, Musical Bingo featured a series of different musical rounds with the chances of winning thrilling prizes (DAB radios, comedy sunglasses and slow cookers to name but a few).

So I arrived early (of course) to the event to be greeted by an empty room so swiftly headed back out whist I waited for others to arrive. After a quick drink upstairs at Pizza East (loved the tiny little carafe they served) I headed back down having introduced myself to a couple of other lone bloggers.

It was a slightly disorganised beginning to the evening as the 7 o’clock start came and went. But soon we were seated and greeted with a goodie bag of gifts courtesy of Costa Bingo, who organised the event. (They’ve also written about the evening here). Soon the prosecco and pizza was flowing and things started to look up.

A cursory scan of my bingo sheet to check I recognised the songs and away we went. Our compère for the evening was Ditzy Ritzy who arrived in a One Direction emblazoned swan (shopping trolley) and thus the tone for the evening was set.

This was not a serious night out. Leave your inhibitions at the door as by the end you’ll be dancing on your seats and singing your heart out to the cheesiest of pop hits.

There were three love themed rounds and as the drink flowed everyone settled into furiously circling songs, trying to get 1, 2 or 3 lines or the hallowed full house as the DJ played. I decided that since most of the songs reminded me of school, I would draw cupid hearts around the songs I matched.

We sang to The Power of Love, danced to Baby Love and even tried to invade the stage at some points.

Lucky winners made their way to the stage to get presented with prizes or be confronted by a wheel of choice or question. The energy in the room was high and even the very awkward and unladylike way we had to get out from the benches (just like Bambi) became a moment to laugh at.

I didn’t get any lines but enjoyed the evening. It was all rounded off with all of us dancing on the stage before making our way back out into the London night. It might have been cold and dark when we left but for those few hours it felt very sunny inside Concrete.

Musical Bingo would be a great choice for a group of friends who are bored with karaoke nights and want a touch more fun with the chance of winning free cocktails or pizza (the pizza from Pizza East as usual was amazing).