Tonight is a special night. On this night, the 27th January in 1997 at the Vibe Bar, East London, was the momentous occasion of the first ever Talkaoke! In those days the Talkaoke table was a very different beast: covered in fun fur, with a crappy microphone and a domestic hi-fi, but despite these limitations, it marked the start of an odyssey of chat that is still going strong!

Check http://talkaoke.com/talkaoke-history/ for all the gory details.

Join us tonight at the Dragon Bar,138 Shoreditch High Street for a chat and a drink to celebrate - and if you can't be here in person, you can drop into our stream: http://justin.tv/thepeoplestream/ and get involved in the chat!

Tonight we'll be training up some fresh new Talkaoke hosts, and just relaxing and toasting 13 joyous years of ongoing conversation...

In fact, from this month, we'll be moving our monthly Talkaoke training sessions (the 3rd Wednesday of every month) around to different locations. Sometimes we meet groups of people who really need a Talkaoke session, but can't necessarily afford it.

So if you, your community group or non-profit organisation would like to book a free Talkaoke, and get a chance to train some people to run the show themselves, let us know and we'll figure out if we can host a training session with you.

Cheers to all of you who have Talkaoked over the years, here's to many more!

Saul

for The People Speak