This one is a little bit of a blast from the past, but a story that I was reminded of this morning for some reason, and I realised that Raymond Soltysek had written in detail about it. But here is our take on the same story 🙂
Just before we set out on our tour of the UK this year, we got 2 emails, one from Mark and another from Dave, asking if they can propose marriage to their girlfriends, Suzy and Jaki respectively, at 2 different shows we were playing. Now, we had never received requests like this before, and I think the fact that they wanted us to be a part of such a special moment in their lives meant it was a BIG deal for us!
The first proposal happened at the Larmer Tree Festival in the Summer. We saw the couple Mark and Suzy right in front of the stage and to tell you the truth, we were quite nervous. It was a big moment and the last thing you want is for us to do something to mess it up :p
Half way through our set, it was time for Raghu to start “No Man will ever love you, like I do” and Raghu dedicated the song to the lovely Suzy and off we went. I couldn’t help stealing a glance their way every couple of seconds to see if it was time! And during the first flute solo in the song, Mark did it! he went down on one knee, and proposed marriage to Suzy who joyfully (and thankfully for us) accepted in an instant, and all was well with the world 🙂
We breathed huge sighs of relief and there was much cheering in the middle of the song which might have confused the people who din’t see what happened, but then like the good book says, all was well that ended well.
The second proposal happened just a couple of days later at WOMAD, where the couple Dave and Jaki had coincidentally planned this same thing completely unaware of what happened at Larmer tree. I am just picking out a section from Raymond’s blog post to describe what happened there and you can see a video of Raghu reading out Dave’s email to us in the video below as well.
“Then comes probably the sweetest thing I have ever seen at any gig, ever. Dixit calls for Dave in the audience, who has sent him an e-mail asking him to dedicate “No man will ever love you, like I do” to his girlfriend Jacqueline. And the man in front of me – literally, right in front of me – puts his hand up while his girlfriend covers her face in embarrassment.
Dixit reads the whole e-mail. Teenage sweethearts, they had drifted apart and hooked up again 40 years later after living on the fringes of the same social groupings. It’s like we’ve never been apart, Dave says.
Dixit himself says he always thought the song was a bit cheesy, but he’s glad it means so much to others; and, to be fair, it’s not exactly a classic song. However, in the middle of it, Dixit shouts to Dave, “You know what to do!” and I swear, right there six inches in front of me, Dave goes down on one knee and proposes, and Jacqueline, bless her, throws her hands in the air and accepts. Cue audience going nuts.
That moment alone was worth five stars, believe me. I wish them all the happiness in the world, and Raghu Dixit all the success he can handle for inspiring such a lovely moment.”