In 2019 The Queen's Hall celebrates 40 years of entertaining us with great music, comedy and all manner of live events. They'll be marking the year with some special events, and looking to their audiences to share their gig-going memories with them, so we got our Deputy Content Manager Murray to take a trip down memory lane and recall when David Lynch visited and denied there'd be more Twin Peaks.
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Anyone who knows me will tell you I'm a big fan of David Lynch. In fact, so out of hand is my idolatry that some people who've no idea who I am would probably concur. It's not just his astonishing work in film (Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive) and TV (Twin Peaks) that so enthrals me, but the enigmatic artist himself; a man who Stuart Cornfeld, an executive producer of The Elephant Man, famously described as 'Jimmy Stewart from Mars'.

So when I read through a copy of The List on 18 October 2007 I was amazed to learn that Lynch was heading to The Queen's Hall the following week to talk about transcendental meditation, accompanied – oddly enough – by singer-songwriter Donovan, also a vocal proponent of the practice.

Heading along Clerk Street on Friday 26 October, I was slightly trepidatious. I knew that Lynch was nominally there to promote his charity, the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness, and would be taking questions on his work in general, and I hoped that somehow I might break through the hoard of questions to ask one of my own. I hadn't invited anyone with me, partly because I thought the whole endeavour sounded a little odd, but mainly because I felt that sharing this special moment would somehow dilute it.

David Lynch's guestbook doodle courtesy of The Queen's Hall
I took my seat and joined in with the applause as Lynch was introduced to the packed crowd as 'David'. I remember being mightily impressed by his hair: an entrancing wave of grey dancing up to the sky. He spoke for a while about transcendental meditation, usually with his eyes closed and his hands waving mysteriously in front of his face, as if he was falling into a trance right there on stage. I may have fallen under his spell myself as, when he invited questions from the audience, I felt a sudden jolt followed by rising panic.

There was a deafening silence in the auditorium and, even though I desperately wanted to speak to David, I was terrified of breaking the remarkable quiescence all around me. Finally, some other brave soul plucked up the courage to ask a question, which he diligently answered. Then followed complete silence again. I knew this period of hesitancy wouldn't last long so I nervously broke it by calling out his name: 'David!' He squinted through the stage lights to locate me in the crowd. And then my chance: 'Even though it's impractical, do you have any personal desire to return to the world of Twin Peaks?' David considered his response for some time before replying with a firm 'No', accompanied by much laughter. He then elaborated: 'But I often dream about Twin Peaks as I'm sure many of you do'.

And with that I relaxed back into my seat with a warm smile across my face. The floodgates opened as the crowd found a collective courage, questions firing from around the room at accelerating pace, and a lot of hands remained aloft as David was eventually ushered off stage. At that point Donovan took up position with his guitar, and rounded off one of my favourite ever Friday nights.

NB: Two and a half years later I spoke with Twin Peaks co-creator, Mark Frost, and I took the opportunity to ask him the same question. He offered a slightly less emphatic answer than Lynch's, although history has since shown that both men shouldn't always be taken at their word.
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Send your memories – anecdotes, photos, videos, ticket stubs etc – to [email protected] or Marketing Dept, The Queen's Hall, 85-89 Clerk Street, Edinburgh EH8 9JG. If sending by post, please state if you'd like these returned to you. To make some new memories, check out what's currently on at The Queen's Hall