Holidays - at last

At last indeed, it has been a long, long summer with no breaks at all. We had a long weekend with the Band at the end of May, and I've not stopped since. Being a gardener I feel I can't really get away during the summer months so we try to have a holiday in October, well this is it, half term and we're off for a week in Malta.

This is my third visit and the families second, last year sold us so a return this year was a "no brainer"

Here are some photos from last year

Last night's Gig

I thoroughly enjoyed last night's performance with the South London Concert Band. A very different type of gig to the ones I play with my main band, Croydon Symphonic. We were playing in a lovely old Church in Surrey, raising funds for maintenance of the fabric.

The music was entertaining without being too challenging, since some of the band's sections are weaker than others, the selection of music was made very carefully. This meant that it was all reasonable for me to sight read on the stand. Indeed it was quite good for my self confidence since my sight reading is still not as strong on the CC as on EEb, but I am determined to keep the new toy as my principle instrument.

On a slightly different note, since we now have two regular Bass players at Croydon Brass, on Monday night we had the embarrassing problem of not having enough working instruments. Both players prefer EEb to BBb but only one of our two Imperial EEbs was working, the other having ceased up through lack of use; so I now have that one up stairs for overhaul. Just what I needed more to do!

Busy Busy Busy

We are going on holiday in a couple of weeks so I'm working like blazes to make sure I have caught up on all my back log before we go. It's better to be busy than slack when you're self employed, but the last few weeks have been manic. Looking back I can see so much that I have missed posting on, playing on Eastbourne Bandstand with All Saints, back to rehearsal with CSB, first rehearsal with LCO, a booking with ASO for Christmas Praise and lots and lots of gardening.

Well I'm just putting up a quick post now before going off to play with the South London Concert Band, an outfit I haven't played with for years, but got a call from the other day, I trust they are still at a decent standard!

In the mean time here are a couple of shots of one of the job I have been so busy on

Out of the comfort zone

On Saturday evening we had a cabaret night at our Church. Various members of our congregation performed, songs and instrumental solos, a band played a couple of numbers and we finished the whole thing off with a sketch based on Grease but set in Ancient Greece - work it out for yourselves.

Well when I saw all the talented people who had come forward to perform I thought that there would be no one in the audience who would think "What that night really needed was a Tuba solo". However this does not mean I was not performing, this was a chance to let another side of me out, I was Master of Ceremonies for the evening. Not quite like Emcee in Cabaret, but still quite a large part of the evening requiring me to stand up in front of people, talking, telling jokes, and no impressive piece of plumbing to hide behind. I have done this a few time before but each time I get more nervous than when I am playing, it's great fun, but way out of the comfort zone.

Best bit of the night, for me having my daughter sing. She has a special talent, and it's great on a night like this to have others confirm this so that it's not just a doting father getting carried away, although I may have a bit when I introduced her.

This week the old German Band career may be revived, I have a gig on Tuesday with a band I haven't played with before, this is most welcome since by the end of this year all of the professional bands I used to play with will have called it a day.