Flame Away

Yesterday morning Croydon band played as the Olympic torch went by, well more accurately we played before and after the torch went by. The procession is not that impressive, but it is very noisy, I think there were three vehicles from major sponsors all balling out their wares, bizarrely enough followed by a breakdown truck with a dead car on the back then quite a lull before a couple of lone runners, then some cyclists, and another lull before the flame itself arrived.

We were next to a "Kissing" point, nothing romantic this is where the flame gets passed from one custodian to the next. This did at least mean that the "circus" stayed in town for a little longer. I have heard of other locations where spectators complained that you "could blink and miss it" In all we played for over an hour and included in the programme the John Williams Fanfare and Theme from the LA games. This is a really tricky piece to play and the band hadn't even seen it till last Monday so I was very pleased at how well we managed it.

As we had been playing the morning we decided not to have a rehearsal in the evening which meant I had the opportunity to go and rehearse with the All Saints Concert Band.   I love conducting, it is the most musically challenging thing I have done for years, but nothing quite beats playing!