A night out on the town

It's Saturday night and we had a little celebration, it is coming up to a big birthday for my wife so we had to celebrate, during the summer we saw the Spaghetti Western Orchestra play a prom on TV. We enjoyed it so much that we decided there and then to make sure we saw them live next time they were in London. Well they are in London at the moment, they are at the QEH (Queen Elizabeth Hall) until Wednesday, we went to their performance tonight.

Perhaps I should explain that they are not a conventional orchestra, indeed five guys play everything making a much bigger sound than I for one would have thought possible. This is something that comes across so much better live than on a recording or on TV. I know that as a musician I may be biased but it is true, live is best, for sound, communication with the performers, for atmosphere, and for enjoyment.

Without a doubt this has got to be one of the best shows I have ever seen, and the only time that I have spent an entire concert with a smile on my face. By the very nature of the band the repertoire is a little limited but the standard of musicianship and the visual impact of the performance and the production was excellent. While maintaining their high level of musicianship they also managed to extract music from coat hangers, cereal, an apple and sundry oddities (Jaws harp duet!, ukulele, mandolin, bassoon, harmonica and plenty of others). My recommendation is to see them as soon as you get a chance, even if you are not a fan of Morricone you will still find plenty to enjoy, they even had my 14 year old daughter singing along to the Good the Bad and the Ugly! I don't think I can beat the description "Genius and Insane in equal measures"

Anyway take a look at their website http://www.spaghettiwesternorchestra.com/ check out the clips and make an appointment to see them live. I don't think that there are many bands that can entertain my wife, my daughter and me at the same time.

They are nice guys as well, they signed a CD for my wife, with a little note for her birthday - I hope I managed to score a few brownie points tonight!

Doctor Who

Last night (Saturday) we (the whole family - yes all three of us), actually went out together to a concert that none of us were performing in. That may not sound so unusual, but for us it is quite an event. My wife treated us to seats for the Doctor Who Prom. I think this is the second of these, the first was such a success that they decided to put on another this year.

For my wife and daughter it was the first time at the Royal Albert Hall, I think both were suitably impressed, and I had the chance for the very cheesy line "It's a long time since I was here in the audience!)

The programme was a mixture of some short classical pieces and musical from the TV series, for me most of the pieces were a little short, with too much introduction from the stars, but for the target audience this was probably about right. I enjoyed most of the music, and the enthusiasm from the audience was contagious. All round an excellent evening

Of interest to me, of course was the bottom end of the brass section, where the tuba player had two instruments a standard British style EEb and what looked to me like a 5/4 CC which he used for the "Rode of the Valkyries". Next to him the Bass Trombone also had a Contra Bass Trombone, used for some of the Doctor Who music.

In all it was a real monster Orchestra with I think triple wood wind, seven horns, six trumpets, and six trombones, and of course only one tuba. With a lot of use of the mighty organ and an orchestra that big, the poor lone tuba player did get a bit swamped, but overall a very big exciting sound, I hope that a lot of the younger members of the audience were inspired.