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!

Weird

I spent a (very) little time in our garden today, amongst the dead leaves I haven't cleared up, all the weeds and shaggy grass we do have some flowers.   In fact we have quite a few flowers out, at the moment Winter Jasmin, Cyclamen, Primulas - not too weird eh? we also have daffodils and roses.

I know this has been a weird year as far as weather goes, we have had a daffodil out on new year before, but I think this is the first time I have seen a pink rose flowering through winter Jasmin.

I start back at work tomorrow, nothing scheduled but plenty to get on with, then there is a shed to mend and on Friday I start what will be the biggest job I will have undertaken since starting the business.   Starting off I have a fair bit of clearing to do, then we will be putting in a large deck and finishing off with a paved area.   I will be doing this job more or less in reverse ideally I would start with the paving then the deck, but the layout of the garden dictates the order.   This is a big job and I will be putting a lot of work into it, and maybe a few posts as well.

On a personal level my wife had to be rushed into A & E and will have to g into hospital for an urgent opp within the next 10 days.   At any moment she could get the call to go, she will then have to stay in Hospital for at least a week, and will then have to be off work for a further three weeks or so.   All in all it looks like we're in for a busy start to the year.

No way to treat a trombone

I won't say how I came across this photo, but once I had it pointed out to me I had to share

Busy Busy Busy

It is currently a very busy time for me, like most brass players I seem to be in great demand for playing Christmas carols, and the day job keeps me pretty busy as well.   On Monday I had the final rehearsal for a concert with the LCO which we played at St John's Smith Square on Tuesday.   Being a Christmas Gala night for the London Cab Drivers Fund for Underprivileged Children we played a popular selection including some Eric Coates as well as the Capriccio Italien, Czardas and a few other "Lollipops"

Along with the rest of the Brass I had one rehearsal and some "topping and tailing" on the night.   I think we all felt under rehearsed, and wondered how Will Carslake our excellent Conductor manages to control his nerves knowing that there are parts of the program that have not been rehearsed by the whole Orchestra at all.   Wednesday evening was given over to our Church Home Group, with tonight being the start of a carol marathon.

Tonight we played Carols around our Parish, tomorrow we have an open air Carol Service (both on Euphonium), then on Saturday I am playing trombone with the Norwood Wind Ensemble for some carols in Sutton.   Sunday is our  main Church Carol service (Bass Tuba probably the EEb) and then on Monday evening the Brass Band is paying carols at Brockwell Park Lido (conducting), that make Carols on five successive days!

Of course in between all this I still have to work, I am trying very hard to catch up after taking tie off for my bad back, I hope tomorrow to finish a clearance job I have been working o for the last couple of weeks, then next week I can get on with some proper gardening

still going

I noticed today that I have been writing mostly about y music - I know that this is what this blog is meant to be for but I did want to remind you all hat I am a gardener as well as a musician.   Well at the moment I am engaged of a clearance job, it is taking longer than planed partly because of my bad back, and partly because I keep find lots of rubble and paving just below the surface.   I have been working on the job for  most of the last couple of weeks, having got behind after the trouble I had with my back.   I am now nearing the end and Hope to be finished n Friday, but it may go into next week.

Today I had to tear myself away from that job and go and do some proper gardening.   It was a joy to get involved in some established lawns and borders.   Working in Bromley, Kent I was very aware that I was dead heading Cosmos and pelergoniums still in flower   This time last year we were uder 3 inches of snow

I Need a sponsor

I like cartoons, and I like the Internet, therefore I like Internet cartoons - right?   One of my favourites is 9 Chickweed Lane, I have commented on this before but it bears repeating, the current story line involves the Heroine doing some "butt" modelling.

Click on the images to enlarge, they are worth it!

On a different note I am very busy at the moment on the Music front, tonight I will playing a concert at the Bennett Memorial Diocesan School in Tunbridge Wells, my friend Paul Bennett is the MD and a few of us are supplementing the School's musicians.   I know Paul primarily as a flute player with ASO but he should be better know as a very talented up and coming Conductor.   I am looking forward to finding out what we are playing, and how the youngsters get on.

With bearly time to get home and have some sleep I shall be up ridiculously early on Saturday to go to Cardiff to visit my Mother for a couple of days.   When I come home I have a rehearsal on Monday evening with the LCO for a concert on Tuesday night.   That's before we start the Church Carolling on Thursday and Friday - ahhh the joys of Christmas for the Brass Musician. 

CSB Strike Gold

Last Sunday the Croydon Symphonic Band, played at the Colchester round of the National Wind Band Festival.   Despite an absolutely horrible journey (for me because of my bad back, for others because a lorry shed it's load of Christmas Trees on the A12) we all arrived i decent time, had a run through ad then hit the stage.
The consensus of opinion in the Band is that we played as well as we could have, and quite possibly as well as we have.   I am glad to be able to say that the adjudicators seem to have agreed and given us a Gold Award.    couple of years ago BASWE introduced an extra, higher, standard of a Platinum award, and now it is only Platinum award winners who get an automatic invitation to the finals, gold award winners have to wait.   Given the standard of our performance we are hopeful of an invitation to the finals, which we are especially keen to be at this year, since they will be help at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Well we followed that with a fund raising concert lat night (Saturday) for Ifield Church.   As well as the program we played at the festival we added a few repertoire numbers including my favourite show selection - Les Miserables.   I get a tremendous kick out of playing with this band, I have been with them for well over 30 years now, and I think that overall we are better now than at any time in the past.   However we are short on numbers in the heavy brass, a shortage that is about to become critical as our first trombone is leaving due to a change in his work.   In consequence I don't know what part I will be playing when we start up again after Christmas, at various times this term I have played Bass, Bass Trombone, First Trombone and Euphonium.   The only one of these I would not be happy commit to would First Trombone.   I am not a tenor player, I never have been and never will be I just can't play up there.

How many Tuba players does it take to change a light bulb? None we can't reach that high.