Saturday 21st is midsummer's day (at least it is in the northern hemisphere) when the Druids meet at Stonehenge to celebrate the Solstice at dawn, when the sun's rays strike the altar stone. This year, there was no sunrise so they had to use their digital watches to check when it was 04.43, the official time of dawn at British Summer Time (always a joke with us in the UK as summer can be just a few days or many weeks.) Why is this relevant?
Nick's girlfriend Sarah was at the solstice celebration and then had a long journey by public transport to get here. I picked her up from her ancient double-decker bus at the local post office just in time to get to Nick's gig in Grafham. Meanwhile their old friend Max had arrived from Norfolk en route to an interview at the art college in Hereford. So we all went to a concert in aid of the church. The headliners were the Huntingdon Swing Band (great on the written bits, but the improvised solos were painful except for the clarinetist (who also played a mean sax), the trumpet player and one of the trombonists. They had a good singer as well. They do a lot of Glen Miller and get huge audiences for their 1940's hanger concerts at airfields.
We were a bit taken back at the church porch to see that the tickets cost a bomb, but they included strawberries, cream and Champagne, so we settled in to get our money's worth. Dan loved the whole thing and so we all had a great time, until after ten p.m. which is way past Dan's bed-time.
The Blues Band is Pablo's baby and is now called Pablo's Army. The line-up is different every time and so is the set-list. He gets a gig, recruits the players, then they have one rehearsal to get it right. The original idea was to cover Blues Brothers' tracks, but now anything goes. This time the set included songs by Snow Patrol (Run), Damien Rice (Nine Crime) and Donna Summer (Hot Stuff). Anyway, we had a great time. You should have been there.
Jim
No comments:
Post a Comment