Foxwood Steel and East Steel at Tropical World last night.

Well Debs, it's the last lap and here we all are: you, me, Vicky, Bex, Sarah, Sophie and now Charlotte. What happened to the trio! Hey, I am not complaining!

Now we have not only banned Little Donkey this year, but Last Christmas is about to have its last outing. All right for you lot on tune, but there's only so many times you can play C, Am, Dm, and G before terminal boredom has set in. Despite Bex's (as it turns out, correct) misgivings, we attempt to sight-read Sleigh Ride in the semi-dark again. Debs and I do our best to go wrong in different places.

Next East Steel  Mark 2 arrive. This is Wendy, Jeanette, Becky, Cathy, guesting as himself: Peter, me, Bex, Vicky. Shortly after take-off there's a terrible noise of metal on metal as someone's torch drops over the balcony onto a soprano pan. We all feel sick, but it seems to have not hurt any of our beloved steelpans. However Bex refuses to give back the torch until its owner is on the same level as us.

And here ends our steelband year.

Foxwood and Sparrows at Tropical World Friday

Ah Debs, the delightful slog that is Tropical World, but where's the sand! What no more watching your shoes fall part, dragging pans here and there across sand, like walking in treacle. Not enough space to swing all the cats we brought.

 Did I mention Claudia and the cockroach?







Debs, I'm loving these bare boards. After the trio success of the baby raves we decided we would play these small spaces with three singles with pride. However, there's all this space, and all these bands. And Debs, here you in Leeds again. Yippee!

First off this evening is Foxwood Steel: me, Bex, Vicky, Sarah, and every so often I would turn round and find that baby Daniel has made an appearance and Sarah is playing two notes with one hand. Then I spot a lady (from Garforth) showing someone how the song sheets work. Next up she is guesting on "Silent Night".

Peter arrives early for the Sparrows' slot. Ah, Peter just get in here. Ah Peter, just solo this tune you're sight-reading. Ah Ashley, early, great. Just get in here. What, not played this tune before? It's easy! "We Nah Goin' Home"? Why not!

Soon Foxwood melts into Sparrows as Ciara and Claudia join us. And then the cockroach. We never saw Claudia move so fast or squeak so loud! After that we all fought over who was going to get photographed with aforementioned escaped reptile dinner.


Then you [Debs], Tim and Sophie replace Vicky and Sarah. One by one the Sparrows leave. The tunes are getting less and less Christmassy. Time for the Brudenell. Varshika joins, fresh from one of several imminent long essays.

Last Lap at Tropical World

Foxwood

Debs, I spent last night/the night before refiling all the Christmas Songsheets, determined to move less stressfully from on tune to the next. Three hours well worth it, I'd say.





First, middle and last: Foxwood: you, me, Sarah,  Bex, Natalie, Sophie,  and Ashley and Karen [guests]

Foxwood with Sparrows

Next up: Sparrows: Claudia, Ashley, Ciara

Foxwood

Foxwood again

with John the Drummer

Really nice - John [always known as John the Drummer] turned up. We made him pose for  photo with us.


Steel Rising Foxwood Doves: really just all the same players in reverse order.


Went for a walk round Tropical World and pursued this lovely little bird until she agreed to pose for me.

Tropical World, Beetroot and Brie

Dear Debs, I’m in trouble for breaking into the Christmas Brie! It went so nicely with the beetroot from the Organic Man that I had been boiling up all day [beetroot not man that is]. Nobody else in the house likes beetroot, organic or not, so the lingering smell of saucepan full of soil and in seemingly imminent danger of burning dry, plus the incident with the Christmas Brie, well it’s the doghouse for me.

I’ve been on tour in Tropical World, Roundhay Park, Leeds, hanging out with the meerkats and the crocodiles, as, of course, you were, Debs. It wasn’t Carriacou, but it was warmer on our little patch of sand inside the tropical house than it was out there on Street Lane.

We, Foxwood Steel Bandits, had a run of five evenings, from Saturday 18th December to Wednesday 22 December. As this was our third year running, and as each evening ran from 5 till 8pm, I was trying to vary things, if only only for the Tropical World staff! By way of a change I invited some other bands to do guest spots. Plus we tried to vary the non-Christmassy stuff, even arranging Telstar for one of the staff, who had asked me if it could be done on pans when we were here 8 or so years ago.

First off on Monday evening was South Steel, ex-pupils from Merlyn Rees and from South Leeds Schools, leader: Charlotte Emery. [Charlotte does all the illustrstions for my songbooks]. They were Charlotte [herself], Debs [yourself], Andy, Caroline, Neil, Sarah, Holly and Kerry.

On Tuesday, advanced music centre steel band, Steel Rising, trod the beach boards. These are four people who have been playing in main music centre band, East Steel, for a decade or so now. Three of them [Alli, Karen, Ruth] started off at East Leeds Music centre [hence the name] and one [Vicky] began at West Leeds Music Centre. These were hosted at Parklands High School and at Pudsey Grangefield Schools, respectively. Now West Leeds Music Centre operates as a satellite at City of Leeds School [Thursday evenings, beginners welcome if you're interested].

Alli, Karen and Ruth work in the health service, and in education; Vicky is a teacher, who is just adding steel pans to her list of subjects taught!

Wednesday, it was six of my newer Silver Sparrows.

This was Claudia, Jenner, Kurt, Millie, Maisie and Nina, coming from Allerton Grange School, City of Leeds School, Abbey Grange School and home schooling. They were taking on pans they'd not seen before and were sight-reading songs we, for obvious reasons, only play for two weeks in the year. This little group had previously done a couple of similar concerts in Little London, so they are getting used to being thrown in the deep end.

One visitor patted me on the arm and said well done for all the good work. Another was overheard asking his companion if some of us were beginners. Well there were indeed some dodgy notes as we tried to extend our repertoire beyond its normal boundaries.

Whatever. Seasonal Greetings to you all.