East Steel at YAMSEN:SpeciallyMUSIC Town Hall Concert

If it is the first Wednesday in December, it must be The YAMSEN:SpeciallyMUSIC Leeds Town Hall Lord Mayor's Christmas Concert. East Steel has now become an established regular fixture at this event.

From humble and awkward beginnings perched on the risers, East Steel now stands proudly stage right [or is that stage left?] at the front. Once it was two tunes; now it is a half hour of Christmas tunes as the audience assembles, two slots, and incidental music during the prize-givings. And even communal songs, though that has yet to work properly.

This year Bex arranged Pure Imagination by Leslie Bricusse and The Power of Love by Holly Johnson. Simon Linley, former Leeds City Organist and our compere commented on how much hard work has to go into such arrangements. A compliment indeed!



Players were Bex, Trish, Joyce, Lynn, Wendy, Anne, Vicky, Wanda and Sophie with Natalie on drum-kit.

Rest of the Best play Springwell June 2017

We started this tour in March but didn't have the full complement for the Thursday, so now in June is that Thursday.

The Rest of the Best is a band as important for the benefits it offers its players as the pleasure and education that it offers its audiences. We formed in the educational year 1996 to 7, in Diane's and my first year working for the Leeds Music Service, and have varied in size from 5 to maybe 15 [now 15 was a bit of a luxury!].

Our raison d'etre is documented in earlier blogs.

On this particular Thursday at the end of June [always one of a music teacher's busiest months!] we were on the small side. Bart the drummer was teaching till 9.10, and then again at 11. He just had time to do our 9.30 gig at the first Springwell site. He found the venue, parked his car in the carpark, parked his wheelchair outside the school front door, and sprinted down on his crutches from door to concert area, no time to consider that the clutch on the hihat was in fact a piece of blutak! Miracle worker!




We were today Bart kit], me [steelpans, bass guitar, vocals, kit], Diane [keyboards, accordion, ocarina, recorder] Julia [flute, piccolo], Joanna [saxophone, clarinet, kit, vocals, well anything really] and Cathy [saxophone, guitar, vocals]

persuaded a staff member up to dance

Maggie had brought her trumpet. Now that was a very nice surprise. We always love it when the school music teacher can join us for a tune or two on the "stage". And Maggie played a quality trumpet! Sadly we couldn't persuade to join us for the next school. Here I played drum kit really badly, not deliberately, but my skills in this area have declined rather than improved. But here we did discover that Joanna could most certainly cut it on a kit!


Obviously, for reasons of child protection,  we can't show you our audiences at these two schools, and for all you know we may have playing to ourselves. In fact  . . . . . .

Rest of the Best 1996-2016 and this year's tour

Diane and I joined the Leeds Music Service twenty years ago. Diane, as head of Inclusive Music; I as her deputy and also as head of Steel Pans and Steel Pan Development Officer [always loved that title, as develop I certainly did!]. Playing Week was coming up, and traditionally, minority instruments and part-timers didn't participate.

Leeds Music Service Orchestra early 1990s, Colin Jones conductingLeeds Music \Service

Playing Week was when the orchestral instrument teachers paused in their weekly teaching sessions,  formed an orchestra and went on tour of Leeds high schools. The "jazzers" formed a Big Band and did the same. As Head of Music and Expressive Arts at Foxwood High School [during late 80s and 90s], I had the very great pleasure of both these ensembles' presence at my school.

Leeds Music Service jazz band with a whole lot of brass

The Orchestra played my all time favourite piece of classical music, Fingal's Cave, and Brendan invited me to dance in front of all my students. [It wasn't that I was only just back off my maternity leave that was a problem; it was that I experimenting with wearing a suit and had my school keys exploding from the jacket pocket during the jive!]

So, when we were told, as part-time minorities, to continue teaching, I opined that we could seek out all the other part-timers and form our own band; and Diane said, and we'll play all the Special Schools. Thus the most carefully named Rest of the Best was born. And twenty years later still going strong, and in some demand, sadly much more than we can ever satisfy.

We take whoever is available for as many concerts as they are available for. Sometimes a flautist might only pop in for one gig; sometimes the recorder quartet is a soloist. Sometimes players get a chance to rehearse; sometimes they just turn up at the gig. You might think it makes for insecurity, but far from it; it puts us on the spot; it gives others a chance to try out something new, or to shine, or be soloists when they were expecting backing band. With each new set of band dynamics we get inspired; it keeps us fresh.

Usually our last school is our best concert, but not this year! How did that happen? It only took twenty years, but we rocked from the start.  Day One saw us rehearse in the ArtForms Yellow Room, then we decamped to Milestone.




In rehearsal we were me, Diane, Fiona, Mike, Cathy, Bart, with first-timers: Chloe, Julia, Richard and Richard. At Milestone we were joined by Sophie.





Apart from entertaining the children with additional needs, we also lift the spirits of the teachers. They like watching the kids enjoy our tunes, interact and be moved by the music; plus they enjoy the music themselves. Then, we entertain ourselves, and in doing so bond a bit with each other, who we may not see all that often. Ships in the dark criss-crossing Leeds. At the concerts we don't sit next to the same people; we take turns taking the lead; we learn new repertoire from each other; we see what the children respond to. We meet new schools. It's like a little working holiday.

And here we are now twenty years later still at it.

Instrumentally we were keyboards, guitar, violin, sax, recorder, flute, bassoon, clarinet, steel pans, drum-kit, vocals, bass guitar,




In the afternoon we were at Brudenell, had lost Mike and Bart and gained Cathy and Tim.




Day Two found us at Rawdon St Peter's. We were now joined by Fiona and Joanna, and regained Mike. Here I meet teacher, Heather, who has booked East Steel for their summer fair in June. Love the connections.

Next we are at Green Meadows, just down the road in Guiseley. A warm reunion for me with Kevin, who I have known since he was a schoolkid at Bentley. Love the connections. Now we are joined by Sarah on violin. She was there to teach, but found herself on stage instead. Yo.

Our last stop on the 2016 tour of Leeds Special schools and schools with resourced units is at Broomfield over in South Leeds. We have lost Richard and Richard, and I find I am doing an unexpected steel pan solo. Even more unexpected I am asked to move the van just as I am about to embark on Under the Boardwalk. Keeps you on your feet, or in this case, in the carpark! [And I thought I had put it [the van] somewhere safe].






Exhausted but content, I sign off from Rest of the Best and go lead Quarry Mount Primary School's steel band at their International Evening. Possibly a gig too far.

East Steel at YAMSEN:SpeciallyMusic Town Hall Concert

art display

Yo ho ho

This year, not only is East Steel playing the YSM concert, but I have taken over co-ordinating the whole event from Sue, so the stress levels are higher than usual. Anyway this blog is about the steelband, so readers are spared any unnecessary details. Well maybe a couple. Here they are:

art display

rehearsing Sleigh Ride in Aberford Village Hall

art competition winners

Off By heart

On the day before the concert I assisted the team displaying the art competition winners. This marathon job involved pins, ribbons, display boards and backache. We were Mavis Sue S, Anne and Douglas, Diane C, Chloe and myself.



pan rehearsing with OBH

This also involved negotiating with Eric, Mike and team to get some maximum noticeboards plus I have donated to the Town Hall the one from West Park that has been cluttering up the City pan room for years. [I was only waiting for a good home, honest!].

dressing room stuff

On the Friday a week before, I joined Mavis at West Park to try out the numbers that East Steel would accompany Off By Heart on. On the Sunday before Bex and I hit Aberford Town Hall in order to do our joint Sleigh Ride in B flat. As you do if you have shared a stage for a decade with the lovely Yorkshire Post Band [conductor- Rob, cracking whip- Diane C2] who plays the same top tune. [Although I am sure that  someone once said we didn't use the note of B flat!]

On the day Rick takes me Millie and a large set of steelpans down to Leeds Town Hall.  Millie, in real life, a Sparrow, spends all day as the most wonderful technical support - this must be noted.



NWSILC rehearse Nativity

In the afternoon, Margaret and the crew brought the NW SILC nativity to rehearse.  They went through their paces four times until they were all familiar with what they had to do. And I must say both the rehearsal and the actual performance were very professional. Unfortunately I can't show too many [well hardly any]photos without permissions.

On the night the choirs are, besides OBH [led by Mavis and Pat], Young Accord and One Accord, [led by Sophie and Clare], the Minster singers [led by Simon][including Jan who transformed my educational life 30 years ago], Off the Cuff [led by Diane P; they are a mixed bag of ArtForms music teachers who teach children with Additional Needs all year round, plus flautist, Philip].

I have not name-checked everyone who contributed to the organising of or performing at this event, but I do need to name and credit Irene Peace who started these concerts off, on the grounds that children with additional needs deserved the best, the best of everything, and, if that means a concert in Leeds, it must be at Leeds Town Hall. And so it still is, 32 years later.

In the evening we have ALL our regular players [see Staveley's pic above]: me, Bex, Vicky S, Wanda, Lynn, Kirsty, Pippa, Anne, Trish, Joyce, Wendy, Vicky R, Sophie, Yi Bai, Maddy, and when Yi Bai sprints off to work, Bart finds himself crossing the stage for Break of Day and Diwali.



Bart joins us after Yi Bai heads off to work

Mixed Percussion at YAM March 2015, and why a little career change is a good thing

I made possibly a rash decision about a decade ago. I had been seconded, three days a week, to be Acting Head of Music at my kids' school, City of Leeds School in order to get them through a rough patch [which also included an Ofsted inspection, whose team, I am pleased to note never spotted that I had only been in place two weeks at the time of their visit!]. At the end of my short tenure I was very tempted to stay on; but, as I said, it was my kids' school, so I said no, but I did leave two days a week open in case I was needed again.

Ten years later it's been skating on a lot of thin financial ice, but the I will never regret the opportunities offered and taken, from South Wales to Bradford, York, Manchester, Sheffield, other Leeds schools, and eventually primary liaison for City of Leeds, working alongside the new Head of Music at COLS, whom my own children adored. Phew!

Anyway, these two free-ish days mean that whenever Mavis and Sue would like a YAM workshop I can be there. This time I have pans, glocks, djembes, shakers; we are in four groups; I find I am singing Camptown Races and Coming Round the Mountain  to various different instrumental groups, with Joanna, Mavis, Pat and Eileen leading each mixed group.


Last times I used only steel pans, and in either two or four separate sessions, but today we were all in the same room, and besides not having sixty pans available, it would not have sounded great. This however did. It would not have been possible without the four leaders, and can I particularly mention Joanna, who can knock off a tune on her namesake at the drop of a hat! [I would also like to thank Diane for taking these lovely action pics for me.]

To conclude, not only did two free days give me the freedom to do other types of work, but it taught me a load of new skills.

East Steel for YAMSEN:SpeciallyMusic Town Hall Concert

on da phones

So, it's that time of year again when East Steel takes their place on stage with Off  By Heart, Young Accord, The Yorkshire Post Concert Band, St Peter's Choir, and Diane's impromptu ensemble, and many many others.

In the afternoon Yi Bai and I load in the pans n kit, find Mavis glueing pictures back onto the display boards. As you do!


We were me, Bex, Wanda, Anne, Kirsty, Lynne, Sophie, Trish, Pippa, Vicky and Yi Bai on kit. Small but perfectly formed. You should hear the CD! And we didn't know it was being recorded!

Sophie Bart Claire

Wanda staying glued to her favourites [basses]!

in the dressing room, probably a bit late now!

Bex posing on a table top- as you do!

This year our featured tunes are completely unseasonal Viva la Vida and Somewhere Only We Know.

in da pub

We play Go Tell it on the Mountain for the prize-giving. Bex and Vicky put a great display up in the side-foyer, sold no books or CDs, but they looked good.

We packed the van, and rewarded ourselves with a swift half [well!]. Who did we find in da pub?