Assorted Steelband at Allerton Grange

I promised Vicky that, if she would play at Allerton Grange, it would be lovely weather. Well, it was sunny, but also windy.

 

 

 

We were me, Vicky, and from Allerton Grange - Claudia, Phil and Alice.

 

 

 

 

nice reflections in the windows

 

A lady came up to us and asked if we could liven it up a bit with some Rihanna. I told her we only had one member of the actual school band, and that we were sight-reading our way  through the New World Foxwood Songbook. [And I thought, not doing too bad.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway we reconsidered our set and managed a bit of Michael Jackson. You Are Not Alone. No we weren't, but it was a close thing!

 

 

 

 

What a hoot! What did Charlotte always say, in the manner of Laurel and Hardy, "Is this another fine mess, Victoria, that you have got me into?" Well I reckon it was!

 

 

Thanks to Laura for the lovely pics, and for getting the teas, and here's Avtar's dhol-players who followed us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

All the pan players above first learnt pans with Leeds ArtForms. If you would like to learn steelpans or book a steelband please contact Leeds ArtForms, or find us at foxwoodpanyard@outlook.com.

Foxwood Steel play Majestic Hotel Harrogate

 So we re-arranged a few pans in the Transit and headed up the Harrogate Road for the vintage car-owners' dinner.

 

 

 

 

 

In the Majestic carpark there were Morgans galore [the car, not my son]. We set up in the alcove of the bar. This turned out to have a bizarre amplifying effect on the pans and kit that were actually within the alcove and its low ceiling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were me, Katie, Fehmina, Bex, Tim, Daisy, Sophie, Vicky, Charlotte with Holly guesting.

 

We wrote a setlish and put it on an easel and, as we neared the end of our set we asked Jan and the guests to choose which tunes they wanted. We have also slightly rearranged our version of Mozart Symphony Number 40 which threw some of our number into disarray! But it will work.

 

In aforementioned alcove we struggled to get the dynamics right for a while, but I guess we just being perfectionists, and we went down fine.

 

Went home, unloaded in the dark then went down the Brudenell for a "debrief" ie a pint.

Leeds Silver Steel Sparrows and Foxwood Steel rock Collingham Cricket Club

Richard asked, would we like to play for a cricket match between Collingham and a group of ex-professional West Indian cricketers. Well Richie Benau, Viv Richards, Brian Lara all sprung into my mind from the golden days and when my dad was an amateur umpire and we would spend weekends at Leamington Spa sprawled out on the grass beside matches. So I said yes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wasn't sure how many Sparrows we'd have so asked if any Foxwood were up for it, and also asked Wanda and Kirsty [from East Steel/Steel Rising] to guest, and, in the end, the Sparrows had all finished answering all the A, AS and GCSE questions in the world, and we had a sizeable presence at the side of the pitch, wondering how we were to avoid sixes destroying C sharp and the rest.

 

Well it was great; the weather was great; we were great. "Under the Sea" was amazing, "The Flood" sank, but you can't win them all. We were Millie S, Millie C, Claudia, Peter, Chloe, George, Georgia [G2], Naomi, Natalie, Amy, Fehmina, Vicky, Bex, Bart, Tim, Bex and me. And this guy, De Freitas joined us for a bit, but Amy gave him a hard time.

 

The photographer asked could the celebrity cricketer play the pan, and Amy said no. [Thank you, Amy for this correct response]. And the cricketer didn't want to anyway.

 

 

 

 

Foxwood Steel Play Rosebank Millennium Green

Well Debs, there was a point when I thought it would be me, Bex and Luke from The Millennium Green project, but as it turned out it was me, Bex, Tim, Amy, Varshika, Sophie, Sarah, with baby Daniel and Lola in attendance. And Luke played a rather nice little djembe.





And we gave Kanon its first public airing, at which point Tim discovered that he loved bass.


I love playing local.  Watching Leeds build itself a big new shopping centre, and a big new arena [Leeds Arena] makes me want to play really local. I love playing music for the little people who don't shop downtown and who can't afford Elton or Springsteen.

The Foxwood players who played the Rosebank have also won a UK national ward and played the Royal Albert Hall. And, of course, the recognition is nice, but it is not all.

Blenheim Leavers Concert and COLS Leavers bbq

On Tuesday morning I went down to Blenheim Primary |School for a final farewell concert/assembly with the Year Six Pannistes. Found out that Will's mum's mum [Sharon] was one of the original Unity team, and someone I remember working with.



In the afternoon just had to go say goodbye to Carrie-ann, wonderful colleague of many years, leaving for pastures new in Bradford. Also to Levi, long-term stalwart caretaker at City of Leeds School. Will miss them both. Decided to drive in order to obviate the possibility of alcohol-induced tearfulness.

Foxwood Steel at Beechwood

Debs, While you, no doubt. are having a lie-in after your own weekend gigs, I find that me and the gang are now treading the boards on Monday morning at Beechwood Primary School.


First off, Natalie's wonderful Beechwood Primary School Steel Band play, and then we hobble on stage. Sarah [newly made mum] has left Daniel with her mum [newly made grandma] who conveniently lives almost next door to the school. Bex has brought Mikey with her, but she shouldn't worry - Beechwood is getting used to Smalls on stage. My own Small is now in her early twenties, but she has left her own Smalls at school and nursery.

Anyway, Debs, this blog is meant to be about the gigs I play, not how many children we manage to farm out first! On the other hand, it's the only way we manage to play these gigs, so all power to all our elbows. We were me, Bex, Gig, Sarah, Natalie and Cameron [hitting the ground running on work experience][and turns out played with us for Grand Union gig two weeks ago]. 

I love the pics we get from Beechwood because of the background. It gives a proper alternative experience to a performance. [Also Beechwood has its own pans- standard layout, and drum-kit, so we can play what there is on stage already.]

Leeds Silver Steel Sparrows play Breeze on Briggate,

Breeze on Briggate. What it says on the tin.



Rick and I delivered the pans to the backstage nearly-marquee at 9.30 [before half the band were awake, I'll wager!]. Stacked them neatly, and left the gazebo/marquee to be built around them.



Sunny. Crowded. Dancing gran. Found Theo and Jo busking pan and kit just down from the stage. So pans very much alive and well in Leeds.

Met the Sparrows backstage from 2.15 on. In the end we were Naomi, Georgia E, Danielle L, Danii, Peter, Claudia, George, Ciara, Danielle H. Because we were missing some holiday-makers we were joined by Varshika, Amy and Katie. [Katie tried to [point out that she had only come to watch!]. Leaders were myself, Natalie, Bex and Tim. Joining us mostly on percussion: Theo, Jo and Cameron [who, like Katie weren't quite expecting it!]. And not forgetting the Queen of all forms, all cameras, all stuff like that: Vicky.

Backstage crew knew their stuff, stage manager offered us a medal for our efficient settingupness. Well, it's not just about the 30 minutes of rubber on steel!







The "dancing gran" earlier mentioned features on an eponymous youtube clip of herself dancing to us playing Is Heat on Briggate three years ago. See also the Facebook Leeds Silver Steel Sparrows page for video clips and more pics.

Goodbye again to City of Leeds School

Well, it's a over a decade since I first visited City of School, as Head of Steel Pans for the Music Service, and realised that the local rumours about it being a rubbish school were unfounded. In particular I was impressed with Ms Hardwick's Music Department. And a couple of years later, I put my money where my mouth was and sent my two youngest children there.

A couple of years later I realised that Music was not one of the school's strengths anymore [Ms H had moved on], and offered to help out. [In a sort of wistful I wish I had a proper home school again.] The Music Service finally agreed to release me, after a bit of pressure from my old headteacher, John Steel, who was being a superhead at the time. So I stood in as Head of Music, found a willing friend [saxophone player and would-be teacher, New Zealander, Paul] to be the other member of department, wrote all his lesson plans, and gave him all the "easier" classes. [Paul left the UK to go back to New Zealand the following year. Hmmm.]

This is some of the speech I would have made [and here's just two of the most incredible pieces of artwork from 2011:

"I wanted to make a speech this afternoon about how sad I was to leave City and look back at my moments, but actually . . .

It's hard to leave what I felt I never really joined. I kinda just slipped in. I came to be head of Music for half a year, including for when the Ofsted came. It was a couple of weeks before the Ofsted. I spent the weekend putting up displays and looking out my old Foxwood lesson plans.

The Ofsted inspector said I had low expectations of the kids. I looked earnest and kept my mouth shut. Low! There was one Year Nine class who I thought would all kill each other and was amazed that they even stayed in their seats. I had only met some of the classes once before and actually I thought, in the circumstances, I had been brilliant [I think it's safe to use that word again.].

After giving me the obligatory hard time, the kids were even more annoyed when I told them I wasn’t staying, so when Donna arrived we put it to school that it would be helpful for the transition if I stayed on . . . then when Bridget arrived . . and Carrie-ann. . . . In fact it’s taken a double dip recession [whatever that is!] to get rid of me!

When Margaret Hamlet asked me to stay on, I felt I couldn’t because my own kids were then there and in Years 8 and 9 and both heading towards Music GCSE. But I would have loved to. The palpable racial harmony, and the various musical talents and experience of both the immigrant and local children – so exciting.

Then there were extreme highs and extreme lows – highs included winning the UK World Music Award for the Sparrows which included 50% City and ex-City students, and overall included 19 different nationalities [hence the flags – see youtube: Leeds Silver Steel Sparrows play Royal Albert Hall]; lows were being banned from the LGHS/COLS version of Carnival Messiah and from Leeds Carnival last year [I felt that I had let the kids down]; highs again were winning through to the national Festival for Youth five years running and then being asked to bring both bands [Sparrows and Doves] to the Festival of Britain at the Southbank last July. Now that was massive. Two bands out of five from whole of UK included children from Little London, Holbeck, Hyde Park, Chapeltown and the rest! This is us, outside the Festival Hall and inside playing with the other bands.Another high was when I realised that PE, Science and EAL could tell what time of year it was by how good, or bad [!] the pans sounded.

My latest high is called Maryam, Rukhsar, Raheem, Samera and Rayshan, and somehow or other, I hope it’s not the last I have seen them."

Suitably it rained on the last day of term, and we took no pics so here's two of when we said goodbye to Strawberry Queen, Christine, admin assistant extraordinaire.

Thursday Friday goodbye to Blenheim and Spring Bank

On Thursday afternoon at 2pm I said goodbye to the delightful year Six at Blenheim as they played their last concert, joining in with Sophie's choir. It's the last week of the school year, and every little band in my steelpan Leeds world all sound good now. They sound musical; they work as teams; they play to their strengths; they have played to audiences who don't sit there squirming, but who may clap along and ask for more.

Don't have a pic of Blenheim classes so here's one of their pans.

"Parental choice" means that the year sixes of Hyde Park, Little London and Woohouse are being scattered around the different high schools in a long corridor from central to north Leeds starting with City of Leeds School, to Carr Manor, Lawnswood and Ralph Thoresby.  Sadly only two of these schools have pans [I'm working on it!], and only one has a dedicated steelpan room. So this great universal instrument that has let whole classes blossom is now closed to all but a handful.

At 2.30 I am 3 miles away sitting in the audience at Moor Allerton watching Al's lovely Year Sixes do their thing and take a bow.  Sounded ace. No pic of Moor Allerton so here's one of Al with his own band at the New Roscoe. By 3.15 I have criss-crossed Leeds again to pick up Lola from Kirkstall Valley School. And then back to panicking about how many players I'll have for the YMCA on Saturday [a late gig request dangerously inside the school holidays], and collecting  up the pans for who doesn't own their own.

Friday saying goodbye to Spring Bank, and reminding my little gang of boys who became Middle Steel that we will meet again [at West Park], and then, after ten years at City of Leeds School it's time to say goodbye again.

It's Wednesday. The Steel Siblings at Brudenell

In the morning I say goodbye to the glorious Quarry Mount Year Sixes. Then Al Roberto [it's seems like all one word] has this little concert at Brudenell, and we bring the Siblings down from City of Leeds to join them. Ace. They do djembes; we do pans; then we all play together. Even acer. Ashley joins us. Can't show the Brudenell players; here two Siblings pics.