Leeds Silver Steel Sparrows join Grand Union Orchestra at City Varieties

I have had the great honour to work with Tony Haynes and the Grand Union Orchestra [GUO] twice before, once at Leeds Town Hall [Dr Carnival], once at West Yorkshire Playhouse [On Liberation Street], so when opportunity arose again, we took it [Trading Roots]. And it was lovely.

A couple of weeks ago Peter, Millie and Amy, and me went to the Sikh Temple, Ladypit Lane, Beeston [Leeds] to learn 'Ol Lady, The Homecoming, African Market and another. Millie arrived dressed Millie-style. Whereas some of us just needed a headscarf, Millie needed, leg scarves as well!

Over the following two Sparrows practices we learnt the tunes properly; sadly Peter nipped off a Caribbean cruise [well, I don't think Peter was sad!], and Danielle joined us for the day itself.




We rehearsed in the morning; went home [where I watched the remarkable Wimbledon Ladies singles winner, Marion Bartoli] went back for a final rehearsal, then, stroking genius, the ice cream parlour on Upper Briggate.

Bex, Laura and Vicky came to the show. It was ace. It was music; this is writing with pictures, so here's some pictures. Especially of the mind-blowing, sax blowing, clarinet wielding Australian woodwind player. She had disappeared before Bex could tell her just how wonderful . . . .

We got some new notes to play in one of the tunes. I wrote them on Millie's neck. Doesn't show up on the pic above but she went through agony to be our music stand.






After the show Trish took Millie's and my pan home; we stacked the rest up on the stage; Amy and I went drinking with Bex, Vicky and Laura.

Of course, eventually it was Monday, and the small matter of rescuing the pans from the City Varieties. The short straw fell to colleague Mark S, here posing in Dortmund Square where we finally decided I should go and get my car.

Top man, indeed!

Four Go to Music For Youth Without the Band

Debs, you know that great Robbie Burns poem that he address to a homeless fieldmouse, in which he declares that the "best laid plans o' mice and men, gang aft agley  . . "

[Perhaps you don't Debs, as you are a Science teacher.]

Whatever. As we weren't playing the Music for Youth Festival [again!][and I had begun to consider it home] I thought it would be nice to take the New Sparrows down to see the other top UK bands in action, to compare ourselves, to check out the opposition, to declare that we had been robbed or to admit we needed to up our game. And to meet up with old pals from the pan world. Like Dave from North Tyneside [above].

Also, Xanthe had booked herself a place there with her wonderful SILC band, and we wanted to support her.


Xanthe, if you recall, arranged quite a few of the Foxwood/Sparrows top tunes [eg Tainted Love, Trini to the Bone] for us. And it was she who supported Sparrows through applying for Music For Youth in the first place.

To get the tickets cheaply I bought the first six some weeks ago, including two children's with a family railcard. Well, no-one under 16 was either interested or allowed to go!

By last week my sleep patterns, never good, were in disarray. Eventually Aretha and I discussed our little problem with the rail company, handed over £10 for each ticket to be changed, and then it was me, Diane, Tim and Amy alone on the 10.11 to Birmingham, city of music halls, central squares and culture.

Debs, it was an extra £40 well spent.

John Jamieson's SILC steelband, led by Xanthe Lewty, music arranged by herself, was mind-blowing. The arrangement as Beethoven Seven melted into Alex Clare Too Close was one thing, then there were the players themselves changing instruments between vocals, pans, kit, piano and electric guitar in a very unhurried and purposeful way. For me, and I think also for Diane, Tim and Amy, it was the outstanding performance of the day. There was a beautiful intensity to this performance, in my opinion, that no other band achieved.

Diane bought a meat sandwich!

We all cried and then hugged Xanthe, and then hugged some of the players too [after asking permission first of course].

Then we watched all the other bands, and they were great. Such virtuosity! Exciting, impressive. Many more steelbands than usual. Were we robbed? Should we up our game?

Well, neither. The way they played - the London and Newcastle bands - was massive, impressive, and immensely enjoyable, but it's not how we want to go with the Sparrows [or Foxwood or East Steel] in Leeds. Our tunes tell stories, tug at heart-strings; the dynamics are there, but are almost imperceptible. Our crescendos are long drawn-out affairs. We don't dance, we certainly don't smile. Our players only move if they are moved to move. And I think there is space for us all.

Leeds Silver Steel Sparrows play Co-operative [Primrose]

Well, this nice little gig only attracted four real Sparrows, so me, Nat and Vicky stepped up and stepped in. They asked us to play outside, at which point the sun played ball, and sprinkled its warmth over the area outside of the library.















Sparrows were Claudia, Peter, Millie and Georgia. We Dreamed Dreams, considered the cruelty of those collected Hearts in Jars, Laid our Love and contemplated the Bridge Over Troubled Water Under the Boardwalk.

We made Sarah E take photos, then moaned at her for not including enough pics of the audience. How ungrateful!

Then we all went home.

Grand Union next at City Varieties Saturday 6 July.

East Steel play Miggy Park

Well Debs,

Last time we played Middleton Park, we were one of a number of acts, but, reading a little pamphlet called Events in Leeds, I found our name by the 30th June as playing in said park, and then found no other act mentioned. So best be on time then.

First I had a meeting of the West Park Centre Campaign Group. I packed the van early, attended [chaired even] the meeting, then left promptly to pick up Tim back in Hyde Park, then Amy in Holbeck. The park entrance was in the same place as it was last year - always a good thing; Wanda was holding the gate for us, and here a lovely new café, with paved terrace-performance area.
















Well, before we started the set a small dog started to pull away from its owner, its lead-on-a-spring getting longer and longer until the owner let go and the metal lead went flying, whipping anything in its way, including the backs of my ankles as it did. See pictures taken two days later. I asked if there was a doctor in the house, but the doctor in our band told me she didn't think I needed A and E. Well, there's sympathy!

We were me, Vicky [with Bex's Smalls - how the heck did that happen!], Wendy, Jeanette, Peter, Tim, Amy, Anne, Lynn, Wanda, Kirsty and Trish.

Listening to us quite wore Mikey out.

We had some tea and buns, packed the van quite loosely, then I went and helped Charlotte move house. This involved watching her getting a mattress - with no handles - why do they do that - make the floppiest thing in the world and then give you nowhere to get a grip! Oh, as I said, get a mattress up some stairs.

Then a mystery cat decided to inspect the camshaft.

Foxwood Steel at Leeds Waterfront

Debs, it's a summer Saturday and the beginning of a three day mini-tour of Leeds, today with Foxwood Steel at the Waterfront, tomorrow with East Steel at Miggy Park, and Monday with Sparrows at a local school's Awards ceremony.

It's a sort of brace-yourself moment: pack the van in good time, make the setlists that none of them seem to want. Charlotte put hers in her pocket; Lizzie shouted, "Just shout them out!" There's only Vicky left reading it, so I shout the tunes out.

Varshika brought half of herself - we got her into a matching hoody, but not sure she ever properly woke up.

I forgot the floor tom and the hi-hat clutch. We borrowed them from the stage kit. People told us we were great even before we had set up. Bex was away, so we were all agreeing [actually even she does now].






 Anyway I had to refuse the offer of a 12 midday start mostly on the grounds that it would have been a trio at that time of day, and had they all got up, they would have drunk their earnings between Set One and Two. [I'm simplifying obviously].

There was a jazz quartet on stage when we arrived, and there was just room for them. We set up our ten piece steel band on the concrete in front of the stage left. So, just as well, the weather was good: warm, dull and only the slightest draft emanating from the Bridgewater Building.

The audience included passengers at Leeds City who were only after the 3 o'clock to Manchester, or Edinburgh or wherever, and found themselves bopping along with [well staring at at least] an unexpected steelband.

We had 40 minutes and I like to think we rocked. Joanne and Del took their annual holiday from the Malty to come and support. I managed to sneak one new tune past the band. Two more sneaks and they will have learnt it. Yippee! It was massively helped by Katie squeaking, "I love this song!"

Georgia found herself doing some unexpected solos.

Afterwards, Lizzie started on the pavement, and this really before she had started drinking. Bizarre. I just had to take a couple of photos.

Ah, before you ask: we were me, Daisy, Charlotte, Natalie, Katie, Lizzie, Amy, Stewart, Varshika, Vicky and Sophie

I went home and Sarah brought her lovely new baby round, and we talked stuff about childbirth, breast-feeding and sleep deprivation. I explained how to play chords on a single second with one hand holding two sticks and the baby balanced under the other arm. Looking back at this photo of me and Daniel in garden, I appear to be wondering, Hmmm, is this a baby and could it be in Bflat?

Whatever it was, it was very small.

Foxwood Steel and East Steel at Otley Carnival aka The Wrong Van

Well Debs, I'd say it was tempting fate when Karen turned up with paper decorations! Did it rain, then? No, Debs it hailed! On June 15th, it hailed.

First off, me and Rick [okay, Rick and I] park the vans end to end, then Bex and me [okay, Bex and I] load pans from one to another [or back into my front room of course]; eventually Tim hoves into views dragging a ton of ironware that is our second drum-kit.

Setting up the float, we found that we had only left behind the second hanging tom on this occasion, a great improvement on forgetting the snare. However, life was about to take a strange turn for the worse!

First we unloaded the van, then Rick moved it to the organisers' designated area; I asked Wanda to start putting the empty cases back in the van; Wanda asked someone which was our van; someone pointed to a white van; Wanda pointed the key fob to said van, went over, it was open, put the cases in. Then Tim realised that the clutch of the hi-hat was still in his cymbal case, and the cymbal case was now back in the van, and someone went back to the van, but the van that the cases had been put in had gone. So, the wrong van. Hmmm. We tied the hi-hat cymbals together, and advised Tim against fretting.




Debs, all this excitement and we hadn't even set off. Anyway they've levelled the road surface at the turn out of the cattle market, so that bit where your stomach lurches was all in the anticipation and not in the reality.

At first the rain just sparkled a bit, threatened, then withdraw. Next minute, Debs, it was all hail let loose, and heaven help me, Amy, Anne, Lynn and Cathy and all of us on the windward side, Otley High Street.

We were me, Lizzie, Gig, Natalie, Bex, Varshika, Daisy, Vicky, Tim, Amy for Foxwood Steel and Anne, Wendy, Lynn, Becky, Peter, Wanda, Wendy, Kirsty, Jeanette, Ruth, Karen, Alli and Joyce for East Steel.