From the Yorkshire Air Ambulance to the Scottish Fire Brigade

Well, these holidays have been great. I don't know how else I would have caught up with the paperwork. But I did fancy a bit of time out of Leeds, and as I am gearing up to checking out Fingal's Cave with Ann in the May half term, Glasgow seemed like a good idea. Morgan agreed to come with me, and just as I was booking hotels and trains on line, ex-pupil: Andy Lofty contacted the Foxwood website to see if we would like to play a benefit for the Air Ambulance at Leeds Bus Station on Thursday.

And here's a combination to die for: Foxwood ex-student, good cause, busy thoroughfare. I booked our tickets for the 1.05 to Glasgow, found a hostel just out of the city centre, contacted Foxwood and Doves and two days later, there we were: me, Mig, Gig, Varshika, Amy, Bex and Charlotte. The man in the picture wasn't all that keen by the looks! Or was he just on his phone?
Striking up a conversation with Dougie on the Edinburgh to Glasgow train, we: me and Morgan allowed ourselves to take a lift with him, to our lodgings on the Firhill Road. A modern block of student accomodation overlooking the Partick Thistle stadium. Dougie called it Partick Thistle Nil. I think we understood what he was saying.

We walked along the canal into town, and there, even as the town cente began was the Wee Curry House. We squashed in and tucked in. Later we found it was in the Rough Guide to . .

The city hostelries didn't take our fancy. We had a bit of a laugh in the Open Mike Bar, but en route for Byers Road [as recommended by Carrie-ann] we bumped into a Thursday night acoustic session in the Islay for a group of older generation folk musicians playing guitars, violin, boran, pipe, mandolin. So we just stayed. And then after a magical hour and a couple of pints, the dynamics changed as different musicians joined the session. And the Old Guy leader packed away his guitar after a couple of tunes with the newcomers, and left. We thanked him, and left ourselves.

Next day we did art galleries: Hunterian and Kelvingrove, and saw many a famous painter's work. Here's me checking out Dali's Christ in a discreet tourist in front of a famous painting kind of a way. Later that evening massive pub crawl - probably burnt off the alcohol striding from pub to pub. Which was probably just as well, because our short Scottish break ended with with not one, but two fire alarms in the middle of the night, but noone admitting to having a cig in in Block Whatever 4a.

Grabbing my coat, my keys and my camera . . . [I think we knew it wasn't a fire] here's a blurry picture of bleary people.

Life and Death and Steelbands

Now then Debs

Sorry you missed Oakwood Farmers Market March 19, first Foxwood gig of the year. It was ace and the weather was too. Last year, same event we were under canvas, well nearly under canvas, trying to smile away the notes as they flattened themselves in the rain.

Whatever, Debs, that was two weeks ago; since then I've been through a bit of life and death. On Wednesday I was on show at the Hospital School Open Day with my little Year 11 rock band, then, in the evening at a lecture at Leeds Met. Here I bumped in someone from my old Foxwood School days, and in comparing people we had known I found out that one of my favourite ever colleagues had died. A bit late, but a bit in shock and a bit like newly bereaved.

On Tuesday my foster daughter gave birth to her third child [and third daughter]; but they all live in Singapore so that made me a bit happy and sad all at the same time. Even if I didn't have my flying phobia, I couldn't even afford the plane fare to visit her.

Going back to Monday I "celebrated" my birthday with a two-hour governors' meeting at my high school.

On Thursday I attended a planning meeting at the Council Chambers, Civic Hall, in an attempt to dissuade the council from allowing yet another landlord to build yet another student block sat the end of my street. Then I wrote a letter which made it into the YEP [Yorkshire Evening Post] a few days later. I mostly moved steel pans around Leeds on Friday. And of course I was at work all of these days as well.

Looking back to Saturday the 26th March, Natalie [Marks] and I took our eighteen of our Silver Sparrows to the Music For Youth regional festival event at St Aidan's School Harrogate. Host teacher, Mark Pallant always makes us feel welcome at his school. The adjudicators thought Buffalo Soldier had "an enticing laid-back reggae groove" and Lay All Your Love "had authentic caribbean feel". We also took Doves and Hyde Park Primary Percussion.

As the day cooled down to a crisp dry evening we waited, full of the joys of, Well we did our best, when a crackly little speaker on the Hornbeam Park platform announced that our train was cancelled. Forty minutes later we boarded at last; this included baby Maya, and were on our way back to Leeds.

East Steel doing Christmas in the New Year

Now then Debs, is this a letter to Carriacou or to Huddersfield?

Who knows? All I do know is that this is still a letter from Hyde Park Leeds where education campaigning is still vying with steel pan teaching for pride of place in my life! Thankfully Foxwood band member, Bex, now has a proper job as a pan teacher [besides her real proper job, that is], so I can go to governors' and union meetings without letting my music centre classes down.

Picture left: Anne and Lynn tying up the banner, and making sure it's straight.

Picture below: Alli and Bex bringing the pans down from the pan store.

In January YAMSEN:SpeciallyMusic reran the Town Hall Christmas Concert. Here all the Art competition prize-winners collected their trophies, and Mavis made the people who had come to watch, now in the familiar surroundings of the wonderful West Park Centre, do a bit of audience participation with the Seven Days of Christmas. I loved the cavalier way she cut this song down from twelve to seven. It was ace. Below: Set up and waiting to play:

We, at East Steel were a bit surprised to find that we were not just a couple of guest spots, but also, at times, it seemed, part of the resident band. What a hoot. We battered our way through carol after carol, and several things less Yuletide seasonal. In fact when the Lord Mator got up to make his speech I asked him what key he would make it in, so we were ready.

This is the gig when we introduced Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man to our repertoire. Below: East Steel playing at last.

Players for this concert were myself, Bex and Natalie as leader-players [running between cellos, bass and soprano, Nat on kit]. Karen, Alli on soprano pans, Ruth, Lynn, Cathy, Joyce on single seconds, Karen also on cellos, and Judy on single guitar. Sue. Diane, Irene, Gail, Mavis and all the rest of the YAMSEN:SpeciallyMusic committee organised the event, and resident wind band included Joanna and Kate. And it all took place in YAMSEN:SpeciallyMusic's home building, the wonderful, versatile and unassuming West Park Centre, which also puts a roof over the heads of the Travellers Education Unit, the National Union of Teachers Office, the Irish Art Group and of course, Leeds ArtForms and most of its wonderful central youth bands. And rents out rooms for a whole load more.

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.

A Little Reunion in Huddersfield, our Steelpan Second Home

Well Debs,

We caught up with you at the Grand Opening of MacKinley's Caribbean and African Foodstore in Byram Street. Realising that your move to Carriacou was not exactly a done deal yet, I also saw a little window, which one might call your lunch break.

Amy, from the Sparrows, had spent Thursday night with her essay on French film Etre at Avoir [or Avoir et Etre, je ne m'en souviens lequel]; consequently had not slept; Georgia decided to give birth at 8.30 that morning [I guess that a fair enough reason for not coming to the gig]; Bex was still on maternity leave; and I moved a few lessons around.

The Mayor of Huddersfield was there to cut the ribbon; this wonderful foodstore was full of Caribbean and African food; people that I had worked at with Education 2000 passed through; we had a small space by the front window. We were rehearsing when we saw you, Debs, hurry past, in distracted Wonderland White Rabbit fashion, pan in one hand, stand in the other. You heard us, but didn't see us, so we had to race off after you to get you back!

We took turns holding baby Michael; and Charles had a turn and he wasn't even in the band! There was also a tricky moment with a bus and one way street while I was moving the cars from Street One to Streets Two and Three.

Byram Street took Amy back to when we played Huddersfield Carnival two/three years ago. Mary had asked for a children's band to play outside the church on the very same street the same day as the parade, so Amy and four fellow-Sparrows [teenagers, not really children] played while Foxwood and SteelRising set up the float by the Hudawi Centre. Then at precisely whatever time it was they packed those pans and folding kit away, stacked them in church and legged it over to the parade and jumped on said float.

It also took us all back to playing inside the Carnival Arts Centre further uptown for the pre-carnival launch earlier this year. We played until the rain stopped and then moved out onto the pavenment. And then. a few years ago there was the Rum Boat. And then of course there was the Town Centre static for the Carnival before the times we were on lorries. And the Hudawi centre for the After-Celebration a couple of years back. So I guess you could say that Huddersfield has become our second steelpan home. And we have stopped getting lost in the one-way system, which is a bonus.

Come Rain, Come Shine

Well, I was looking back through the photos and there we are in June this year at the Bradford Mela. It was Saturday, and the sun, as you can see, is shining. As ever, we had a load of pans to transport from where we parked to where we were to play. But not at all as ever, 1. there was a proper parking place for us, with several passes for all of our cars, and 2. there were these little ace golf buggies to transport us from parking to playing. I was in Mela Pan Heaven. [Whatever happened to, "You can't park here."? Usually it's not really a gig unless you're having a set-to with a security guard.]


Sunday at the Mela, however, it rained. We set up our gazebos and took shelter, as you can see from this picture below.

But it went on raining, and we were now fighting the audience for a place in our own gazebos. Somebody suggested we charged rent, and we'd earned 37p before they started smoking and I pushed them back out into the rain.

Now I know, Debs, you're wondering where did that 37p go, but I can assure you that it was all accounted for.

On the left is a close up of the reality of the rain in a gazebo. These rain capes were courtesy of the festival organisers. And I think you'll agree - very fetching!


The more it rained, the more band members found they had to leave Bradford early. Eventually we persuaded the organisers that, even if we did make from Zone 2 to the now available Children's Tent, we would probably not do justice to our musical abilities again. And, also, who would be left to hear us plod our way through C, G and A minor.

After it was agreed that rain really had stopped play, we waited for the golf buggies to take us away, loaded up the van and the cars, drove to Leeds, unloaded the can and the cars, took all the pans out of all the cases and left everything drying all over the ground floor of my house. The following day, you, Debs would have been doing mock Science with Year; I would have been somewhere in Leeds with the three-chord trick on pans, coming home to the great repacking.



Well, Debs, what changes? The great British weather continues to thwart the best laid plans o' mice and men. The Foxwood Steel Bandits have now bought an events tent big enough to house the band and most of a wet weather audience. I guess the difference between Carriacou and Leeds is, when it's it's wet in the West Indies it's probably still warm.

On the right above is East Steel inside the Lakeside Cafe at Roundhay Park. We were going to play in a marquee in the park for PHAB's 40th Yorkshire birthday while the wheelchair-users and friends ambled round the park. Instead, band members put up half the pans that we had brought in the cafe's conservatory, and took turns playing, alternating this with being photographed with [Sir] Jimmy Saville who had called down himself for a quiet full English [that's breakfast]. The Leeds Lord Mayor was also present, in a you-know-when-you're-getting-old when the lord mayors start to look young!

The local newspaper mentioned the event, the Lord Mayor and the celebrity.

NAME, Tiddles and the Alzheimer's Society Walk

Hi Debs, Well, I feel another letter to you coming on.
Last Thursday saw Diane and me taking to the M62 and M6, Junction 15 and quite a prolonged map versus satnav "discussion" as we took the Stone turn-off to go to the NAME [National Association of Music educators] conference.
Diane was still on about the dual carriageway that we didn't take, to the east of the M6. I was pointing out that we were here, while conceding that the roads to the west had been small and bendy. We agreed to go on scoring small points till one of us got bored.

Which was sometime Friday afternoon.

Friday lunchtime we gave a short powerpoint on differentiation and inclusion in Music lessons. This seemed to go down okay. So we could go back to discussing the dual carriageway on the east of the motorway. And get back to networking, getting Diane to work out how to get my laptop onto the internet, a couple of pints of lager, and working out how to get back in time to play for the Alzheimer's Society Walk in Roundhay Park Leeds.

We originally agreed to play this gig some months ago, and I was going to come back Saturday. Then another steelband got booked, so I went back to staying at conference till Sunday. Then the other group dropped out, and we got dropped back in. And now I'm in the Midlands with no way home. And I'm still texting Foxwood, Doves and Steel Rising to see who wants to play in a bandstand in Roundhay Park to a couple of ducks, and briefly to 200 of the members of the Alzheimer's Society as they set off on their walk round the park. Or, another fine mess, as Charlotte likes to call these ad hoc ones.

Saturday morning and Morgan texted me to say that he fallen downstairs at the bar where he worked landing on the 14 wine glasses that he had just dropped. Just another Friday night at A and E, then. Saturday afternoon and I get another text to say Tiddles has been run over and they're holding the funeral now. So when Christine is going back north at 6pm I jump in her car. The map and the satnav discuss discuss the relative merits of the road to Uttoxeter and beyond. Curiously they were as one mind.

On Sunday morning it was wet and windy. We put the Events tent into the van in case, but no need. The bandstand did what it said on the tin. Kept us dry, as long as we huddled towards the leeward side; we had to do warm ourselves. In the picture you will see we were mostly wearing hoodies over hoodies. And you will also see the audience that was left after the walkers walked off. Actually I think Shaun from the Park and Mike from Oblong were still there, but sheltering on the other side.

In the end players were from Foxwood: me, Georgia, Bex, Stewart, Charlotte, from Doves: Danielle and Joe M, from Steel Rising: Vicky, Alli and Karen. Holly foolishly fetched up with Charlotte and strummed some mean chords on Charlotte's soprano pan. [These C sopranos are just excellent for high chords]. Foolishly for her, not for us.

My friend Barbara passed on this quote from her friend:

“Steelband was fantastic - kept on playing and the sound was marvellous!”

Well, let me tell you, the sound in that little bandstand half-way up the side of the Little Lake Roundhay park, Leeds, was to die for. If we did keep on playing it was for the sound we were creating, that joint shared music-making experience. And when those moments come along you don't want to let go.

So that was the weekend of the 18/19 September. I'm worn out all again just writing it all down.