Foxwood Steel pop up at Leeds Carnival 2013

Foxwood Flash Mob in Savile Park, Chapeltown Road, Leeds

So Debs

To perhaps the main event of the year, maybe of the last three years:

But first a little history:

Three years ago London was burning, Manchester 's town centre was looted, and a few youths ventured onto the Leeds streets only to be told to go home.

This was the successful and peaceful outcome of the older community members taking to the Leeds streets themselves.

At one point it was thought that Manchester Carnival would have to cancel their parade (oh no, don't stop the Carnival). The parade organisers and indeed the Police as well that it wasn't fair that a group of low life scum should spoil a wonderful community family multi-cultural event.

Having unbooked Foxwood Steel, Manchester quickly rebooked us. Leeds, our own home town, however, decided this was the time to unbook us forever, offering as a reason that live music on the parade might cause a riot. Having been a great supporter of Leeds West Indian Carnival for decades, player for 14 years, and band leader for 11 of those years, I was dismayed, not just disappointed for myself, but for all mine, Charlotte's, Nat's and Bex's players who had booked their holidays around Leeds Bank Holiday weekend.

The letter they send me ended thus: We hope that the event helps to continue the process of UNITY, LOVE and equality, which sends out a local, national and international message of hope.

I know that's how they traditionally sign off letters, but in this case, I thought it was a bit cheeky.

Confidence conducts the Sparrows at M4Y in Chamberlain Square Birmingham 2006

The press was dismayed on our behalf, and we got more media coverage for not playing Carnival than we ever got for playing it. Here are the links to BBC News

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-14599380

and YEP

Sparrows Albert Hall 2009

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/latest-news/top-stories/ban-on-steelbands-in-leeds-west-indian-carnival-parade-exclusive-1-3694871

and even Radio 5 Live drove across the Pennines to interview us, while Georgia played pan on Moorland Avenue as background.

Sparrows Albert Hall 2009

Debs, if this had been a private party, I would have said fair enough, but this is a publicly funded event. Half the players [Sparrows and their teachers]  have represented Leeds at The National Festival for Music For Youth 6 or 7 times, included that little stint at the Albert Hall (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR6_pbGve3Q ), and playing for the Festival of Britain at the Royal Festival Hall. [Pics right for Sparrows at Music For Youth , including Royal Albert Hall]

me and Annette

"You playing Carnival, miss?" asked one Year 7 boy (and grandson of a local musician) at a local school. This was last year. I told him I wasn't, and wondered what explanation to give to an eleven year old.  "What's the matter," he laughed, "you too good for them?"

John and Varshika

Well, Debs, it's three years later, and high time, I tried to put matters right. Then out of the blue, a Sparrows' parent invited me to play for her, her family and friends (many from St Kitts originally) in Savile Park while she waited to join the troupe, put together on her behalf, a troupe dedicated to cancer-awareness as she herself battles this disease.

This was an offer, Debs, that we couldn't really refuse. Annette provided me with the invite, the excuse and the opportunity to put our bands back in the hometown carnival where they rightfully belong. 



the sleeping squirrels

(and there was a personal connection. Annette was the nurse-on-duty the night that 8 week old grand daughter, Maya was in hospital, and her presence there caring for Georgia and Moo was something I will always be grateful for. Always.)

And so, Debs, this is how me, Bex, Vicky, Charlotte, Lizzie, Sarah, Sophie, and gawd-bless-him, John the drummer came to be a flash mob pop up band in Savile Park this Monday Bank Holiday, with a little line of children (some my pupils from last year) curled up like little sleeping squirrels in front of and then on our banner. Making Charlotte's and my eyes prickle!

We were only half of Foxwood, as this was only arranged 5 days in advance; weren't able to bring any South Steel, Sparrows or Steel Rising in case we got moved on, but we sounded great. The sun shone on us, and I shall be grateful forever to Annette for giving us this challenge and for band members in Leeds on the day for rising to it.

Nostalgia at Notting Hill 2013

Now then Debs, it's a Tale of Two Carnivals.

Number One: London













Rhiannon and I spend the morning poring over the notes of Teaser and Under the Sea, trying to convert them to Foxwood songsheet style. Then it's over to Tooting Broadway, soprano pans over shoulder, get off at Latimer Road and magically find Maxella's just in time to get our pinkness of shirts, and join Nostalgia. Then, in Cambridge Gardens . . .


OMG! It's Garvin and Anne-Marie, covered in J'ouvert mud! Old old [not as in "old"] friends from Carnival days over a decade ago.

This excellent and surprise third meeting [Kathy from Cellofest, Ann from Leeds, and now these two, and their two children, well grown-up now children] sets me up for the day. Now here's Hazel and Lionel and Kwame and Kimani who I didn't see yesterday. David and wife doing the ginger beer and sandwiches again. The pace is slow, bordering on backwards. The weather is great; the atmosphere great; the fuel for the generator for the speakers has maybe run out; someone  sorts it.


















There's some good early dirty dancing. Raul and Adrianna get on down as well. Evange is still showing some notes to the Dutch. Nice to see the colour-coded notes in a Dutch pan.




Nice to see Roger and Scraperman again. Then at 4pm Rhiannon and I have to cut and run, well, stagger through the crowds, walk to Bayswater, the nearest open tube station.




[Since you asked, Debs, about the pulled muscle, it held up thanks largely to Rhiannon carrying my travel bag as well as her own pan.]





Met some more revellers on the tube, took a photo [see below]. London is such a great party.

Then back in Leeds to contemplate the following day's flash mob . . . . and the second carnival in the tale.

Panorama and rehearsals, London Notting Hill Carnival

Now then Debs, it's still silly season for me:

After Monday last year at Notting Hill Carnival, I swore Never again. Then, at Cellofest, Rhiannon said she always wanted to play London. So, why not? Looks good on the old cv [how cynical!], and if it 's only Sunday . . . And I can collect Sophie's 21st present.

[Here's Grafton saying goodbye to Sophie's pan.]

Exhausted, a comfy bed, a clean and tidy room in Rosebery Hall, a recipe for a good night's sleep. Not! Not until I remember the World Service podcasts on the iPod do I manage even half of that! On Saturday I discover the tele room and the kitchen that I missed the night before in the accommodation. Breakfast is ace, and then the 38 takes me all the way to Clapton.

Saturday morning in Clapton, walking along road with Grafton, bump into Cathy, a Cellofest parent and member of successful Under the Sea gang. It's an omen. Take a pic.










Go to Maxella's. Another gang of old friends. Here' s Emina, Raul, Adrianna, Christine, the Dutch and more. Later on , Lionel. Too poorly to play. Just listen.  Over to Portobello Road to buy a couple of bum bags, identify an Kenyan flag for the shopkeeper, by phoning up Amy to see what flag represented Henry at the Albert Hall.

Watch Panorama [again in the rain! What did they do to deserve that two years running?],  Saw the bands in practice on the street, Kensall Road, then perform on the big screen. Bumped into Freddy and into Ann Nimrod [old pal from City of Leeds], who both appeared and evaporated back into the night.

OMG! Ebony was good.

Spent more time looking for Charlotte, Sky, Grafton and Gary than standing with them!

Engage trolley and Sophie's pan, about to get christened at Notting Hill. Rhiannon meets me at Tooting Broadway, drink wine and try to find the bar lines to our three tunes, while her house mates watch tv. Get up early ish and do more of the same.

Foxwood Steel, and One Sparrows at BARCA, Bramley

By the time I get to the Bramley, I realise that the only people who can do bass are me and Vicky, and the only people who can do tunes are me and Vicky. Sarah says something about years ago this or that, but basically we are Fehmina, Sarah, Daisy, Sophie, Amy and Georgia II on chords, Tim on kit, and me on melody and Vicky on bass, Lola as guest on the Little Purple. Clocks was interesting, or rather not very!





Lola has her face painted. Sophie held the second copy of whichever song [Amy will have had the first!].



Between the sleep deprivation, the nausea and the pulled muscle I feel that 3 hours in Bramley was  good preparation for London carnival.  We got asked to play Polish Independence Day in November. I thought that would be a very nice thing. Organiser, Amanda was happy with how it went. Can't ask for more.

Later Tim and I fought over a hot desk top, Mac, iPad and iPod to get the London Carnival tunes onto either pad or pod. Reeling with exhaustion, some two hours later we only have Under the Sea on the little pod. I go to London to get a good night's rest in the LSE Rosebery.

I wished.


 

Mig gets a Year Older, and I laugh too much

All systems go as the family prepares to eat food cooked outside and drink tea and booze in honour of Mig getting older.




Firstly someone has to stop my mother taking her cat to the vet in a cardboard box on the bus. Sadly Badger was all too swiftly diagnosed with cancer and did not survive the visit. As Badger was Clippy's son we are all a bit sad, but Penny still decides to sit in our garden and eat cake in Mig's honour.

It's mega pool night. The kids' table is set up in the kitchen, the back room is cleared for action. Then Morgan and I show everyone what competition is really about! I laugh and laugh when he finally puts black and white down together on the deciding decider.

And dear reader, I have moved pans, tidied up house and garden and laughed so hard that I wake up in agony the following day with a pulled muscle. The doc says it will be 6 to 7 days recovery. The ibuprofen make me feel so nauseous that I can't drink, don't drink, therefore don't sleep, so by Wednesday and Thursday I am in pain, nauseous, sleep deprived and now feverish.

Now that's what I call a hangover!

But there's a notice in Rhiannon' s house that I can't fully subscribe to this week!

.

Cellofest in East Anglia

 
This time we are at the Royal Free Hospital.  Ah, all the familiar faces, and, heavens, someone I know from Leeds that I wasn't expecting. Rick arrives with the van full of pans, and, yippee, my bike.

I am staying in St Vincent [Building] and teaching in Hood. Lunches are in the main building and the play-together similarly in the hall. The students are all bigger, and the concerts all throw up their magic moments. And after seeing a student playing their solo you always see them in a different light when they are fighting their way around the layout of the steelpans.

I pace the evenings, never going to bed later than 1am, nonetheless I have soon doubled my usual weekly alcohol intake. Morgan is not with me for the first time in a while, and there's just a lot more to do.

[And this sunrise picture is more about early-rising than late to bed!]

The theme of the big play-together is Sea Songs, and out of the medley I have chosen Under the Boardwalk and Sailing, as well as Under the Sea which Ruben has included for us as a pan solo.  My band consists of some parents who are surprising themselves and three violinists and a cellist.  And they are all impressing me.

So good to see the old familiar faces: Barney, Liz, Rhiannon, Tess, Rachel,  Carey, Ruben, Pam, well I am bound to have missed someone out (soz), and surprise Dave from Leeds. In the absence of Morgan I decide to adopt Remco, now a tall 6ft 7.

Disappointed the Spanish Catalans weren't  there in their previous en masse. 1. They are ace. 2. I spent a year learning Spanish.

I content myself with speaking French with Antoine and the gang. Just above is Dave the drummer and I with the chord sequence to Someone I Used to Know.

Four days never pass so fast. The stewards do justice to the Jar of Hearts that I present them. It takes one and half sessions to get all the notes but all three to do sad, angry and reflective. I feel my eyes prickle as we take on the chorus for the second time and realise that we are absolutely all together. Anna from Finland comes up to me in the dining hall, and shakes my hand; Carey says she never got goosebumps off a steelband before. Thank you stewards. (And thank you, Louis, for that concert piece. My week pivoted around it].

The parents and the violinists (and my substitute son) take on Ruben's Under the Sea, and win. It was a last minute thing, but we held our nerve and it worked. Phew. Exchange emails and undying love, then it's back to Leeds.