Leeds Silver Steel Sparrows play Leeds City Varieties

On January 30 the Sparrows played the Leeds Child Friendly Awards at Leeds City Varieties.


And on January 30 I was having a minor op at St James' Hospital Leeds. As the Sparrows' band leader I was sadly unable to count to four and rifle through files of songs as is my wont, but now find myself in a fetching hospital gown, and leaving the steelband honours to Bex, Bart and Georgia with sterling support from Vicky.

Players were Peter, Millie S, Claudia, Georgia, Chloe, and they fitted snugly into the space in front of the stage. No space for a drum kit, so we were subtle. (I say, we, cos I was there in spirit).

We received this thanks from organiser, Richard C:

 

I would like to say a massive thanks to all the Sparrows for doing a stellar job at the Awards last Thursday. If you remember, we had a group of young people planning the whole event. They specifically requested to have a steel band as they thought it would give the event a warm and happy atmosphere at people arrived and thanks to you all this is exactly what the 300+ guests got.

 

I received several bit of praise about you from members of the audience who I talked to after the event and on behalf of myself, the young people who organised the event and the rest of the planning team – THANKS!. Please could you also pass on our thanks to all the players on the evening.

 

Thanks again for filling the auditorium full of the happy sounds of steel pans!

 

Regards

Swan Lake

On 25 January Mig and I went to London see Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake at Sadler's Wells. This was his Christmas present to me.













First I attended the Anti-Academies' Alliance AGM in Camden, then we met up in Bayswater at our hotel. As I plan to be rude about the breakfast I won't identify it. On our way over to Islington we came across a professional head-stander, standing on his [or her?] head in a bucket, with a sign advising us not to try this at home. Supper was a wrap eaten walking down Roseberry Avenue.










My first surprise was that the ballet contained female dancers. So it wasn't an all male Swan Lake; it was an all male swan troupe, gang, flock, what ever a lot of swans in one place are called. [and I know I am not the only one!]. As you can't do pics of the ballet here are some of Mig and me in the streets.

Anyway they were gorgeous; I cried a bit, and we took the tube back to Bayswater for a mini pub-crawl, where we definitely put the world to rights.

Breakfast was an adventure that should have been avoided. Here's a pic. After that we went to the Turner exhibition at the Tate. [Here's mine and Turner's selfie, and below some January trees.]

Then over to Covent Garden to see Rhiannon busking on cello again.

From here Morgan and I went our separate ways. I met Grafton, Charlotte and Sky in Peckham, talked rubbish about steel pans for an hour. Grafton gave me and Wanda's steel pan a lift to Liverpool Street, whence I tubed it to King's Cross,  arriving too close for comfort for departure.