Foxwood and East Steel at Otley Carnival

It's the third Saturday in June. It is Otley Carnival. We are Foxwood Steel and East Steel. And this is our umpteenth time playing it. It never disappoints.

This year East Steel is me [Victoria], Bex, Sophie, Vicky, Wanda, Wendy, Maddie, Lynn, Joyce, Jeanette, Anne, Pippa.

Foxwood Steel is  me [Victoria], Bex, Sophie, Vicky, Natalie, YiBai, Amy, Gig, Charlotte.

Guest Doves are George, Millie.

That's nineteen players, twenty-six, cut down ex-oil drums, twenty-six stands, four banners and two sets of bunting.
















I make three float diagrams, distributing the high and low sounds as enely as possible while retaining friends and families [Wendy-Jeanette and me-Georgia], and four setlists. I leave behind two setlists and two diagrams, but I chain my setlist to my handbag and never lose it. A first!

We play our usual Carnival tunes setlist, ruin Matilda/Soca Junkie, then make them all play/sight-read Rolling in the Deep, Fix You, and some other moving slow one.


Our driver was Daniel at first, then he wasn't allowed cos it was his first float drive and we got X who had driven us 3 years ago. Driving out onto the Leeds Road continues to be very scary. We hang on for dear life then burst into Boardwalk, or whatever.

Thanks as ever to Rhona and the crew for organising it all, and asking us over and over. Thanks to Kirsty T for the static shots.

turning into parade ground

cab backing up to float

Leeds Silver Steel Sparrows at Leeds West Indian Centre

When Julie from Leeds Trinity University contacted us to ask us to play for the Virginia Woolf Conference at the West Indian Centre, we were only too happy.

Steelpans at a West Indian Centre. Seems only appropriate, and who else but the award-winning Leeds Silver Steel Sparrows, some of us fresh from our week in Lille! [When I say fresh . . . . . ]

For a while we wobbled at the beginning of this school year as the older Sparrows hit pastures new and A levels, but the new Sparrows are catching up now, with a repertoire of tricky tunes in double figures, and an increasing facility for sight-reading the Foxwood Songsheets.






New Sparrows today are Kirsten, Lucy, Deangelo, Owen and Alice. Older Sparrows are Claudia, George, Ash, Millie and Millie. Leaders are Victoria and Bex; support staff are Wanda and Vicky; parents are Alice's dad, Mark, Joanne, Michelle, Amanda, Sandy. Foxcubs are James and Mikey.

nice pallet

We only had five crosses for the big basses. Alice and co came back with a pallet, painted turquoise. Too big for the basses, we used it to display the banner. And we remembered the pallets in Lille supporting the tenor basses. Ahhh!. [Bex found some logs later].



Here is the following day's message of thanks:

Thank you so much for a super performance at The West Indian Centre yesterday. My conference delegates were delighted by the performance – you can tell from the rapturous applause and also people have been talking about it all day.

And, do you know, it felt good at the time.

East Steel at Pool-in-Wharfedale

It's a parking space; it's cream teas; it's a great position. With this sort of organisation it's impossible to say no to Richard, and what's left of me, Wanda, YiBai and Bex are now in Pool-in-Wharfedale, contemplating gazebos.

With us are Sophie, Anne, Vicky, Lynn, Joyce, Wendy, Trisha, Pippa and Maddie

We start off on the club's lovely balcony, but put up gazebos underneath and to one side - just in case.

We move to the gazebos after about an hour, as the rain takes a hold, and entries for the running races drop off. We play Chariots of Fire for Joyce who did a walking race in the morning and for the Pool Race for Life runners. Then we play If It's Raining, it's Raining for obvious reasons.


We have the cream teas; I meet an ex-teacher from Cross Green [the school that had the same misfortune as Foxwood - both amalgamated to become the short-lived, hugely expensive and pretentiously named Copperfields College]. Always like an chat about education, wherever I find it.

 In front of the gazebos a toddler dances, barefoot in the rain [I wonder if she will remember this moment].

Wanda and I both win a raffle prize; she got to the bottle of wine first. [A week later the chocolate cake is still gazing at me forlornly, only half eaten].

YiBai and Bex carry away the gazebos; and in the carpark, we find Wendy [who left a family do to play with us] still waiting for her lift.

Foxwood Steel play Weston Wedding

I met Jon, Rosie and Priscilla back in April. I was still limping from that sojourn at St Thomas's. Discovered that Rosie was a doctor in London; discussed campaigning for the NHS; I discussed PFI sucking the money from hospitals and schools.

I was already pleased to be playing Jon and Rosie's wedding near Otley. People like Rosie routinely save the lives of people like me. I was doubly pleased.

In the field, on the day there was now the most beautiful of marquees, and opposite a space for us to set up the double gazebo phenomenon that I like to think is our rainy day trade mark. In the pouring rain we rocked with all the usual tunes and threw in If It's raining, it's Raining because, well, it was.

Gary was bemoaning playing his first gig in specs. Come on Gazza, it's a fashion statement for me! We were me, Charlotte, Sheeks, Amy, Bex, Natalie, Gary, Georgia, Katie, Vicky, Sophie.

At the beginning we were given an ace tray of sandwich buns. At some point we started a tune before Sheeks had no chance to finish hers. Stop the song, or take a photograph. No contest.

Back at home, the next day, there was a bit of drying out to do.

On an entirely serious note, Jon the Groom wrote thus afterwards:

Hello Victoria. Sorry to have not said goodbye yesterday. I cannot thank you enough for what was the most wonderful of performances. The steel band was a real highlight, and people have been talking about it nonstop. Thank you so much."

And, do you know, if we weren't that good, that would be no point.

Hyde Park Percussion at headingley Festival

It felt like it was cutting it fine, but actually it was a piece of cake. And that, with a cup of tea was my first thought when I arrived at Shire Oak Primary the day after the week before, that was Lille. The imminent triathlon was shutting roads so I took a trolley with the glocks, got a lift there and a bus back.


The first act was Avtar's Shire Oak drummers. Who thankfully agreed to be our rhythm section.

As.




The band was Ryan and me.

We persuaded Sting, Alun and Avtar's djembe group to play with us. Ryan played like he didn't understand the meaning of the word, pressure.





We did Drunken Sailor, Old MacDonald had a Farm [for which the audience gloriously agreed to moo, quack and baa], Lightly Row and Careless Love. Unbelievable! So proud.

I jumped on the bus home and changed the turquoise for red to be Foxwood at a wedding near Otley.

Sparrows, Oulton and Clapgate Steelbands at Wharfedale Festival 2016

Pleased to say that Ash and Millie have been practising and have perfected not smiling. [Okay it come natural]. And Lucy is doing well. [Everyone else is too blurred a picture to be able to tell.

Every year I think Ilkley and the Wharfedale Festival is a train journey too far, a van load too far, a journey too far, and an extra practice too far, and then Blanche and Liz and her friends make us feel like royalty. And Craiglands or Kings Hall - both such lovely, formal, old-fashioned venues. And so grateful that they have moved the festival out of SATs week, but of course, GCSEs, AS and A levels still take their natural toll.

Adjudicator Steven Roberts makes us feel like pan royalty and in his [let's be frank] eulogy to us all, he never mentions no smiling! In pan adjudication heaven! Thanks to the usual suspects.

Here's mine, Millie's and Deangelo's phone satnavs fighting for supremacy on our way home. [Mine won. It fell over less often].

Best quote was from Deangelo [to Bex as she brought him over from South Leeds to Ilkley] recently come from Turks and Kakos: "This such beautiful scenery. Where I come from all you can see is white sands and sea." How awful! Not!

Bands were Oulton, led by Wanda, Clapgate led by Bex and me; Leeds Silver Steel Sparrows, led by me and Bex. Sparrows were Ash [who melted the adjudicator's heart], Millie, Lucy, Kirsten, Deangelo, Owen, Alice. Adults making up for the GCSE, A level and first year uni losses were me, Bex, Wanda and guests: Vicky and Natalie [who also melted Stephen's heart!].

On Y Va! Leeds Silver Steel Sparrows teach Lille play Steel

We have our tickets. On y va! [There may be more add or correct, but this is blog for now]

Meeting in the sunshine outside Leeds Station on Monday morning. Time to to go to France. It's me, Bex, Wanda, Millie, Chloe and YiBai - three teachers and three students, all Leeds Silver Steel Sparrows. Culturally delegating to Lille to teach and play steelpans. Arrive Monday evening, travelling forward one hour in time. [The underwiring cause two of our number to bleep through the metal detectors, and Wanda gets body-searched. Tres amusant!]

Meet Vivianne at Lille Gare

Because of unknowingness of exam dates we had to book Chloe's ticket later. She is further down the train. Millie decides to join her. As we near Lille, Millie returns, exhausted. It took fifteen minutes to get to Chloe's compartment, and then twelve back.

A woman accosts Chloe on the Lille platform- You are from Leeds?  Chloe thinks Noemi is making a random guess. Lol.

Sparrows meeting Lille pans pour la premiere fois

Millie Chloe Bex

Wanda loses the power!

We are wearing our new turquoise Sparrows t-shirts, and when Viviane arrives , she is wearing one too. Too exciting! It is a sign!

The Auberge de Jeunesse, Gastama, is new and quite obviously won an architecture prize. Chloe and Millie solve the overlit light system by using the person who fell through the ceiling [ta Wanda for phrase].

In the evening we take the metro to town; Wanda tries to leave after one stop. We haul her back on board. Eat at Il Ristorante, with Sidonie, Jerome, Viviane and Noemi.

Il Ristorante

Tuesday. Day One at Maison Folies Moulins. First of all the Sparrows represented by teachers: me [Victoria], Bex and Wanda plus YiBai, Chloe and Millie, meet the Lille steel pans. Impressed for a start off that they are so beautifully set up. We try them out joined by Timothe, Vivianne et X. The teachers clock quite quickly that YiBai is a batteur [could be the stick a poche!] That's him in business for the week.   Listen to, play to, teach Au Clair de La Lune to Timothe's and Claire's class from Descartes-Montesquieu. Ace. Small debate on dotted notes; I designate Bex as "Skippy Crochet". Chloe's new word is "exstonding" We think this a held or rolled note.













Have dinner  round the corner, in cafe bar with huge artificial fly hanging over doorway. At 1pm, the predicted storm started, drenching anyone who stepped outside.

In the afternoon, listen to, play to, teach  Anne's class. This time it is London Bridge. Ace. At 3pm the tenor basses arrived to a round of applause from the "Les Anglais" (in fact three Anglais, une galloise/ anglaise/ecossaise, une anglaise/un ecossaise et un chinois, as I point out repeatedly on chaque occasion that we are introduced!)

These tenor-basses transform and expand our potential repertoire by 400%, and over a very short space of time, transform Lille's steel ambitions. [If you don't understand 400% , Chloe has a diagram and some pieces of cake!]

Then we help Vivianne teach a group of debutantes (beginners, not young ladies to be presented at court). I go eat at Vivianne's, say hi to Jurgens, Marthe, Sebs again. It is a great thunderstorm, lightning. Gridlock. takes us one and half hours to get to Roubaix. Not ace.

Gridlock sur autoroute

Viviane teaches Debutantes

Wednesday. It's the music teachers. Millie is so excited, over-excited to be playing the flute that she keeps forgetting it! We give them Under the Boardwalk and Rolling in the Deep; they give us unconditional musicality. Chloe passes out sous le steelpans.

Rolling in the Deep with the Music teachers

Chloe dort

Dinner at the Old Gare, with Sidonie again. We walk to the Conservatoire. See orchestra, under Fives workshop and Cuban drumming. Walk back to Gastama, buying stuff at length at C and A (C and A! Only still in France).

Dinner at the Hostel is amazing, apparently for the second time. Millie plaited her hair then Bex's; Wanda redid my purple and dark blue;  I gave Bex's new plaits blue tips. Nobody did YiBai or Chloe's hair.

Blue Bex

But did YiBai actually drink it!

Thursday. Idris and Clementine's class play us tunes; we play some for them. Then we do a mixed percussion xylophones, djembes, pans. Volga Boatman. Next up is Cecile's class. Listen to their numbers for the concert. Ace.

Idris et sa classe

A large tea is two cups of boiling water and one sac de thé in the lovely cafe round the corner. Here waitress has green hair and tattoo. We form mutual appreciation society.

Lunch is packed lunch from the hostel. Which we forgot to pick up so Chloe and Millie scooted back to the Auberge to collect. Sadly for Millie (not!) she was unable to access her room to get the forgotten (not ) flute.

Eat lunch in the courtyard watching marching band rehearse. Teach Idris (who is fasting for Ramadan and who hasn't had lunch), Clementine and Cecile's classes Volga Boatman for the concert. We have djembes, xylophones and as usual twenty six pans.

Another double cuppa round the corner. Then it is the grand moving of the pans from rehearsal space to auditorium. Then the rehearsal. I'm already welling up as we perfect Rolling the Deep. the tenor basses have arrived with stands that don't swing the pans the Leeds way. On doit improviser with pieces of wood. But now we have pallets, and the technical runners have splinters.

The concert was 1. Ace and 2. Involved a lot of compliments from the podium in French. Highlights 1. The kids had dressed up for the event with some of the boys in jackets and trilbies, and all the kids melting with pleasure 2. Rolling in the Deep 3. One of the conservatoire musicians described us as
"the light of the evening" 4. The Lille musicians playing Carnivale.  5. Marie and Christine jigging backstage in the wings when they thought no one could see.

Marie dancing in the wings

We walk back from a day's work for, see the beautiful auberge for the last time. Millie is the Queen of Selfies. On anyone's phone. I have more pics of Millie on my phone on Friday than I have over the last seven years that I have known her.

In the evening Bex, YiBai, Cloe and Millie went out with the music teachers for a dance and a drink in the bar; I had a bop  with the receptionist at the auberge to David Gueta at Euro 2016, et apres Charles  received a consignment from a cyclist of two lettuces. Super!

Danser dans l'Auberge

lettuces at midnight

Friday morning: It's the Last lap. Our last visit to Maison Folies Moulins, and now Christine's and Cecile's classes. Christine's class plays us a tune that her class wrote four years ago and has been passed down from one class to the next. We play some tunes. Then we teach two classes together. Without xylophones or djembes we use chairs and claves/shakers.




First we did Go Tell Aunt Rhody [two chords, eight bars and only crotchets or minims, no upbeats, offbeats or ties, if you want a bit of pedagogy]. Then the pans swop over with untuned percussion, and we do Camptown Races [Doo-dah, doo-dah]. One highlight is kids leaving the rehearsal room , singing Doo-dah. Yay.

Friday Lunchtime is Lebanese in Rue d'Arras .
Friday Afternoon is a two set concert in a brand new school, just down the street. Viviane takes a city bike to get car, Bex poses in a doorway [essential], we unload and set up [amazing soft soprano [tenor] pan cases.

soprano pan cases

last setlish

We load Viviane's car and she takes pans to Lakanal School, where Cecile will be meeting her to help. These music teachers never stop!

Now we walk back to the Gastama to collect the suitcases.
 One last time past the sign for the Universe [l'Univers], last time past gthe shattered windows of the insjurance company.

the shattered windows

Last lap to the Auberge

Having lost the pans Viviane reappears to take four plus case to the Gare. Noemi takes Chloe and Millie back on metro [obviously Wanda not allowed anywhere near a train [or a white van]]. Then it's goodbye to a wonder-is-too-small-a-word-ful week, and hullo to six hours of manic giddiness on the trains. I have an eclectic collection of outofdatefoodstuffs; Wanda takes the biscuits off my hands. The rest probably unsuitable for publication. A last selfie in St Pancras and one last one in Leeds.

Millie the Queen of Selfies

our last selfie. back chez nous