Rest of the Best play Springwell June 2017

We started this tour in March but didn't have the full complement for the Thursday, so now in June is that Thursday.

The Rest of the Best is a band as important for the benefits it offers its players as the pleasure and education that it offers its audiences. We formed in the educational year 1996 to 7, in Diane's and my first year working for the Leeds Music Service, and have varied in size from 5 to maybe 15 [now 15 was a bit of a luxury!].

Our raison d'etre is documented in earlier blogs.

On this particular Thursday at the end of June [always one of a music teacher's busiest months!] we were on the small side. Bart the drummer was teaching till 9.10, and then again at 11. He just had time to do our 9.30 gig at the first Springwell site. He found the venue, parked his car in the carpark, parked his wheelchair outside the school front door, and sprinted down on his crutches from door to concert area, no time to consider that the clutch on the hihat was in fact a piece of blutak! Miracle worker!




We were today Bart kit], me [steelpans, bass guitar, vocals, kit], Diane [keyboards, accordion, ocarina, recorder] Julia [flute, piccolo], Joanna [saxophone, clarinet, kit, vocals, well anything really] and Cathy [saxophone, guitar, vocals]

persuaded a staff member up to dance

Maggie had brought her trumpet. Now that was a very nice surprise. We always love it when the school music teacher can join us for a tune or two on the "stage". And Maggie played a quality trumpet! Sadly we couldn't persuade to join us for the next school. Here I played drum kit really badly, not deliberately, but my skills in this area have declined rather than improved. But here we did discover that Joanna could most certainly cut it on a kit!


Obviously, for reasons of child protection,  we can't show you our audiences at these two schools, and for all you know we may have playing to ourselves. In fact  . . . . . .