Foxwood Steel plays TJs for John's 50th

This is how we left the Mansion House; we were soaking; the pans were soaking. We drove to the next gig.



At TJs we set the pans up on the stage so they would dry out over the next few hours, and left the cases open as long we could.




In the evening we were joined by what was left of Gary who had spent the morning flying back from the continent, and what was left of Fehmina who had spent her morning on Pontefract Train Station until a friend brought her to Leeds in a car.

A preamble. It was eleven years ago that John Webster found me and the Foxwood Panyard crew. He was running the second of his Donovan Days, this one at Meanwood Cricket Club. A local steelband, with four days to go, had let him down, having earlier "committed" themselves to playing for him. Now John's motto is "No Disappointment", which, as it happens, has also, implicitly, always been mine. You give your word; you keep your word.


On that occasion, between our three Foxwood Panyard steelbands [Foxwood, Sparrows and East Steel] we mustered about twelve players, and we have been friends [understatement] ever since.

We played for three more Donovan's Days: one in the Roscoe Carpark, one in pouring rain in Potternewton School Playing Field, one in howling gale at the Caribbean Cricket Club. A small group of us also played in Harehills Cemetery when John erected Donovan's beautiful new headstone.


Donovan's song is "You'll Never Walk Alone", hard not to play it without tears; I think we did special justice to it this evening. It was already in our repertoire when we met John and his family, but it now has added meaning.

[Apparently the whole party was live-streamed to St Kitts. Can't wait to see the DVD!]

What was left of Fehmina called a taxi from her mum's home and collected me en route for the gig. Here we found the snare drum had not survived the hasty packing from the Mansion House.

My phone call started, "Ri-ick . . " Rick successfully found Millie S's snare drum and met me outside TJs with ten minutes to go. [We are back on speaking terms.]

Because Fiona is of Scottish descent, we now have bagpipes as well as steelband, and also we have Ed the saxophonist. I don't know where he fitted into the first bit but he most certainly fitted in the second i.e. at the gig. We played a tune together; this was most awesome.



Well it all ended in drinks. Excellent. We were me [Victoria], Bex, Daisy, Vicky, Gary, Natalie, Fehmina, Sophie, Bart, Sheeks, Gig, Lola [briefly], Charlotte, Wanda and Vicky.

Lola, Maya and Patrick wore the reds, and attempted to steal the show. Lol.

Next day we cleared up. Much better than loading up straight after playing.