East Steel play New Wortley May 2017

Saturday 6 May finds East Steel setting up under someone else's gazebo. Nice change. We  were on the play area outside New Wortley Community Centre on Tong Road. This was thanks to Emma from Cherry Bee and was a lovely little local gig.


It was a bit nippy, so we kept our coats on. We were me, Bex, Vicky, Wanda, Anne, Emma, Lynn, Sophie with Natalie drumming [now that was a nice surprise!]. Didn't find the buns till after we had packed away, but I did find them and bought a lot. Mmmm.

This is a very short blog because it was a lovely gig with no exciting disasters, and also I am writing this two months later, and we have trod a lot of playgrounds since then.


Next!

Foxwood Steel at Hope Not Hate and East Steel at ForeverYoung

I said to Wanda, Was it a friend of yours that got this HopeNotHate event? Yes, Steph, she said, she sings in the choir.

I said to Wanda, So was it you that got us this ForeverYoung event?  Yes, Ruth, she said.

So, I said, you got two gigs at the same-ish time on the same day! We don't need help doing that. We can do that ourselves! Then Wanda and I rolled around with laughter as I fought off the incipient panic attacks along the York Road, taking one set of pans to York.
















Here's Ian and me as I realise that we both use Shawcross teeshirts [though I am wearing a Pantontic tshirt here], and Wanda collecting a pan not exactly en route.

On the day, in Leeds we were me [Victoria], Gary, Amy, Charlotte, Daisy, Gig, George with guest Wanda. Which was all we could squeeze into the one gazebo as it was now pouring. Maya played a perfect tambourine, and Patrick let himself be held a lot [all he is good for at the moment], and where he did do some excited swimming type actions.


Good to see Cllr Sharon Hamilton there at this national day of remembrance for the Late MP Jo Cox.

Thanks to Ally for asking us, Steph and Wanda for being the links.

Now we pack away our rain-sodden gear and, as the others disappear back into cafes for coffee, or home for shelter, George, Wanda and I hit the A64 where Wanda also finds Emma.












The tent in Murton near York is a marquee and quite a grand and different affair, and quite a different acoustic, but the rain is still rain and we are inside. We are Bex, me [Victoria], Vicky, Sophie, Lynn, Emma, Wanda, Anne, Trish, with guests, George and Millie S.

Both gigs have been characterised by non-carnival songs [what a relief!]. And cakes from the HopeNotHate stall called CakeNotHate.





A few East Steeleers joined some sort of a conga, and we were treated to some amazing singing by this lady, pictured below.

Then it's back to Leeds, and the Grand Drying Out of the Pans, the Kits and The Gazebo and Sides. My favourite bit.


Okay, perhaps not.

[Who wants to be Forever Young, by the way? Think it should be called, Forever 39. But they have the hoodies now!]

East Steel at Woodlesford

While Millie, Chloe and I swan it with swans in Staffordshire,

Bex rocks Woodlesford Primary School with East Steel and Steel Rising.

Players ares Bex, Vicky, Trish, Anne, Lynn, Pippa, Wanda, Gill, Josie, George and Kirsty. It rains; they start inside; it stops raining, they move outside.



Moving  a steelband outside inside is not exactly like moving a choir from one place to another. Just mentioning that. It is no mean feat. One minute you are trying to feel the music, getting the buzz from the audience; the next you are a roadie, carting around several kilos of heavy metal [not the musical variety]. With our unpredictable weather these activities are inevitable, but it makes playing music hard. Just putting that out there.

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

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.

East Steel at Holy Rosary and St Anne's

It's that time of year when Lyndsey emails us and we gather a small team together to bring the sound of steelpans to Leopold Street. It's a street that Wanda and I remember well from our times, at different times working at the lovely Leopold School. Wanda was teacher and steel band leader there in her time, and a few years later I was the peri there, and steel band leader there.

In the early 80s she and I, unaware of each other were sharing StClair Morris as our steelpan teacher. I was in a high school in Seacroft, and Wanda was in primary school in Chapeltown. I still do Give Me Hope Johanna and she still does the Little Scale Song.

So, it's history that has drawn us back. Today we are me, Bex, Wanda, Kirsty, Lynn, Trish, Anne and Yi Bai. Trish did the set list. Bex vetoed a few tunes. We took in tea and buns and I bought more tomato plants - sometimes I think it's the only reason I go to summer fairs, get the plants I forgot to plant early!

Then it's home early to get braced for Otley Carnival, and work out how to fit tomorrow's 20-strong band into the little blue Transit. All but one of today's players are on tomorrow's float, and Anne and Lynn have come all the way over from Yeadon to Leeds Centre on a Friday after work. Much appreciated. Keeping music live and local [well not to Anne and Lynn! That's to come.]

If you would like to book a steelband or learn to play pans please contact us on foxwoodpanyard@outlook.com East Steel is a Leeds ArtForms music centre band

East Steel at Middleton Park

May 10 2015 sees East Steel at Miggy Park, South Leeds for its triumphant spring return. We have now collected quite a following but think it may have something to do with the lovely new café by the lake. Tea, buns and playing in a bandstand. Mmmm!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everything went to plan but we did have a nervous moment or two, as this was the same day as the Leeds half-marathon and half the band lived inside its route. As it turned out I was able to drive under bridges on the inner-ring road, so I probably didn't need to have worried.

 

We were Trish, Anne, Lynn, Pippa, Sophie, Yi Bai, Vicky, Wanda, Kirsty, Bex and myself. We played our usual set plus the new 2015 ones - Maria, Soca Junkie and Matilda. It's still a case of brace yourself and go for it.

 

East Steel is a music centre band funded and organised by Leeds ArtForms Music Service. Leaders: Victoria Jaquiss and Bex Ainge