The Russians are Coming : Half Term and the Last Concert

So many conferences and marches - well three conferences, one steering committee and one march, I've  been to London, Stone, London, Bristol, London.

Caretaker Dave F retires at West Park.

 So it's half-term, and I'm done in. I declutter my house a bit, hang out a bit on the allotment, do my Russian and Spanish homework a bit.

Then on Friday night, Diane phones me that we have been evicted from the West Park Centre, my place of work of the last sixteen years.  Heavens, Debs, I worked at Foxwood School from 1980 till 1996, which if my maths is correct is also sixteen years.  What is Fate saying to me, I wonder?

Actually the first thing Fate is saying is you have two days to rehouse a million steel pans.  [You can see the serious version of these events on my new Victoria Jaquiss: Hyde Park, Leeds and the Wider World blog.]

On Saturday I head off for what turns out to be said ex-place of work, and Diane tells me the Russians are coming. In the afternoon I sit in their midst saying спасибо and stuff, feeling like an intruder at a private party, but now I know, at the Last Concert.

Here above, I am standing for the last time in the new Seminar Steel Pan Room; here below we had only just moved into this beautiful spacious former Art teaching Room..

And here below the old gym ballet studios and long corridor with outside cover look over a deserted playground carpark.

East Steel at the West Park Centre

Between 31 May and 9 June, and between all three bands: East Steel, Foxwood Steel and Sparrows I did eight gigs; of the other band leaders, Bex did six, Natalie did five and Admin Extraordinare: Vicky did six.  Foxwood Doves playing Aminor, G and F beyond the call of the duty were Varshika and Joe on five, and Amy on four.

This included playing under gazebos of varying watertightness in torrential rain, and breaking down on the way to and at golf club near Hemel Hempstead. Good thing it was half term.

Thursday 31 May was at the West Park Centre.  Natalie's East Leeds Music Centre Band supports East Steel in the most glorious plant-selling, bun-eating,  tea-swilling concert of a concert. Natalie's players were Liam, Chloe, Alex and Celia. Chloe was nervous about the first song so I stood next to her and hopelessly attempted her part. I was rubbish; Chloe was great. They were all nervous; they were all great!

East Steel featured some first time giggers, and some old hands [old, as in "experienced " of course!]. All in all: Karen, Alli, Ruth, Cathy, Judy, Rameice, Perez, Bella, Lynn, Anne, Tricia, Wendy, Jeanette, Peter, Vicky, Katie, Bex, me.

And we solved the problem of unsightly accessories, including handbags, trolleys and pan cases. Large screens. Just don't take photos from behind!

From Manchester and to London

On the 24 May Robert and two colleagues came from Manchester Grammar to visit us in Leeds. At the West Park Centre they looked at our main teaching set . They were able to see what you would get if space, and money, were no object, with our two sets of six basses,  tenor basses, cello pans etc. I also include with this big set single seconds and a single guitar for the beginners and the less able, and those for whom two pieces of metal forming one instrument is just too much to take in.

In my other life in schools I specialise in teaching music to children with Additional Needs [Special Needs], and it is through teaching them that I begin to understand more how the more mainstreamers learn stuff.  And it my undertanding that it is a question of expectation, and, for some people, coming to play an instrument means playing one item. Often you put a person [childen or adult] inside a set of six bass, ask them to play all the notes in front of them, and they play just the one drum.  Most people get over this expectation but some don't. And it doesn't seem to be linked to intelligence or general ability.

And so, for the them, the single pans. [Which are also necessary in a marching band].

After that Robert and the gang jumped into my little Skoda Fabia and we toured Leeds. Quarry Mount, South Leeds, Sharp Lane, City of Leeds, all this on the hottest day of the year so far. We're hot and we're exhausted.

Our visitors have seen two primary and two high schools, three of our five pan teachers, a range of ability and experience and all using Foxwood Songsheets to learn to play from. Using notation for pans, or not, is a debate that I have been having with the World for 16 years now.  I was convinced for the need in the early 80s when I first met pans, and I when I first started devising the Foxwood Songsheets, and three decades later, I have seen nothing to convince me otherwise.

So it was with great pleasure that I went down to Lambeth the following week and met Mat Fox and was able to watch him teach his pan classes, and using notation. Easily able to join in with the classes myself. Mat and I met when we played pans together at the Southbank for the Festival of Britain last July in that glorious five band combo [maybe 100 players?] as we rocked through We Nah Goin' Home.  See the two pics of our bands in the Clore Ballroom at the Festival Hall, London. 

And, indeed, we rocked through quite a few tunes at his school. Can't show photos of children so here's pictures of a fountain in Kennington Park and a school  set into the terrace on the high street.

East Steel doing Christmas in the New Year

Now then Debs, is this a letter to Carriacou or to Huddersfield?

Who knows? All I do know is that this is still a letter from Hyde Park Leeds where education campaigning is still vying with steel pan teaching for pride of place in my life! Thankfully Foxwood band member, Bex, now has a proper job as a pan teacher [besides her real proper job, that is], so I can go to governors' and union meetings without letting my music centre classes down.

Picture left: Anne and Lynn tying up the banner, and making sure it's straight.

Picture below: Alli and Bex bringing the pans down from the pan store.

In January YAMSEN:SpeciallyMusic reran the Town Hall Christmas Concert. Here all the Art competition prize-winners collected their trophies, and Mavis made the people who had come to watch, now in the familiar surroundings of the wonderful West Park Centre, do a bit of audience participation with the Seven Days of Christmas. I loved the cavalier way she cut this song down from twelve to seven. It was ace. Below: Set up and waiting to play:

We, at East Steel were a bit surprised to find that we were not just a couple of guest spots, but also, at times, it seemed, part of the resident band. What a hoot. We battered our way through carol after carol, and several things less Yuletide seasonal. In fact when the Lord Mator got up to make his speech I asked him what key he would make it in, so we were ready.

This is the gig when we introduced Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man to our repertoire. Below: East Steel playing at last.

Players for this concert were myself, Bex and Natalie as leader-players [running between cellos, bass and soprano, Nat on kit]. Karen, Alli on soprano pans, Ruth, Lynn, Cathy, Joyce on single seconds, Karen also on cellos, and Judy on single guitar. Sue. Diane, Irene, Gail, Mavis and all the rest of the YAMSEN:SpeciallyMusic committee organised the event, and resident wind band included Joanna and Kate. And it all took place in YAMSEN:SpeciallyMusic's home building, the wonderful, versatile and unassuming West Park Centre, which also puts a roof over the heads of the Travellers Education Unit, the National Union of Teachers Office, the Irish Art Group and of course, Leeds ArtForms and most of its wonderful central youth bands. And rents out rooms for a whole load more.