Had a great day in Southsea and Portsmouth. Sadly the antique shop with the bust in it was shut, here is a picture anyway and if anyone knows where I can get similar please let me know. The RM School of Music concert was in the Guildhall in Portsmouth, which was bigger than we thought. It was absolutely superb and Drummer boy had a lot to do including playing castanets and bass drum at the same time. The standard was incredible and if this is the training band then heaven knows what the five main bands are like. One highlight for me was the big band playing the Artie Shaw clarinet concerto, the soloist was amazing. All the soloists seemed to really enjoy what they were playing, most of the musicians play two instruments, their main one and then they have to learn a completely different one. There was a really moving bit when they did a piece to commemorate the Deal bombing which was 25 years ago. The concert finished with an arrangement of Elsas Procession to the Cathedral by Wagner. This was so well done including the exposed wind quartet at the beginning. I know from my own horrendous experience with the Wirral SO how difficult this is. We then went outside for the Beating Retreat ceremony. Alasdair wore the leopard skin which was really hot. He did a solo drum bit on the Gael, which also featured bagpipes. Id never seen this kind of marching and again to say they were trainees it was amazing. Alasdair had white gauntlets on and had to spin the sticks. Twenty minutes after this the heavens opened.
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 17:01:52 +0000
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