Cecil Sharp House

This evening mum had a concert at Cecil Sharp House – this is where she does her weekly choir and this was the end of year concert for all the groups who rehearse there.

Mum and I had spent the morning shopping and browsing around in Covent Garden and then Scotty and I spent the afternoon down near Guildford for Prebs’ leaving drinks. A nice pub with some decent beer and lovely weather to be outdoors next to a body of water. Scotty stayed Guildford-way to see Shreeve in the evening as I headed back in to London and to Camden.

A text I receive as I walk up Camden Road tells me that dad is in the Dublin Castle. It’s odd to see this place again after last coming here properly when I was in Sixth Form. There are loads of bands on the bill and some of them will make it I’m sure, but some of them will be the quality of Skip Tracer and The Just…. Dad and I grab something to eat in Pizza Express together and then head to CSH.

The concert is a great mix of all the groups that are associated with CSH and varies from Beginners Accordion and Beginners Fiddle to the Intermediate group, then a Folk Group of student musicians and some visiting groups (the group that goes down very well with the audience are the step dancers). It’s amazing to think that a lot of the performers have only been playing their instruments for the last year, or maybe two years – good on them for deciding to learn a new instrument as an adult and not only sticking with it, but also performing. Mum’s choir is on last and they sing some great some a capella and with one of the Fiddle groups. One song is a right tongue twister but it sounds brilliant.

The random (or maybe not so random) connection of the night is that the accordion tutor is one half of Balshazar’s Feast alongside Paul Sartin from Bellowhead! I text Scott his classic joke (“We’re now going to play a piece that was written in 1752…..which is a right bugger of a time signature!”) and then he introduces the Intermediate Accordion players first piece with another “We’re going to play ‘Down in Yonder Bushes’…..but first we’ll play one here!”

Just last week mum’s CSH choir played another concert here, but that one was actually with Jon Boden and most of Bellowhead (in various guises, rather than as a single group)!!! It was to celebrate completing his Folk Song A Day project. When we found out about the concert we were so jealous that we wouldn’t be back in time to see it. Mum and dad tell us thought that it was brilliant and now they are very up for seeing Bellowhead play again