“June is bustin’ out all over!
All over the meadow and the hill”
This month’s Gig Review takes us all the way through to June – halfway through the year already, and I still haven’t finished my to-do list from January! : / It’s a month of sunglasses, outdoor cider, and trying to answer that perennial question, “Who even is June, and why does she not invest in some better-fitting clothing?”
I’ve remarked more than once in the past that the problem with this whole blogging lark is that the times when you have lots to write about are precisely those when you’re really busy, so have no free time to write! Now that it’s getting to the summer months this is becoming especially apparent – as I write this, it’s now actually the end of July, and I’m sitting in the back of my car in Shrewsbury manically typing before I have to go and play my clari again in 2 hours. To say more would be a spoiler for next month’s edition, but let’s just say I can promise you July’s will be a bumper issue indeed!
Before I get into the nitty and the gritty though, I have a story that should really have made it into last month’s Review but somehow didn’t make it. This event occurred when I was playing in Leeds for that 40th birthday party (after spending 3 hours trying to negotiate the road closures occasioned by the marathon). After we’d played a couple of sets, one of the guests came up to me and, holding out her phone, asked, “Excuse me – is this you?” I looked down and saw that the displayed picture did indeed show me posing at an 80th birthday party, which I had played at nearly 7 years ago in – of all places – Billericay! That’s 170 miles away from Leeds! I remember it well, not least because I had been required to play ‘60s and ‘70s soul music on solo clarinet (an unusual combination that I have not had cause to repeat since). As it turns out, the lady in question was (I think) the granddaughter of the man whose birthday it had been. What a coincidence to bump into her again!
This reminded me of another similar occasion from 2022, when I was up in Scotland with The Jelly Roll Jazz Band. Having completed our official gig, we went to a pub in the evening and ended up playing a few tunes to entertain the locals and attempt to get a free drink or two. Once we’d finished, someone approached and – just like that lady last month – showed us a photo accompanied by the phrase, “Excuse me – is this you?” I wish I could remember which gig it was they’d seen us at previously, but it was definitely us in the picture and we were more than a little taken aback to be recognised in – of all places – Ullapool! That’s 10,000,000,000,000 miles away from anywhere!
Things like that do give you a little glow of satisfaction as you feel like a minor celebrity. And they just go to show what a small world it must be that we live in!
O.K., that’s enough philosophisizationing for now. Let’s get to the reason we’re all here: the buffet! What, there’s no buffet…? Oh. If I’d known that I would have brought some sandwiches or something, but no, that’s fine. I’ll just eat later. In that case, in the absence of a buffet, we’ll just have to get to the secondary reason we’re all here: the gigs!
Feeding the Ducks at Duxford Air Show
If you’re a regular reader, you may recall that last month’s edition ended on a bit of a cliffhanger. I had just spent 2 days performing at the Royal Bath and West Show with my biggest slice of pie, The Jelly Roll Jazz Band, and we were about to head off to our next mystery engagement. But what could it be? Well I can now reveal that it was another 2-day-er, playing for the flying machines and the walking machines (i.e. people) of Duxford Air Show!
Things didn’t quite work out as conveniently as usual this year, with Bath and Duxford. The Bath Show is always Thursday to Saturday, over the first weekend of June (or the last of May). Duxford takes place over a Saturday and Sunday, usually on the last weekend of June. Which is great, because it means I get 5 days of work! Unfortunately for us though, this year marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day, and as part of the celebrations Duxford Air Show was brought forward to the same weekend as Bath. I still haven’t perfected a technique of being in 2 places at once, and therefore we were forced to abandon Bath after only 2 days and head all the way to Cambridgeshire. To be fair, 4 days of gigs is not to be sniffed at, but it’s not quite as good as 5!
One of the challenges of doing Duxford is working out accommodation. It’s possible to stay over at the airfield on a patch of grass earmarked as a suppliers’ campsite – and in fact that’s what I’ve done in previous years with our sousaphone player. But it’s a bit grim that, because we finish playing at 1 pm each day so there’s an awful lot of hanging around to be done, and the nearest village is a substantial walk away. Plus the camping facilities are hardly the most glamorous, consisting as they do of just a portaloo and… Actually no, that’s it. Just a portaloo.
This year I chose to try a different method. Our banjo player lives in London, which is easily commutable from Duxford, so I thought I’d try staying over with him and getting the train in each day. It had its upsides and its downsides I must admit, and I’m still not sure which tactic I prefer. It did mean getting up REALLY early on each day (as in, 5:30/6:00). It added a bit to the travel expenses too. But it did at least mean I had access to a kitchen, a sofa and a bathroom on the Saturday afternoon. At the end of the day I suppose it all comes down to preference. Would you rather have sleep, or a hot meal and a shower?
Hmm, I wonder how often people with ‘proper’ jobs are faced with these quandaries…?
The performing side of things went well that weekend, thank you very much. Our regular routine is to play from 10am to 1pm (with a couple of short breaks), which is kind of intense but at the very least is more fun than writing emails! It’s our usual brand of wandering around, adding a tuneful atmosphere to proceedings without getting too in-the-way. How enjoyable it is does vary though depending on the weather, I must admit. We were lucky this year to have 2 nice calm sunny mornings, but in previous years wind has been a bit of an issue. Try walking around the open expanse of an airfield in a howling gale whilst playing a sousaphone (which is basically a sail), and you’ll know the kind of challenges we face! But anyway, after our 3-hour shift is finished all the flying displays begin in earnest, so the three of us run away and hide to avoid being bonked on the head by falling aircraft.
I say it’s intense, but it’s not as bad as the first year we did it. Back in 2022 we somehow promised to do 3 hours of playing, starting at 10:00 and finishing at 12:45. Hmm, challenging! That reminds me as well of a recent client who proposed the following schedule: Start at 19:30. Play for an hour. Then have a half-hour break, play for another hour, and finish at 21:30.
As a great man once said, “I’ll see what I can do but I’m no time-traveller sir!”
It’s a Long Way to Tipperary… But Also to Thetford!
After a few days respite, it was time for my next Jelly Roll gig, which involved me making a day trip all the way to Thetford! That’s 135 miles away from Manchester!
In fairness, under other circumstances I would have arranged overnight accommodation rather than going all the way there and back in a day, but this gig was on 8th June and I wanted to be back home for 9th because that’s my birthday! : D I’m telling you this for a reason, by the way. If I’m not inundated with cards, gifts and warm wishes this time next year then I’ll have stern words for the lot of ya.
To make the most of the trip, in traditional fashion I travelled down a bit earlier than necessary and met our banjoist in Peterborough for a little busking in the afternoon. As there were only 2 of us it didn’t quite have the impact you get with a full trio, and there was a massive ‘Pride’ parade going on as well that rather stole our thunder, so consequently we didn’t play for long in the end. But it was a beautiful sunny day and a nice chance to see the city centre – which I had always erroneously assumed to be rather grotty, but is in fact distinctly pleasant!
The other highlight was a conversation we had with an eccentric old lady (who was quirkily dressed with a miniature Union Jack flag sticking out of the back of her baseball cap). She heard us playing ‘Bring Me Sunshine’ and stopped for a chat, telling us all about her musical tastes and how she enjoyed what we were playing. After a while she had a look at the front of our music stand and, seeing the band name pegged there on our laminated sign, turned to us in surprise and said, “Oh it’s jazz, is it?!” Good to know we’re giving the right impression! Then before she left we asked if she had any requests, to which she responded (after some thought), “Do you know ‘Bring Me Sunshine’?” Nothing like a bit of deja vu to brighten up the afternoon!
Having aborted our attempted busking, we headed off to Thetford for the gig itself. It was a bit of a mystery one, this, as we had been given no details as to what the occasion was – all we knew was the location and our playing times! Clients do vary a bit in terms of how much information they give you, but this was quite an extreme example. I think sometimes if people book musicians through an online platform or agency there’s a certain distance and anonymity which lends itself to being scant with the details. To be honest, I was quite happy about this – it’s kind of fun if you don’t know what the gig is until you arrive!
As it transpired, it wasn’t particularly weird – in fact, it was one of our staple ‘wedding reception background music’ bookings. Performing in the back garden of a beautiful cottage in a picturesque village, on a bright sunny summer’s day. What could be finer? I’ll tell you what: not having to do as much work as you expected! We soon discovered that the timings we’d been given were those for the entire ceremony and drinks reception, whereas in fact we were only required for a portion of that. What a fortuitous day indeed.
Following the gig, it was time for the looooooooooong drive back to Manchester, where I ushered out my 31st year to the depressing sounds of George Orwell’s ‘1984’ (as read by Tom Hollander), and ushered in my 32nd to the cheerier sounds of the Shipping Forecast and the 1am airing of the National Anthem that they do on Radio 4.
Honley Show? I Don’t Even Know Her!
As it turned out, June was a fairly quiet month for Jelly Roll – at least compared to how the rest of the summer is shaping up – and so I only have one more tale of intrigue to share with you from this particular band. You may have gathered by now that one of our main outlets for our honks and squeaks is the agricultural shows of Great Britain, and on 29th June we added a new one to our repertoire when we went to perform at Honley Show (near Huddersfield).
Unusually, we weren’t booked to do any walkaround sets at this one, instead doing a few static spots over the course of the day. This worked reasonably well, but I think if we get to do it again next year we’ll suggest some walking. It is of course nice being able to have a seat and not have to be up and about traversing the showground, but if the area we’re playing in is a bit quiet then we can feel like a bit of a spare part, which is a shame. If we’re mobile then not only can we cover a greater area but we can also move to where the crowds are, thus making the most of our day and giving better value to the clients.
The other nice thing about being mobile is we can hide under marquees and gazebos if it starts raining! We were a bit concerned on arriving at Honley to find that our sets were all due to be played in uncovered areas, which wasn’t ideal seeing as the weather that day was looking decidedly British (rainy). “I think it’s meant to stop raining this afternoon,” the organiser informed us with confidence when we first got there. “But our first set is at quarter past eleven!” responded our banjo player with a look of dismay.
Fortunately we were alright in the end, as some hasty gazebo-related arrangements were made to keep us (and the other musicians) dry. But it just goes to show, even in our unpredictable English climate it’s still possible for people to be a little over-confident about the weather!
Overall we had a lovely time at Honley Show. As well as getting to play some TRAD. JAZZ, I was given a lollipop by the Samaritans and enjoyed looking round the various craft tents and marquees. I had a go at guessing the weight of a cake but sadly didn’t win it : ( , and also saw a marvellous tombola stocked with beautiful handmade wooden things that I didn’t win (although in fairness I didn’t even enter that one). Here is a particular favourite creation I stumbled upon:
Furthermore, we came up with a new band slogan (“The Jelly Roll Jazz Band: You Can’t Un-Hear It”), and invented a new driving game on the way back home: If you see someone ahead of you wearing a hat, you have to guess what type of hat it is before you pass them. If you get it right you win 5 points, then when you get to 1000 points you win a free hat. A lot of effort to obtain a hat really, when you think about it…
It surely wouldn’t be a proper Gig Review without mention of Bolton’s leading (only) Dixieland jazz band, The Dixie Beats! And I’m glad to say I once again have a performance to report upon this month.
20th June saw us return once again to Didsbury Cricket Club – my most local gig venue, being but a short walk from my front door – for a night of raucousness and jollity. It was our second time there this year, and once again we delighted the crowd and left them with many springs in their steps. Also, now that summer is here we got to see the tail end of a cricket match through the club house window (although in these situations we’re always a bit nervous of a stray ball crashing through and embedding itself in a trombone or something).
By the way, if you fancy coming along to see us in Didsbury Cricket Club here’s a key date for your diary: Thursday 26th September, 8pm. See you then!
All of which brings me to the end of the June 2024 gig review! See you next month for more retrospective fun.
Gig of the Month
Even though it was a long way, I think the Thetford wedding has to get the award this time, for being a complete surprise and an overall jolly occasion.
What We’ve Learned
There is no right or wrong way to obtain accommodation for Duxford Air Show.
