‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee

16 March 2007

'To Kill a Mockingbird' by Harper Lee always seems to rank highly in polls of essential books to read but I had never quite got around to it. I hadn't even seen the film and only had a rather vague idea of what it was about. Having now read it I'm glad I came to it with few preconceptions so I won't say much about the plot to allow you to do the same if you're not familiar with it. It is a great book - thoughtful, moving and very cleverly plotted. As it is narrated by a nine-year-old girl the naïve switches of attention in the plot seem quite natural but wrong-foot you several times to create very satisfying resolutions. I was certainly expecting a courtroom scene well before page 179 but leaving it so late means you feel you really know the protagonists and can read so much more into their actions in court. It reminded me a lot of one of my favourite American novels of recent years, 'The Little Friend' by Donna Tartt - or rather I realised how much of a homage to 'To Kill a Mockingbird' Tartt's book is. The contrast between the condemnation of anti-semitism in Europe and the casual racism towards the local black community also reminded me of Philip Roth's 'The Plot Against America'. And the sympathetic depiction of a whole small-town community made me think of 'Cannery Row' by John Steinbeck. 'To Kill a Mockingbird' won the Pulitzer prize in 1961 and still feels like a true classic.

Andy Kershaw on 'Desert Island Discs'

13 March 2007

I am a relative newcomer to Andy Kershaw's loyal band of listeners but, like many people, I have quickly become somewhat obsessive! I don't think I have a missed a single edition of his weekly Radio 3 show since I started listening in November 2002 - and many weeks I've listened to it at least twice (it's those tracks that stick after two or three hearings that are the really interesting ones!). Favourites that I first discovered through the Kershaw programme include Monica Vasconcelos, Rokia Traore, Kamel Nitrate, Jim Moray, Jim Halstain, Athena Andreadis, Horace X, K'Naan and many others. To use the word 'eclectic' would be an understatement - when Andy was banished from Radio 1, Roger Wright famously tempted him to join Radio 3 by saying the thing he liked about Andy's show was that he never knew what to expect next - almost exactly the reason the Radio 1 Controller had given for sacking him! A few weeks ago Andy told his listeners that he had been invited to be a guest on 'Desert Island Discs' and was agonising about how he would choose just 8 records - at that stage he said he had narrowed it down to about 1000. Somehow he managed it and his appearance on 'Desert Island Discs' was broadcast on Radio 4 this week. He came over as honest, passionate, shy, emotional, incredibly enthusiastic and with an encyclopedic knowledge of world politics and music. His idiosyncratic brand of journalism is always fascinating and compelling - particularly when he is reporting from one of the more troubed parts of the world. I was very chuffed having correctly guessed 4 of his 8 choices - you can see the full list at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/desertislanddiscs.shtml#discs. But I was also intrigued to realise that I'm not particularly keen on many of his personal musical favourites. In fact we have very little in common - I don't share any of his passions for motorcycles, fishing or boxing. Yet I could not contemplate missing the Andy Kershaw show because what we do share is an insatiable appetite for music that is new and different. One listener suggested he might alleviate the pain of selecting just 8 records by devoting this week's edition of his regular Radio 3 show (now on Monday nights at 11.15 pm - see http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/andykershaw/) to all those tracks that didn't quite make it. You can hear the results at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/networks/radio3/aod.shtml?radio3/andykershaw

Milton Keynes Sinfonia concert

12 March 2007

I played in a very enjoyable concert with Milton Keynes Sinfonia last weekend at the Church of Christ the Cornerstone in Milton Keynes. Regular conductor, David Knight, directed pieces by Rossini and Dvorak, before picking up his 'cello to perform as one of the soloists in the Brahms 'Double Concerto' with violinist Jan Kaznowski. David's place on the podium was taken, for the second half of the concert, by Ian Smith. The Double Concerto is a lovely piece - one that I know well but had never performed before. And there is always a special magic in a performance where the orchestra has a real affection for the soloist. But I particularly enjoyed the experience of being conducted by two different people in the same concert. Every conductor brings different qualities and insights and, however good the regular conductor is, I think it is good for an orchestra to be occasionally challenged by someone less familiar. The players seem to sit up a bit straighter and pay more attention than usual. Perhaps more groups should bring in a 'guest conductor' from time to time.

Sarah Kendal

9 March 2007

Comedy’s a funny thing – haha! No, but seriously, forget the Comedy Store or the Edinburgh Fringe, the real test of a stand-up comedian’s skill is playing a small-town arts centre on a weekday evening. Many years ago we saw a young female comedian at the arts centre in Grantham. She had been getting good reviews and had just got her first TV show but she was no match for Grantham! She started by pointing at a man in the front row and saying how fantastic it was to see someone wearing a tie at one of her gigs and she thought he looked like her Dad. Only then did she look around the room to see it was full of men wearing ties who could have been her father! Further demonstrating how little she knew her audience she started to tell a joke set in a nightclub and asked us to name the best nightclub in Grantham. After several minutes of discussion the audience concluded it didn’t know of any nightclubs in Grantham and, somewhat reluctantly, the comedian agreed, as a compromise, to set her joke in a nightclub in nearby Nottingham. On another occasion, while on holiday in Suffolk, we were surprised to see the enormous old seaside theatre in Lowestoft advertising an evening with Jeremy Hardy. This theatre, which had Ken Dodd the previous week and Jimmy Tarbuck the following week – seemed an odd setting for a left-wing political alternative comedian. We booked our tickets and, on the night, found ourselves lost in a sea of empty seats with only about a dozen other people but Jeremy Hardy dealt with a potentially embarrassing situation extremely impressively. Quickly abandoning his prepared material he probably worked harder than ever that night and completely won his tiny audience over – one of the most impressive comedy performances I’ve seen. Last night we were at the Library Theatre in Luton to see the Australian comedian Sarah Kendal and she was great. I’ve realised over the years that to really enjoy a comedian’s performance I need to feel I like the person. Some picking on the audience is fine but it has to be done gently and in good spirit and to be balanced with a good dose of self-deprecation. Sarah Kendal had the balance about right – she has a good line in carefully constructed observational stories and is a good improviser and ad-libber. But above all she charmed Luton by getting to know her audience and treating them with respect. Watch out for her.

'Bottoms of Barrels' by Tilly and the Wall

8 March 2007

My discovery of the week is Tilly and the Wall – a lively, young, five-piece pop band from Omaha, Nebraska. They write light, cheerful, catchy songs but what grabs your attention is the fact that instead of a conventional drummer their rhythms are provided by a tap dancer. The amplified tap shoes of Jamie Williams give their songs a unique flavour. Sometimes this sounds a bit like flamenco – it’s a compelling, pulsating sound. Coupled with unusual syncopations, sing-along vocal harmonies, uncompromising lyrics and an upbeat, sunny disposition, it’s a winning formula. Only a couple of days after trying the second Tilly and the Wall album, ‘Bottoms of Barrels’, I was so hooked I had to get a copy of their first album, ‘Wild Like Children’. I was fascinated by what it would be like to see them perform live with the tap dancer centre stage. There are numerous clips of them on YouTube – try: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgA-dJ9imVk. But the highest praise I can give is to say that their songs make me feel happy and make me want to get up and dance: I want to be that tap dancer!

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

5 March 2007

On Saturday I played in the first Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert of the year. This was an 'Opera Evening' at Spinney Hill Theatre in Northampton with a mixed programme including instrumental music from operas by Wagner, Verdi, Bizet and Tchaikovsky, three arias sung by the bass, Ian Spencer, and two pieces for ladies' chorus. I'm not a big fan of opera, nor of concert programmes made up of many short pieces, but I found it a very enjoyable evening. As always, it was good to get to know music I might not have otherwise chosen to discover and I particularly enjoyed the aria 'Ella giammai mamo' from Verdi's 'Don Carlos'. It was also good to play some Wagner - the overture 'Rienzi' and the 'Entry of the Gods into Valhalla' from 'Das Rheingold' - particularly rewarding for a brass player, if somewhat exhausting!

'Vertigo' by Red Shift

26 February 2007

Last weekend we were at the Royal Theatre, Northampton, to see a new stage production of the psychological thriller 'Vertigo' by the Red Shift Theatre Company. This was adapted and directed by Jonathan Holloway from the story by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac that inspired the famous Hitchcock film. Set in a French sanatorium in 1947, the play tells the story in flashback - a framing device that creates a logic to actors playing multiple characters as the Doctor helps his patient, Roger Flaviere, to remember the events that led to his current state of mind by acting them out. I wonder, however, whether this framing of the story removed some of the tension by making it clear where Roger was headed. Nevertheless the play nicely captured the feeling of increasing bewilderment, paranoia and panic common to so many Hitchcock leading men. It reminded me of the Kazuo Ishiguro novel 'When We Were Orphans' where we are similarly asked to sympathise with a protagonist who becomes gradually more and more desperate and hysterical to the point where we begin to wonder how reliable his narration is. 'Vertigo' was well acted and directed and enjoyably dark though it requires you to go along with the dated gender politics and the familiar obsession with the 'Hitchcock blonde'. And if you are not familiar with the film don't let anyone spoil it by telling you the twist!

'Guys and Dolls' by Frank Loesser, Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows

26 February 2007

I still treasure the memory of seeing the National Theatre production of 'Guys and Dolls' in the early 1980s (with Lulu as Miss Adelaide) and I'd been really looking forward to the Donmar production which we saw at Milton Keynes Theatre last Friday. Inevitably, coming to it with raised expectations, I was a bit disappointed. There was little to fault in the production and there was some fine singing (particularly from Louise Dearman as Sarah Brown - a great performance of 'If I Were A Bell') but it lacked the special sparkle I'd been hoping for. Having said that I still think 'Guys and Dolls' has some of the best songs of any musical and my head has been filled with the tunes all week. And the evening was substantially redeemed by a fantastic rendition of the show stopper 'Sit Down You're Rocking the Boat' by understudy 'Neil Clench' - very nicely done!

‘The Last Laugh’ adapted by Richard Harris from a play by Koki Mitani

23 February 2007

I’ve always liked the idea of setting a story in a non-specific location and time without the baggage of current local cultural references – giving it a universality and avoiding the danger of it quickly becoming dated. In practice, however, I have to admit that this approach can make the resulting play, novel etc. feel a bit flat and lifeless. We were at Milton Keynes Theatre last Friday to see ‘The Last Laugh’, a two-hander with Martin Freeman and Roger Lloyd Pack adapted by Richard Harris from a play by Koki Mitani. In an undetermined country during an unspecified war a writer is trying to persuade the military censor to approve his new comedy for performance. The censor is preoccupied with the seriousness of war and cannot understand what role comedy could possibly play at such a time. This sets the scene for a dissection of what comedy is, how it works and why it is important – particularly during such difficult times. There are some lovely set-ups where the two protagonists are discussing an aspect of comedy while inadvertently simultaneously demonstrating it. (I particularly liked the censor’s incredulity at the comedy of catch-phrases: “So you are telling me that people find it funny when a character keeps repeating the same phrase for no apparent reason? I don’t believe it! I do not believe it!”.) But this is essentially a serious play about comedy and I think it suffered a little from the expectations created by its title, cast and venue. The sombre, poignant nature of the story seemed to surprise many in the audience and some of the subtle, clever comic moments fell a bit flat. I wonder whether it would have worked more effectively in a smaller theatre with less well-known actors – or whether the neutrality of the story’s setting made it less accessible than it might have been. Nevertheless it was a thoughtful and interesting work.

'The Good, The Bad and The Queen'

15 February 2007

Damon Albarn has, for many years, been the subject of one of my few claims to fame - namely that I know Damon's Auntie. Admittedly this claim has always been slightly let down by the fact that I've never actually listened to anything by Blur. (The 1990s are my popular music blind-spot.) Even Damon's excursion into West Africa, 'Mali Music' came just before my own discovery of, and enthusiasm for, 'world music'. But finally, last year, I got a copy of 'Demon Days', the second album by Damon's 'cartoon band' Gorillaz. I didn't expect this mixture of laid-back dance music and rap to be my kind of thing but I found it incredibly infectious and was quickly hooked. This week I've been listening to Damon's latest project - the eponymous album from his 'supergroup', 'The Good, The Bad and The Queen'. The line-up includes the bass player from The Clash, Paul Simonon, the guitarist from The Verve, Simon Tong, and Fela Kuti's drummer and Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer, Tony Allen. The result is a diverse, eclectic collection of songs. Much of it sounds very like Gorillaz, though without the rapping (or indeed the wrapping of Jamie Hewlett's cartoons). Damon presents a strong anti-Iraq war message in an extremely laid-back, hip and cool way while managing, bizarrely, to include Beach Boys-style falsetto harmonies, violin harmonics and whistling and backing vocals from Harry Christophers' The Sixteen. It's really growing on me. I understand that Damon is now working on a musical at the National Theatre and writing the score for a Chinese circus-opera. I've also been impressed by the good work he has been doing through his record label, Honest Jon's, particularly the archive compilations, 'London is the Place for Me'. Damon has become an extremely interesting, significant and important creative figure in the music world. His Auntie should be proud.

'Twelfth Night' by William Shakespeare

13 February 2007

"If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it ..." In 1884 Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night' was the first production at the new Royal Theatre in Northampton. 123 years later it is the latest offering from Laurie Sansom in his first season as Artistic Director of the newly refurbished Royal Theatre - now restored to its Victorian splendour. Sansom's 'Twelfth Night' opens the Royal's 'Love & Madness' season, emphasising the fine line between the two by having Malvolio incarcerated in a straitjacket. It is a solid, straightforward production including some well-choreographed physical comedy and movement and some fine performances from the women - Rebecca Grant, Lucy Speed and particularly Natalie Walter as Olivia. But it lacks the stunning innovations we have come to expect from the Royal - especially in the sets and design. "... For the rain it raineth every day."

'Memento' by Christopher Nolan

5 February 2007

Many years ago we went to see the film 'An Awfully Big Adventure' based on the novel by Beryl Bainbridge. After about twenty minutes, what had been a relatively straightforward story became much more intriguing as the plot seemed to suddenly jump forward in time. All was revealed a little later as a character who had just broken his leg walked into the next scene and we realised the cinema had shown two reels in the wrong order! It still amazes me that of all the people in the cinema only four of us stayed behind at the end to get our money back. "Are you sure it wasn't just a flashback?" the manager asked us. We were sure. "Well we've been showing it for a week and you're the first people to complain."

I was reminded of this the other day watching Christopher Nolan's 2000 film 'Memento'. Guy Pearce plays Leonard, an insurance claim investigator who has severe short-term memory loss as the result of the traumatic rape and murder of his wife. His memories before 'the incident' are intact but he has lost the ability to form any new memories since and forgets, within minutes, what people have said to him and even whether he has met them before. Leonard survives by taking Polaroid pictures of significant people and places, which he keeps in his pocket to refer to, and tattooing key facts onto his body. Through these methods he is gradually trying to track down his wife's killer but he is beset by not knowing who he can trust or who might be taking advantage of 'his condition'.

Leonard's story reveals itself to us in reverse, through a series of short scenes with each scene ending at the start of the previous one. As in Pinter's play 'Betrayal' or the reverse recipes of Jack Argener we gradually begin to understand the significance of the earlier (later) scenes but here there is the added complication that the lead character remembers nothing of any of the scenes and could be playing them in any order - the analysis of which could keep film studies students busy for months!

Leonard's sudden 'awakenings' - finding himself in a strange hotel room or being chased down a busy street or in bed with a woman he doesn't remember - reminded me of Henry's similar predicaments in Audrey Niffenegger's 'The Time Traveller's Wife'. Though satisfyingly, in terms of the theme of reverse narratives, Niffenegger's novel was published three years after 'Memento' came out.

The film ends with plenty of ambiguity and many loose ends untied but still manages to create a satisfying final twist. How often can you say that about a film which starts at the end, flashes back to the beginning and finishes in the middle?! A tour-de-force of narrative structure.

'Jarvis' by Jarvis Cocker

2 February 2007

I largely missed 'Britpop' and only discovered Pulp through 'We Love Life', their wonderful 2001 album produced by Scott Walker. A late convert to the cause, I was looking forward to Jarvis Cocker's first solo album, 'Jarvis', and I haven't been disappointed. He seems to have been primarily lauded for his abilities as a wordsmith but I think he writes great tunes - with fantastic choruses. His distinctive resonant baritone voice dominates the album - though there are times when he sounds uncannily like Elvis Costello. Jarvis's lyrics are not as laugh-out-loud funny as Neil Hannon or Jim Halstain but always intelligent and thought-provoking - and, on the gentle ballad 'I will kill again', chillingly menacing. 'Jarvis' is clever, catchy, loveable rock - turn up the volume and enjoy.

'Clare in the Community' by Harry Venning and David Ramsden

25 January 2007

I've really enjoyed the third series of the radio comedy 'Clare in the Community' by Harry Venning and David Ramsden which has just finished on BBC Radio 4. (You can still 'listen again' to the last episode at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/comedy/clareinthecommunity.shtml.) I've been a fan of Harry Venning's 'Clare in the Community' strip cartoon in the Guardian's Society section (on Wednesdays) for years (see http://society.guardian.co.uk/clare for recent examples). The radio version has been a really effective translation, retaining plenty of the three-frame format gags (set-up, emphasis, twist) while developing the characters, creating neat, rounded sit-com plots for each 30 minute episode as well as broader story arcs across each series, while keeping it light and very funny. Sally Phillips is great as social worker Clare and Alex Lowe wonderfully put-upon as her long-suffering partner Brian but my favourite is Nina Conti as Clare's former student, Megan (who transmuted from Welsh to Scottish in the radio version!). This is great observational humour which manages to create larger-than-life comic characters whose actions, opinions and behaviours are surprisingly recognisable from real life!

’13 Songs’ by Julie Feeney

19 January 2007

I’ve been listening to ’13 Songs’, the debut album from Irish singer-songwriter Julie Feeney who recently won the Irish equivalent of the Mercury Music prize. Classically trained (and a member of the National Chamber Choir), she has a great voice and writes delicate, quirky melodies with sparse accompaniment including good use of overlaid vocals. With harpsichord and recorders on some tracks she strays in pseudo-medieval territory (not unlike Joanna Newsom) but the mood is more contemporary classical than early music. Gentle, poignant, puzzling songs with more than a hint of Bjork or Laurie Anderson.

‘My Father and other Working-Class Football Heroes’ by Gary Imlach

12 January 2007

At three o’clock on Saturday afternoon, just as the teams should have been kicking off, Jeannie and I and Alistair Campbell (plus quite a few other Burnley fans) were beginning to make our way back down the steps of the South Stand at the Madjeski Stadium in Reading. Our 3-hour round trip to Reading had been in vain as Burnley’s FA Cup Third Round match was called off at the last minute because of a water-logged pitch, following a torrential downpour as we were making our way towards the ground. Soaked and despondent we consoled ourselves with the thought that at least Burnley would, rather unexpectedly, feature in the draw for the Fourth Round on Monday! And we were in home in time to hear of Macclesfield’s brave exploits at Chelsea and to see Liverpool’s demise at the hands of Arsenal – as well as Henrik Larsson’s inevitable and predictably brilliant debut goal for Manchester United on Sunday afternoon. I love the FA Cup – particularly the Third Round – always one of the cultural highlights of the year for me.

This week I have been reading ‘My Father and other Working-Class Football Heroes’ by Gary Imlach – the story of his father, Stewart Imlach, a professional footballer who played for Scotland in the 1958 World Cup and won the FA Cup with Nottingham Forest in 1959. Shortly after Stewart’s death, Gary decided to try to fill in the gaps in his knowledge of his father’s life. Through interviews with former playing colleagues, managers and friends and analysis of miles of archive newsprint, he reconstructs a fascinating story. This was an era where the players were often earning less than the factory-working fans who came to cheer them on and were very much part of the local working class community – usually combining their playing careers with part-time jobs as plumbers, builders or, as with Stewart Imlach, joiners.

Gary Imlach has produced a brilliant book that is biography, personal memoir, social history and sporting saga. It is wonderfully written – a non-linear narrative dripping with gorgeous phrases. Chapter Three, about Stewart Imlach’s arrival at Bury Football Club in 1952, starts: “Shortly after the residents of Colindale board the Northern Line for their morning commute south into central London, two groups of people set off the other way, into the past. Turn left out of the tube station for the RAF Museum (don’t forget the Airfix shop on the way back), turn right and cross the road for the British Newspaper Library. We had scrapbooks full of cuttings at home, but they were all highlights and headlines, sort of a director’s cut of my father’s career. Here’s where the rushes were stored.”

And when the working-class Nottingham Forest players are training in London ahead of the 1959 Cup Final, “The wives had to face the Savoy on their own. Plates of asparagus were set in front of them like straightened question marks to which they had no answer. The cutlery was a silver-plated trap set to go off if they dismantled it out of sequence. Waiters hell-bent on humiliating them sprinkled cheese on their soup.”

Like his father weaving past mesmerised defenders on the left wing, Gary Imlach negotiates a slalom around the unreliable memories of the remaining survivors of a black-and-white era. And throughout, the book is laced with poignant regret at the masses of questions he never thought to ask his father until it was too late to do so. This is a wonderful book – I urge you to read it even if you have no interest in football.

(On Tuesday evening Burnley lost the rearranged FA Cup match with Reading 3-2. Oh well, there’s always next year … )

‘Caroline or Change’ by Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori

5 January 2007

Last week we saw the new musical ‘Caroline or Change’ at the National Theatre in London. Written by Tony Kushner with music by Jeanine Tesori it was much praised by the critics and won the Evening Standard award for best musical. It is set in Louisiana in 1963 and looks at the civil rights movement through the story of a black maid working for a Jewish family on the day Kennedy was assassinated. The music was great – with plenty of numbers in a Tamla Mowtown style plus some klezmer clarinet – and the performances were very strong, particularly the children. But we found the overall experience a little disappointing. The plot was very subtle with little actually happening directly to the characters. There wasn’t much movement on the stage with most of the songs delivered without any element of dance. And few of the songs were given the chance to breathe – with a glimpse of each melody soon giving way to the next before it had had any opportunity to lodge in the memory.

'Merry Wives The Musical' by Gregory Doran, Paul Englishby and Ranjit Bolt, based on the play by William Shakespeare

5 January 2007

On the Saturday before Christmas we were in Stratford to see ‘Merry Wives The Musical’ – Shakespeare’s play adapted and directed for the RSC by Gregory Doran with new music by Paul Englishby and lyrics by Ranjit Bolt. It was good, silly fun – veering very close to pantomime – with Simon Callow as Falstaff and Judi Dench as Mistress Quickly. There were some great performances – particularly from the comedian/impressionist Alistair McGowan who demonstrated some wonderful physical comedy and a fine singing voice and from Alexandra Gilbreath and Haydn Gwynne as the wives, who both looked as if they were thoroughly enjoying themselves! We particularly liked the set with its rotating cottages/haystacks and exaggerated sense of perspective. Overall the show lacked a little spark but it was enjoyable and the three hours flew by.

'Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra' by Kimmo Hakola

21 December 2006

This week I have been listening to the 'Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra' by the contemporary Finnish composer, Kimmo Hakola (a recording by Kari Kriikku - for whom the work was written - and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sakari Oramo). This is an amazing piece of music: the first movement is fast, spiky, serious, aggressive, contemporary classical music - fine but unremarkable - but then the work gets progressively stranger and more interesting. The second movement has some lovely gentle tunes and strays towards a film music sound. In the third and fourth movements we get a mixture of klezmer, blues, Balkan gypsy music and sounds from the Middle East as well as the orchestra muttering and mumbling to each other to create the sound of a crowd. When I first started to listen to the recording I soon drifted off to do something else leaving the music playing in the background but after a while found myself rushing back to find out what was going on! It must very exciting to it see performed live - and, I suspect, even more so to play it.

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

13 December 2006

Last Sunday I played in the annual Northampton Symphony Orchestra 'Christmas Cracker' concert at Spinney Hill Theatre, Northampton. This is always a really enjoyable afternoon with a wide range of festive and film music (including Star Wars and Harry Potter this year), a narrated piece (Howard Blake's 'The Snowman') and carols for the audience to sing - plus the obligatory mulled wine and mince pies. And each year the orchestra seems to be slightly more festooned with tinsel, reindeer antlers and santa hats! The 'Christmas Cracker' is always a popular concert and this year we had an audience of more than 500 - that's a lot of mince pices! Part of the attraction might have been our compere, local actor Arnold Peters - perhaps better known as 'Jack Woolley' from 'The Archers'. As well as introducing the concert he gave a very creditable performance in conducting the orchestra in Walton's 'Popular Song' from 'Facade'. Our encore, somewhat inevitably was the maypole dance 'Barwick Green' from the suite 'My Native Heath' by Arthur Wood - better known as the theme to a certain long-running radio drama serial ("tum-ti-tum-ti-tum-ti-tum, tum-ti-tum-ti tum tum ..."). Billy Connolly once said that this tune should replace "God Save the Queen" as the national anthem. I notice that Archers Addicts can now download it as a ring tone ...