January
2002
What happened at the BGS Xmas bash? Well, the management of Railtrack seems to have taken over at South Hill Park. The delay in refurbishment in now on a par with the West Coast Line upgrade, and what's worse, there are no compensation forms. No room at the inn, we decamped to the manger outside, and bedecked a makeshift table with offerings. Never mind about Shepherds, I could have done with a pint of Shepherd Neame! Thank goodness for the red wine, which went down a treat during the playing. Credit goes to all those who played solo pieces on the night, from Paul Miron, Gary Jordan, Steve Tucker, Richard Butters, Andy Scott, and Jeremy Allison. I can remember two White Christmases (an omen for sure that didn't happen!); a very ambitious tremolo piece pull ed off with aplomb by Richard; a tour de force of memorisation by Andy; an imaginative interpretation by Jeremy; a number played more smoothly than Mr. smooth on National Smooth Day by Paul Miron; and several pieces by Gary Jordan which sounded like duets , such was the attention to voices. As for the duos and trios, Elfi Smitheyman, George MacDonald and myself played three South American pieces, Gary and Paul did a selection of numbers, including one from a score which looked like an Origami sheet. The thr ee J's, June James and John did a Christmas piece, and of course there was the Teleman fugue. If Elfi, Steve and myself represented the Manchester United of guitar playing on the night (i.e. a well-oiled smooth functioning ensemble of the highest order, fa ltering at times) then Paul Miron was certainly super sub Ole Gunnar Solskaer. Brought on as a last minute substitute to fill the gap in the quartet, Paul added width to an attacking formation, which laid into the Telemann with gusto. We performed a piece transcribed by Steve Tucker from an original violin fugue. Alex Ferguson (a.k.a. Terry Bryanton) would have been proud of us. Paul slotted seamlessly into the team, playing as if he knew the piece already, despite only having looked at it 5 minutes beforehand. And by the end of the piece, the audience was on its feet, in wild raptures of excitement, calling for more (well I'm lying actually but at least they didn't throw the melted Camembert at us). Lots of pies, crisps, cake and pop interspersed the playing (look out for the gummed up frets) and we all left, looking forward to Xmas. My apologies for the brevity of this piece. I've just come back from Xmas holiday, from which I have needed two whole days to recover. I think this is just about as much as I can write at the moment! And to every one of you, I wish a Happy New Year!