In the Dark

Recently at Sutton Salvos they've been doing some serious renovating work. They've knocked out some walls, cemented over the roof and created new rooms upstairs. They've ripped out the staging and the back wall in the main hall, taken up the old parquet flooring, laid down carpet, repainted the main hall and re-oriented it so the left hand side is now the front. And they're creating a cafe in the foyer. On top of that, they've repainted the kitchen, they're doing something to the YP hall, band rooms, and the offices. It's been a pretty major undertaking, and it isn't finished yet...

All the while that this work has been being done, it's been business as usual at Sutton. So, when they were ripping out the staging and flooring in the main hall, we've been having Sunday services in the YP Hall. Everyone's had to make do with the ladies loos as the gents are out of action, needing a serious overhaul. And there has been stuff everywhere. Old instruments, books, chairs - just stuff. Stuff that constantly needs moving, as there hasn't been anywhere to store it. Stuff that usually needs to be moved after band practise on a Tuesday night, or after the Sunday morning meeting... stuff that couldn't be put into storage as on and off, its in fairly constant use - and then stuff that should've been put into storage and for one reason or another, hasn't been.

Now I've actually been quite lucky, because I've been on the BEAMET, I haven't been part of this constant removalist operation - I've just had a couple of Sunday services and band practises in the YP Hall (the most echoey place on the planet - made sure I had my earplugs for that!). Some of you will know that I play Eb tuba in the Senior Band, and I conduct the Junior Band (aka YP Band). The YP Band are so funny, they're like 7 or 8 years old, and for some of them, their feet don't touch the ground when they're sitting on those big chairs, so they put their little cornet cases underneath to stop their feet from swinging backwards and forwards whilst they're attempting to blow their notes. They're quite cute - but they're very energetic, so practises are quite tiring for me - and exceptionally loud, especially young Louis, who, bless him, thinks he's the next Louis Armstrong and blows the living daylights out of his cornet at every available opportunity!

Occasionally at Sutton, (when they're really desperate), they ask me to play piano for the Sunday meeting. I don't really like doing it, not since the time Major put Maccabeus (you know, "Thine be the Glory, Risen Conqu'ring Son") on as the last hymn, and I stuffed up the dal segno (or rather, I added one that wasn't supposed to be there). Oh boy, was that an embarrassing moment! Especially as there are a lot of really good pianists at Sutton, and for some strange reason many of them were there that week to witness my humiliation (Steve, the bandmaster, keeps reminding me of it every time I get up to play piano now...). Anyway, last Sunday, our first one back in the main hall, I had to play the piano. Fortunately we didn't have any Maccabeus moments, although there was a potential catastrophe when Major deviated from the meeting plan and had me play "Give Thanks" 10 million times during the altar call - seriously, I don't think well on my feet and it's difficult to make something interesting (when you are repeating it for the 25th time!) but devotional - when you consider it has the same chord progression as "Go West"! There's only so many octaves on the piano, you know!

Anyway, as I said, we were back in the main hall - but there was no lighting. Now that wasn't so much of a problem on Sunday, it was an unusually sunny day, so we were ok. But tonight, Thursday night, was a totally different matter. Thursday nights are junior music practices - Singing Company and YP Band, and tonight I arrived at the hall at 7pm (just on sunset) for band practice, to discover that the flooring has been ripped up in the YP hall, rendering it unable to be used, and the lighting still hasn't been done in the main hall - and all they have are 2 IKEA lights that give off about as much light as a couple of candles and a torch with a flat battery in a black out - which is not much. And we're performing in the meeting on Sunday...

Suffice to say some quick thinking had to be done, and we're now playing "Blues in F" - which involves 3 notes that the kids learned by rote (as it was too dark to read any music), then lots of improvising on those 3 notes. Oy ve. Actually it wasn't too bad, except that in addition to the lack of light, the pedal for the bass drum was missing off the kit, so our rhythm section consisted of Nathan on high hat and snare, and me attempting to conduct whilst playing the "egg" shaker... to Louis's ear bleedingly loud G's....

Hm... Going to be an interesting performance on Sunday...