Showtime yesterday. I started with a quick run-though the pieces I was involved with, then posted off some Salome albums to Italy. Then, left for the library near 3pm to prepare for the evening. It was already dark and cold when we arrived, but the rain was lighter than forecast.
The set-up moved relatively quickly. It is such a joy not to have to carry amplifiers, mixing desk and take care of that sort of thing. John Miller, the bassist and sound engineer, who clearly knows his stuff, did a great job on the audio. This, again, is a luxury and important for a good event. We rehearsed before the show. This too, seems like a luxury, but I don't like it... on one hand it feel like cheating to practice on the actual stage before the show begins (although, true, the public were not there, perhaps this could be seen as a perfectly valid dress-rehearsal). It does feel unprofessional to practice before the event... but, perhaps my objection is that I prefer a quiet time, a mental practice, a calming, but this was denied me by the social activity of a run-through, with the band. My solo pieces were my challenge, my ensemble contributions trivial. I did a few bars of my songs by way of a sound-check though, and this was very valuable, but I felt that I didn't want to spoil anything with a preview, much less a rehearsal.
The night started at 7pm on schedule and ran to plan for all acts. I was reminded how samey Dylan's music was. My ears seemed to want more variety to the looping 3 or 4 chords that, it seemed, all of his compositions consisted of. Andy Stubbs' attitudal piece was, of course, joyous, and it was nice to meet Mike's writing partner and hear the equally otherworldly Forrest-Dick Band.
Our Fall in Green piece went to plan. Times Are Stayin' The Same was scrappy and imperfect, I wasn't happy with it, but there were good and bad points for this, my first song performed while playing the keyboard, after many years of playing the piano or keyboard in various performances. There is no substitute for repeated performance in a live situation.
Song For Zimmerman was better, despite the guitar being a new instrument for me. Perhaps the postural aspects helped. This song was filmed by Deb, which was an excellent tool for improvement. It's odd that the aspects which, on the night, I was unsatisfied with, were generally fine, and I saw new things to change instead.
My playing on Gotta Serve Somebody involved wild improvisation on the organ, at last a showcase of what I can do. This went well and a few people commented on it. Quinn the Eskimo was fine, although I forgot to play the closing flute riff, to my shame at the time. That was entirely due to lack of rehearsal of that part. My first rehearsals covered only the chords, and this ensemble song had low priority for me.
The acts varied a lot in quality. There was inspiration everywhere; people to aspire to be like, people to avoid being like. Tickets, sales and donations raised just over £800. John's related event earlier in the week raised £200 or so to a total of £1040 raised.
I arrived home at midnight or so, aching and tired, which is unusual for an evening I thought light work, certainly less exhausting than the Midsummer event. I expect that I didn't eat enough. I did some hurried packing away in the dark and cold house, then fell into dreams of food. I dreamt of eating at a restaurant with John Lindley, and of Fox's biscuits. In another section, there was a tree, or some sort of cage, of white-blue furry animals including a small (and stripe-less) tiger, and an owl.
Spent a few hours this morning typing up this event, and compiling more Prometheus plugins.
