Wednesday 8 December 2004

Very sleepy. But this is largely due to a late night spent in a couple of bars with harpsichord builder Bob Deegan, and bass maestro Malachy Robinson, who were both here with Nigel Kennedy and the Irish Chamber Orchestra, staying in the hotel at the bottom of our road. How convenient. So in the wee hours of this morning a heartfelt hymn to the joys of playing continuo on a 8' violone could be heard in the hotel bar. Which made a change from discussion of Celtic's goal-less draw with AC Milan. We didn't just talk about music, honest.

It's been admin central here today as I've been shamelessly dropping playing commitments and turning down gigs in order to get some time to think and deal with the never-ending pile of stuff.  Ben Twist sent me a copy of his final report on the 're-presenting live classical music' project, of which our March tour was a part. There's 115 pages of it.  I can only admire people who manage to be creative, and still engage fully with bureaucracy at that sort of level. I can do basic simple administration and that's about it. If I were writing something like that, I'd get 5 pages in, and then decide I'd rather go outside and stand in the rain, so I'd have something fresh to write about. 

Also in this morning's mail came some sketches from Joe Davie for the cover of the Kellie CD - they look great. Although to my disappointment, the dog from 'Mungrel Stuff' doesn't make an appearance relieving himself up against the Earl of Kellie's leg.

On Monday I was talking to a room full of traditional music students at the RSAMD about 18th century Scots basslines for fiddle tunes - and a bit about James Oswald, but basslines were more fun. It was really refreshing to be in a teacher/students situation where the students were clearly looking for ideas that they could take away and work with in their own way, rather than just looking for something that they can replicate. I came out quite energised.

If you haven't listened to it yet, you only have until Saturday to hear 'Don't wear a hat' at www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/listen/ - click on 'Between The Ears' near the bottom of the page. And if you order The Red Red Rose from our CD shop, the discs will be mailed out first class so there should be plenty of time to get them for Christmas.