Saturday 2 September 2006

Well, DG and I played a good gig yesterday I think, to a very supportive audience with some very welcome friends in it. Once you get on stage and the adrenaline kicks in it's not so hard really. And I like the Russell Collection's 1769 Kirckman a lot. I like all of their Kirckmans actually. 

But the run-up to the show was something altogether different. To varying extents we were both overtired and overwrought. On one level we were doing something very familiar, playing music we know in a safe, controlled environment to some nice people. But on a subconscious level, lots of other things were going on - as you might expect. The personal cost can be much greater than it appears. And right now my body seems to be telling me that giving concerts is a dangerous thing to be doing.

Anyway, I picked up David from the airport on Thursday and rather than rehearse, we played swingball and did some trampolining, and then he got himself acquainted with Ruth's violin. Our chairman Noel kindly offered his library as a rehearsal space yesterday - it's his fantastic Italian harpsichord that I play on the Mungrel Stuff and Lion of Scotland CDs - and I even found the energy once I'd tuned it to fit a new quill, and voice it inexpertly with a loose scalpel blade. We rehearsed in fits and starts, saving our energy for later.

So now we have some free days before Alison joins us on Tuesday for a BBC studio recording. I think the coming week will be quite tough. But once we're through it we'll have a better idea of what kind of group we now have, and we'll also be in a better position to make decisions about the group's future. But I can't say that I'm looking forward to the next few days very much.