Andy Jackson - A man in a Million

This is the title of a book presented to Andy at his retirement party today.

I met him 27 years ago at this time of year. He had organised a 10 week course entitled "Blow the Cobwebs off your Music Stand". I joined about a month into this.

His vision has always been to make music accessible and enjoyable to anyone who wanted to play. The Cobweb Orchestra was made up of whoever came along. There might be 10 clarinets (more likely flutes!) and no bassoons, but that never deterred him.

I played flute with the Cobwebs for a long time and had a great time. What we lacked in finesse, we made up for in enthusiasm. I have lovely friends from that time: many of them were there today. Some people had travelled long distances to be with the Cobweb family.

The orchestra was over 100 strong to play the Franck Symphony in D minor. They had rehearsed this morning. I arrived in time to pick up a glass of bubbly and hear the speeches. If we had had time, everyone could have told a personal story about how important the orchestra has been/is to them. Andy reckons that over 2,000 maybe more musicians have played with Cobwebs over the years (now several orchestras).

The schedule overran so much that I had to leave after the first 10 minutes of the performance.........

Joan and Mary looked after Mum in my absence