blast (of brass) from the past

nipping to work via forbidden planet is getting to be a habit on saturdays, but this time i'm glad i did go and spend money on slightly pointless comics as it took me past this band playing outside buchanan st underground and reminded me of good times past.

back in the day, when i was a good(ish) little choirgirl (and was still a brunette - that's me at 15, btw) i was also a good little flute player and in a local orchestra and the school band. my delightful hometown ('country life' has no idea what it's talking about, btw) is twinned with a town in norway called bryne in time (really), which also happens to have a school band. they used to visit us every year for fair week (which no longer exists, after coming down with a dose of reallyquitecrapandnoonecares) and play on stage in the marketplace and also give concerts, often jointly with my school band. this was something of a pity in one way, as that generation of bryne were bloody good and tho that generation of duchess school band was bloody good too, it's all relative. we were a comprehensive school, slightly undisciplined bunch, they were were drilled and polite to the point of scariness. still, they were nice people and we were nice people, and there was a cider stall at the fair... anyway, we had fun and played some concerts that were genuinely good and also a ton of fun. there's something to be said for the power of music (as i mentioned last week) and even more to be said if could only find the words about being right in the middle of making music.

so imagine my surprise when i came upon this bunch of norwegian schoolkids with instruments in the middle of glasgow! i thought they were the same band (other than being composed of entirely new people, obv), but actually a bit of a google shows that this lot are from oslo. still, it took me back to concerts and marching (we were rubbish at marching - then again, i think we only practiced about twice) in the fair procession, music stand sliding round my wrist as it loosened when i walked... and yeah, all that time making music that i didn't appreciate enough then (being a teenager, when you appreciate nothing) but have learned to cherish when i look back on it.

moral of the story: force your kids to do things musical, it's good for them :-)