On 2nd June I made my 3rd successive annual visit to the wonderful literary festival at Hay-on-Wye.
Although it took me 3 hours door-to door by public transport - driving would take just under 90 mins but can't manage that distance there and back these days - it was completely worthwhile and was a really memorable day!
The sun was shining all day which is a rarity at Hay and made the atmosphere all the more pleasant. This small market town full of second-hand bookshops is visited by thousands of people during the fortnight of the literary festival and yet the asmosphere is tranquil,calm but exciting with famous faces mixing with more ordinary folk! Locals throw open their gardens and homes serving tea and coffee more cheaply than inside the festival. There's a very friendly all-inclusive atmosphere at Hay and is just wonderful to see people lounging in garden chairs reading, adults reading to children and vice-verca,all sorts of talks,music and crafts going on and of course books everywhere!
I firstly went to visit my former head of music from secondary school in Grimsby,Mr Babb who is now 86 and retired to Hay 10 years ago. Mr Babb has been a huge inspiration in my life. To say he's quite a character is very much an understatement! He's always been quite a tour de force! In fact when I first met him aged 9 and still at primary school when he accompanied me for my Grade 1 piano I burst into tears as I found him rather intimidating!! He was and is hugely enthusiastic at fostering and encouraging musical talent in the young. Mr Babb always used to choose very ambitious pieces for both our school and youth orchestras. He was always very eccentric and fiery but we all adored him in spite of this! He believed in us and always inspired us on to make the very best of our talents even though we didn't always appreciate it or agree with him at the time! It was Mr Babb who suggested that I should swap from violin to viola after I'd passed my Grade 6 exam as he wanted to form a string quartet along with my 2 best friends J&C who also played the violin and E on the cello who was in the year below us. It was a good choice for me - I felt more an affinity with the lower sonoroties of the viola and playing in our Dolce Quartet was really great fun. Most of our rehearsals involved a great deal of laughter! I remember one rehearsal when I arrived drunk for the first time in my life at about 15!!!I'd been at my piano teacher's pupils concert and her husband had rather unwisely sent a crate of wine upstairs for the older pupils away from the parents downstairs so I was more than a little merry and had to go straight to our quartet rehearsal (luckily we were just doing it ourselves and no teacher was present!!)and I don't think we got a lot of work done that evening!!
Mr Babb was not great at keeping discipline in lessons but then could really explode when he wanted to! He introduced me to very mature repertoire from a young age for which I'm so grateful as I've just felt classical music was just normal and has always been part of my life. I remember the first time he played us Shostakovich's 8th String Quartet in our O level class which is extremely dissonant and quite raucous and warlike and we all just hated it and couldn't bear to listen to it but it eventually grew on me and I love it now.
I have many great memories of Youth Orchestra with Mr Babb and especially our tour to Germany in 1988 which was great fun.
After having a nostalgic couple of hours with Mr. Babb I went to the first event I'd booked at Hay which was an hour of First World War poetry beautifully and movingly read by Jeremy Irons,Sinead Cusack and a younger actor who wasn't billed in the programme and I couldn't catch his name but he was extremely convincing.These poems of Sassoon,Wilfred Owen,Rubert Brooke and many other poets I hadn't heard of are so poignant and evocative. It called to mind my father reading poetry to me when I was a child and I had a few tears!
As soon as I came out I was in the very long queue for the same theatre for the event I'd booked led by Cerys Matthews which was totally sold out and proved to be extremely inspiring and really joyous for me. She has brought out a new book which is a compilation of well-known songs from childhood and beyond and through the years encouraging the old fashioned singalong which we seem to have lost. She held the whole audience in the palm of her hands for the whole hour getting eveybody singing along enthusiastically to songs such as Oh my Darling Clenmentine,Let's go fly a Kite,Eviva Espana etc. It really took me back to my childhood and reminded me of the joy music has always brought to my life. There's something addictive and really joyful about singing in a big crowd - as if you're all speaking with one voice and all instantly connected whatever your age,nationality or background. I loved it and it made me feel really exhilirated.
I came home totally inspired and immediately made plans to host my own "Singalong" Event to further raise money for the Tenovus Cancer Charity as I suddenly remembered that their special project to celebrate this their 70th birthday year with the theme of "The Big Singalong" to encourage people to get together with friends or colleagues to sing together while raising money for this fantastic course.
My Summer Singalong is next Sunday and I'm already making plans and have several great raffle prizes and have chosen the songs from my treasured signed copy of Cerys's new book Hook,Line and Singer.
Exciting times!
Although it took me 3 hours door-to door by public transport - driving would take just under 90 mins but can't manage that distance there and back these days - it was completely worthwhile and was a really memorable day!
The sun was shining all day which is a rarity at Hay and made the atmosphere all the more pleasant. This small market town full of second-hand bookshops is visited by thousands of people during the fortnight of the literary festival and yet the asmosphere is tranquil,calm but exciting with famous faces mixing with more ordinary folk! Locals throw open their gardens and homes serving tea and coffee more cheaply than inside the festival. There's a very friendly all-inclusive atmosphere at Hay and is just wonderful to see people lounging in garden chairs reading, adults reading to children and vice-verca,all sorts of talks,music and crafts going on and of course books everywhere!
I firstly went to visit my former head of music from secondary school in Grimsby,Mr Babb who is now 86 and retired to Hay 10 years ago. Mr Babb has been a huge inspiration in my life. To say he's quite a character is very much an understatement! He's always been quite a tour de force! In fact when I first met him aged 9 and still at primary school when he accompanied me for my Grade 1 piano I burst into tears as I found him rather intimidating!! He was and is hugely enthusiastic at fostering and encouraging musical talent in the young. Mr Babb always used to choose very ambitious pieces for both our school and youth orchestras. He was always very eccentric and fiery but we all adored him in spite of this! He believed in us and always inspired us on to make the very best of our talents even though we didn't always appreciate it or agree with him at the time! It was Mr Babb who suggested that I should swap from violin to viola after I'd passed my Grade 6 exam as he wanted to form a string quartet along with my 2 best friends J&C who also played the violin and E on the cello who was in the year below us. It was a good choice for me - I felt more an affinity with the lower sonoroties of the viola and playing in our Dolce Quartet was really great fun. Most of our rehearsals involved a great deal of laughter! I remember one rehearsal when I arrived drunk for the first time in my life at about 15!!!I'd been at my piano teacher's pupils concert and her husband had rather unwisely sent a crate of wine upstairs for the older pupils away from the parents downstairs so I was more than a little merry and had to go straight to our quartet rehearsal (luckily we were just doing it ourselves and no teacher was present!!)and I don't think we got a lot of work done that evening!!
Mr Babb was not great at keeping discipline in lessons but then could really explode when he wanted to! He introduced me to very mature repertoire from a young age for which I'm so grateful as I've just felt classical music was just normal and has always been part of my life. I remember the first time he played us Shostakovich's 8th String Quartet in our O level class which is extremely dissonant and quite raucous and warlike and we all just hated it and couldn't bear to listen to it but it eventually grew on me and I love it now.
I have many great memories of Youth Orchestra with Mr Babb and especially our tour to Germany in 1988 which was great fun.
After having a nostalgic couple of hours with Mr. Babb I went to the first event I'd booked at Hay which was an hour of First World War poetry beautifully and movingly read by Jeremy Irons,Sinead Cusack and a younger actor who wasn't billed in the programme and I couldn't catch his name but he was extremely convincing.These poems of Sassoon,Wilfred Owen,Rubert Brooke and many other poets I hadn't heard of are so poignant and evocative. It called to mind my father reading poetry to me when I was a child and I had a few tears!
As soon as I came out I was in the very long queue for the same theatre for the event I'd booked led by Cerys Matthews which was totally sold out and proved to be extremely inspiring and really joyous for me. She has brought out a new book which is a compilation of well-known songs from childhood and beyond and through the years encouraging the old fashioned singalong which we seem to have lost. She held the whole audience in the palm of her hands for the whole hour getting eveybody singing along enthusiastically to songs such as Oh my Darling Clenmentine,Let's go fly a Kite,Eviva Espana etc. It really took me back to my childhood and reminded me of the joy music has always brought to my life. There's something addictive and really joyful about singing in a big crowd - as if you're all speaking with one voice and all instantly connected whatever your age,nationality or background. I loved it and it made me feel really exhilirated.
I came home totally inspired and immediately made plans to host my own "Singalong" Event to further raise money for the Tenovus Cancer Charity as I suddenly remembered that their special project to celebrate this their 70th birthday year with the theme of "The Big Singalong" to encourage people to get together with friends or colleagues to sing together while raising money for this fantastic course.
My Summer Singalong is next Sunday and I'm already making plans and have several great raffle prizes and have chosen the songs from my treasured signed copy of Cerys's new book Hook,Line and Singer.
Exciting times!
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