Steve and Eileen's wedding

Congratulations to Steve and Eileen who got married on Saturday! The weather was very good, and the location was beautiful: King's College Chapel, and then Elphinstone Hall in Aberdeen.

There was a wide variety of music played by the bride and groom's many musical friends and family. There was a piece by Eileen's late grandfather, Charlie Hunter, played during the service and later the Aurora Brass Quintet entertained us as we sipped champagne on the lawn. There was also a piper, and at the end of the evening a great ceilidh band. (Dancing at a ceilidh is just about my favourite thing - but I do need to have a very understanding partner as I haven't got a clue about any of the moves.)

I used to live in Aberdeen (in my previous life as a software engineer), so I know the city very well. Unfortunately, this had to be a very short visit for me as I am very busy at the moment and had a gig in London the next day. So sadly there was no time to catch up with old friends who are up there - except those who attended the wedding, of course.

Here are some terrible photos I took with my (shiny new) phone. At the top is the best (sorry) I have of the happy couple, then there's a young loun running about in a kilt. Then there's Elphinstone Hall looking a bit like Hogwarts, and King's College Chapel at night. The last picture shows how everything looked to me towards the end of the evening..

Righteous Rage..

Todays' Telegraph contains an article by my dad entitled 'Righteous Rage at the Parish Pump', about the trials of editing the local church magazine. It's also available online.

My mum's not going to be at all happy, I fear..

SoaSN in today's Evening Standard

Just seen that today's Evening Standard contains quite a large article about Scenes of a Sexual Nature, which I orchestrated for and played trumpet on. The article mainly focuses on Ewan McGregor's appearance in the film, and has a few nice pictures from it. According to the Standard, it'll be released in late October or early November.

A Pint of Brains

Oh dear, I haven't blogged for ages... I've been really busy with a TV project (which I'm not allowed to talk about I think), and have been playing a bit here and there with Riamba, the Rugs and the John Ongom Big Band.

For the first time in my life I went to Wales at the weekend. I was visiting a friend who's teaching on the Jazz Summer School at the University of Glamorgan. The course is run by Simon Purcell and Dave Wickins, and this year the tutors include Bobby Wellins, Liane Carroll, Martin Speake and Chris Batchelor.

I didn't get to sit in on any of the classes, but I went to the jazz club which they run in the student union every evening and I must say, it was a really great atmosphere. I met several of the tutors, who were really friendly, and several students, who all seemed to be having a whale of a time. Felt slightly strange asking for a pint of Brains (the local brew). It was very nice - and a lot more malty than actual brains.

Went down to Porthcawl to stay with my friend's parents for a night. Went swimming in the Bristol Channel in a pair of swimming shorts borrowed from her dad (it could have been worse: I was initially offered a pair of speedos). All very invigorating (I mean the sea and the air).

I was sorry to have to return to London on Monday - I was really envious of everybody who would get to hang out there on the course all week and just play music. Oh well...

In case it had gone to sudden death..

So once again, England crash out of a major tournament on penalties.

But how about this for the lifelong England supporter (who doesn't want to stop there): an attractive white coffin sporting the Cross of St. George and the Three Lions of England. I spotted it at an undertaker's in Walthamstow.

By the way, did you know that Death is a fine football player? That's why he's known as the Great Equaliser ha ha. (Hmm.. needs work, that one, I think..)

Tonight on Newsnight: My Dad

Apparently my Dad might be on Newsnight tonight (BBC2 10:30), being interviewed by Jeremy Paxman about the way that the House of Commons is becoming more tame. I'm going to miss it unfortunately..

Kyudo

I had to prepare a little speech about Kyudo for my Japanese class the other week. It was something which I knew nothing about, so I did a little research on the net. I found it really interesting.

Kyudo means 'Way of the Bow' in English. The bow is made of bamboo, is 2 metres long and asymmetrical. There are eight steps in the shooting process: place the feet, position the body, ready the bow, etc., and all should be performed in one graceful movement.

This photo shows archers at some of the stages of the shooting process: readying the bow (2nd archer from left), drawing the bow (4th from left), the full draw (left-most), and just after the release (3rd from left). (Many thanks to Vernon Fowler for the use of his excellent photo.)

I'm sure this is not easy, but perhaps it seems that there is not too much to learn, just from a technical point of view. However, in fact kyudo is all about developing the spirit: the goal is to give oneself over completely to the shot. I think this is a great lesson: many people have such busy lives these days, and there are so many distractions. If we can really focus on the current task then we can achieve so much more.

Of course, this is really relevant to playing trumpet - or indeed any instrument. (As I recall, this is the central idea from the book, The Inner Game of Music.) When we play, we should aim to give ourselves totally to the current performance, and try not to be distracted by, for instance, an earlier mistake, or the difficult passage coming up, or the girl jiggling at the front of the audience. (Having said that, I really don't want to discourage any girls from jiggling at the front - but it would be OK if they wouldn't mind continuing to jiggle in between the songs).

I really liked the words of Hideharu Onuma sensei - a kyudo master who I was reading about at www.kyudo.com. He said: "When shooting, sometimes we will hit the target but miss the self. At other times we will miss the target but hit the self. Our purpose, though, is to hit the target as the self and hope that the sharp sound of arrow penetrating paper will awaken us from the so-called 'dream of life' and give us real insight into the ultimate state of being."