Category: Music

Walking to Rome

This is Francis Plowden’s debut album. I hope you heard Lockdown Blues yesterday. He is a natural successor to Lance Percival whose improvised satirical calypsos were favourites of mine.

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Categorised as Family, Music

Old Friends

A Sondheim acolyte is as committed as the most devoted Wagnerian.

A State of Grace

A friend from America was visiting London recently. I took him to The Grenadier for a Bloody Mary, Ognisko (aka the Polish Hearth Club) for lunch and Opera Holland Park (for Hansel and Gretel). He also was taken by the Judge to the White’s tent at (Royal) Ascot, ticking a 4th box of things he… Continue reading A State of Grace

A Rap on the Knuckles

My first school was in Castlebellingham, just a thirteen minute drive from Barmeath. My mother always took the blue route through Annagassan and along the coast to Castlebellingham.

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Categorised as Family, Music

Indian Territory

Forty years ago, in March 1983, I developed a mild obsession with Oklahoma that continued until I stopped working almost eight years ago.

Hugh the Drover

I have often walked past this church just along the road, walking in a westerly direction, from the Royal College of Music.

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Categorised as Music

Martial Music

Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem was first performed at the consecration of Coventry Cathedral in 1962.

Goodbye to Berlin

Crowded bars, warm white wine, poor sight lines and uncomfy seats sum up an expensive visit to a West End theatre in the past. I used to game the system by ordering dry cider and ice for the interval.