My Weekend

On Saturday, my band were afforded the opportunity to play on Falkirk High Street, which was something I had lobbied for for some months. All being well, it should go some way towards us making our fund-raising targets, and so actually being able to attend the competitions we're hoping to play at next year.

Of course, the economy decided to mock us by collapsing. Annoyingly, the crowds were still out and about, which meant finding parking was difficult, as was moving against the crush. But, if you looked around, although you saw lots of people, there were very few bags in evidence. The Crunch at work there, I suppose.

And it decided to rain. Which further dampened the spirits of people, persuaded them to go about from store to store with great haste, and cut into our efforts.

Oh, and it turned out that the prime fund-raising spot, dead centre by the steeple, was reserved for the Salvation Army. That's fair enough, but did prove to be something of a weakness. Instead, we got to play at the bandstand, where nobody ever goes.

And, finally, we didn't play all that well. Between the damp and the cold, too many reeds (drone and otherwise) were causing problems. And there were too many mistakes. It basically wasn't very good.

Still, I consoled myself, this meant that we had now staked a claim for next year, when hopefully things would be a bit better all around. And we'd given the band a run out and gained a bit of much-needed exposure. So, if we managed to raise £50 pounds, well, that would be a bonus.

We raised £399 in two hours. It's fair to say I was stunned.

We're playing again next weekend. The economy won't have improved, but it will be the last Saturday before Christmas (and so the busiest of the year). The weather might have improved (I hope). The play really should have improved. All in all, it looks promising.