The task was 500 words about a song or piece of music through an individual's interpretation. I wrote a piece about a church fete in July 1957. This wasn't just any old church fete though. A certain skiffle band named The Quarrymen played at both the fete and the grand evening dance in St Peter's Church Hall. It was the day that John Lennon met Paul McCartney for the first time.
I love writing about contrasts - in this case the contrast between an ordinary ten a penny church fete and an event that would change the world of music forever. I loved the fact that the event only warranted a few lines in the Liverpool paper and no mention of the Quarrymen. That of course was soon to change. If you want to read my piece on that meeting it's included in my section on the Beatles which I am busy building at the moment.
In a couple of weeks it's off to Liverpool once again and this time I want to explore the newly opened Strawberry Fields which is now a garden with a café and a John Lennon museum.
During the evening I also read out the lyrics of John Stewart's song "Armstrong" which also has a theme of contrasts around the first moon landing. Stewart is one of my favourite songwriters, sadly no longer with us. I would categorise his music as country/folk and his most famous composition is "Daydream Believer" that the Monkees took to number one.
I had a reasonably pleasant walk to Wymondham from Hethersett along the relatively new cycle path and took quite a moody picture of Kett's Oak with storm clouds in the background. The picture is at the top of this blog entry. It was taken with a tiny DB Power EX5000 action camera that I forgot I had. It fits in the palm of a hand and is very useful to carry around in the pocket.
I will return in my blog at a later date to talk about Tony Vale's outstanding work in Wymondham and his role as one of East Anglia's best playwrights.
This evening I had a good old evening of reminiscences as far as the arts are concerned. Firstly I listened to one of my favourite all time albums - "In the Court of the Crimson King" by King Crimson. Also started reading a new book "A New Day Yesterday UK Progressive Rock and the 1970s" by Mike Barnes. It starts with a couple of chapters regarding psychedelic rock and mentions the Orford Cellar in Norwich and a gig by Pink Floyd in Dereham which ended up with a mass fight involving 500 people! Now as I write this I'm listening to the album "Psychedelia At Abbey Road 1965-1969" which I have to say I'm thoroughly enjoying.
Earlier in the evening I re-visited Monty Python's Life of Bryan. I had forgotten how irreverent and stupidly potty and amazingly funny this was. Thank heavens for Netflix and Spotify that makes all this possible.