Band night

Tonight was band night at the school. Dan was really excited about it and I was looking forward to going along but when we were halfway along the road he gently explained that he'd be sitting with his friends. Lucky I brought a book!

The school hall was divided roughly in two; lots of young teenagers sat on the floor just in front of the stage, and about thirty or forty adults in chairs towards the middle of the auditorium. However, as soon as the first band came on, all the young people stood up, rendering all the but the drummer's cymbals invisible to those of us further back. Like most - but not all - of the parents I opted to stand up.

There were nine bands all together and the quality was good to high, I would say. High points for me were The Kinks' 'You Really Got Me', 'American Idiot' ("This is dedicated to Mr Donald Trump"), a band consisting only of a bassist and a drummer, and a brilliant 'mash up' of The White Stripes' '7 Nation Army' and Eurythmics' 'Sweet Dreams'.

There's some doubt as to whether the event will run next year. This is nothing to do with its popularity, though. The audience, about a third of whom were also performers, clearly loved every minute of it. Spending cuts and curriculum changes mean that the course that most of the band members do won't be run any longer. Why do the Tories hate creativity so?

This isn't the photo I wanted to use today, incidentally, but I get uneasy taking photos at the school, so the ones I took - trying to capture the empty stage - were a bit hurried and, well, rubbish. But I brought this on a whim today and I thought it was rock and roll enough to stand in for the photo I wanted.