Spellbound

I left work on time(!), jumped on a bus to London, sat through loads of tube-strike traffic and finally got to mum's just in time to have a bite to eat while she went off to save us good seats in the church. Some people are travelling hundreds of miles for the London International Festival of Early Music, I've travelled 66 miles and she has to walk five minutes! She's bought herself tickets for every concert and bought me tickets for two.

These are the organ and violone players from Solomon's Knot whose eight singers - one person per part - sing everything by heart. They were spellbinding and the concentration of minds and of sound was extraordinary. I would have taken a picture of them except that it felt too intrusive in the intimacy of their performance. I can't find a recording online that comes anything close to the experience of these eight superb voices a few feet away.

The concert was recorded by Marquee TV which I'd never heard of but which looks interesting. I'll certainly sit very happily through this concert again in due course.

From what everyone said, I missed a superb concert last night with Nitin Sawhney. I'd been very tempted by it but decided to go to band practice last night then work today rather than get a ticket. Wrong move. I've committed to go to all the concerts in next year's festival.