A band in the stand

After a lazy morning, then doing a clothes wash and simultaneously washing 1400 miles of road grime off the Africa Twin I just had time to throw on some motorbike jeans and head out into town to meet Mum and Dad and together watch the Edinburgh Brass Band performing in Saughton Gardens at – of course – our lovely Lion Foundry no.23 bandstand, who thinks often of its cousin in (not that) Hyde Park in Mancunia.

In the first set they played lots of pieces I didn't know – and the conductor didn't introduce them – but I recognised what I think was a version of Shenandoah, and later on they played an excellent medley of James Bond themes.  There was an intermission of half an hour or so in which the Corstorphine Singers performed half a dozen popular songs.  For set two, the brass band played more pieces, most of which I didn't know, except for a good rendition of Colonel Bogey's March, which for years I'd assumed to be American in origin but it was actually written in 1914 by a British Army band leader.  It was a great performance all round, and as you might say, A Good Bandstand is Worth a Good Band.

We returned to Mum and Dad's afterwards, looked at the far too many photos we all took, and then had fish and chips for tea.