23rd August: Not much about Northern Greece. I am in the UK right now on a kind of working holiday. I have managed to attend two sessions in the Birmingham area. In terms of overall ability, I would place us halfway between the two. Regarding repertoire, I, personally, have some way to go unless … certain sessions have their own repertoire. One marker of ability, I think, is the prevalence of reels; weaker sessions tend to reduce the number of reels played. The only reels played in the first session I went to were started by me! Mind you, I don’t think a session that consists almost entirely of reels is a good thing. I love my jigs and hornpipes.
Here are some pics of my visit to Lichfield.
Now the business end:
Back in Terra Greca, we had a practice in Andy and Kate’s garden in Angelohori (Αγγελοχώρι), or Lost Angeles as Andy prefers to call it. Though we have reached the end of August, there is no sign of the summer heat abating.
13th September: On Sunday 10th we had our first session after the summer break. It was pleasing to see the pub so busy but, unfortunately, it wasn’t due to our fan base mobbing the pub; it was the final of the basketball world cup between Germany and Serbia. Orthodox solidarity meant that most of the Greeks present were there to cheer on Serbia. To no avail. Germany won.
As I have said before, I get quite stressed out not knowing who or how many will come. In the end, there were ten of us and we were later joined by two young Australian flute players, Naomi and Clodagh. There was plenty of atmosphere with a combination of Greeks urging the Serbs on and our own fans creating a lot of noise as well. Yes, we do have aficionados. Our Australian flautists really gave the session a boost. I was delighted to find out that they’d discovered us via www.thesession.org At last! I’ve hit musical pay dirt.
Ken, the manager, was celebrating his birthday so we were treated to extra drinks, and liqueur shots were passed around too.
My fellow ‘sessioneers’ tend not to make much comment after a session, but it was obvious everyone was buoyed up by the end. Panos, our flute player, was delighted to have the company of the Australian ladies. Rob told us he went to work the next day with an extra spring in his step.
Next stop is our open-air gig in Angelochori.