Unplugged

To elder daughter's school concert last night at Colchester County High School. An amazing array of talent, as always. I marvelled once again at the astonishing poise and self-assurance of the young singers and instrumentalists, who performed music from Thomas Arne to Abba, Handel to Gershwin and a number of pieces they'd composed themselves. Too many goose-bump, tingle-factor moments to list.

SD#1 appeared early on in the proceedings in a small ensemble, performing a gloomy and angst-ridden piece entitled 'Happily Ever After', which she and five friends had written as a team effort. It was disappointing that the amp on her bass guitar didn't seem to be turned up loudly enough. In fact, it didn't seem to be turned on at all. She seemed to be playing along but either my hearing had taken a turn for the worse or something was decidedly wrong. Oh well, it was fine otherwise, and everyone clapped wildly when the piece ended and they trundled off the stage to make way for the next group.

In the interval, SD#1 came to find us: 'My guitar's, like, totally broken?', she wailed. 'I was, like, miming all the way through?'

I haven't assessed the damage yet, but it seems that someone had knocked the bass over and, when it crashed to the floor a couple of the pegs had bent or twisted to such an extent that it couldn't be tuned, or wouldn't hold its pitch, or something. I will pack an arm and a leg in a large-ish bag and take them with the guitar to the menders later in the week. I don't suppose it's going to be cheap!

Mercifully, her clarinet seemed to be intact and in fine fettle for the grand finale by the First Orchestra, which rounded off the evening - a long and challenging medley from Phantom of the Opera. More tingle moments.