RCM Festival of Percussion featuring Stewart July 8, 2012

[smax]

a great day.

some of my thoughts and observations:

An unusual event, effectively in graduation week at the Royal College, right opposite the beautiful Albert Hall with its freezes and 'age of reason'ness celebrating science and the arts, the halls and corridors of this working college were filled with the sounds of students playing away/rehearsing/having classes; the sounds of strings and things filling the halls. A beautiful building with stained glass windows celebrating mozart and others, and some hideous 70's extensions.
Clearly this was not a gig motivated by sales and promotion but a chance to play with 'kids' somewhere grand. his enthusiasm was evident.

the look on smudge's (and i'm sure my) face was a picture when pete lockett said to the 20 or so of us who had just watched him, open mouthed (us not him) playing some serious tabla.
"Right, turn to page two in the handouts. Clap the rhythm and repeat the syllables with me"
South indian music, with all of it's apparent complexity and impenetrableness was made almost repeatably understandable. Excellent. It was the first music lesson I have been in for more than 16 years.

Before the QnA there was a short performance of the 'theme' to this weeks' percussion festival, lots of drummers/percussionists. A laugh was had when cymbals were held apart revealing the legend "Roxanne" printed on them.

Mr C was accompanied by family members and surrounded by young uns learning their craft which, i guess, led him to talk more than i've seen before about his family and their various desires to play music.
He was asked about his learning difficulties."Differences, learning differences" punctuated Mr C, before going onto talk about dyslexia and how he coped with a lack of ability to pay attention in school. he spoke about an influential drum teacher (whose name escapes me, max someone?) Max taught Stewart to "learn his dots and eat his greens". He spoke about having to take his brain apart to remember his theory when he started composing.

Smudge, daftart and i sauntered into the soundcheck and watched for a while without hindrance as Stewart asked for more of everything apart from the keyboards in his monitors.
"Can we go from the slowdown at bar 173?" asked stewart. He and the 17/18 yr olds went through some bars. I was impressed by the lack of patronisation from stewart as he treated the students as a working orchestra. He had said earlier in the QnA that he was not going to tell the students parents any waffle about how perfect they were or how together.. he said the best compliment he could give was that they could all go and earn a living playing in the real world.

During the performance proper stewart was chucking sticks into the air with usual aplomb. although fandom hysteria was not appropriate in the small (but perfectly formed) Britten Theatre, i could see a number of eyes dart towards where the sticks had fallen. Before the last tune, i rose and squeezed out to the aisle. I stood, waiting for the clapping so i could go down and pick up the stick. I was literally on the balls of my feet about to walk down the 10 steps from the back to the front of the auditorium (it was that small) when i saw a certain northerner (phil9) walking along in front of the stage to pick it up. "well done you bastard" i whispered in his ear as he walked past me.
However when it became clear that more sticks were available phil and i were down the front again asking roadie-ing students if they could pass those sticks. One student (in his uniform) said " no mate, these are mine now". w*nker! Phil redeemed himself by getting two more sticks and giving one to me. hero Badge for phil. Thanks mate.

Someone else got a towel. "Is it wet?" I asked. The answer was too rude to print in a family newspaper like this one...

[Phil9]

Cheers for the badge Smax , that guy wasnt for letting go of them sticks and it wasnt for the want for trying. I had my eye on the first stick from the moment it left Stewarts hand, then a second one was thrown ans landed on front of the stage to wich i was planning on getting for you, but as i was getting closer a guy came out of nowhere and in a flash it was gone. it turned out well in the end though.
After everyone left my Son and i went back into RCM and a women and a guy where walking up the stairs and didnt she have a pic of her and Stew on her i phone. She informed me that she had entered a dress room back stage and Stewart was ok with her having her pic taken. I got directions to this dress room and my son and i set off, only to be challenged twice by staff. The im lost routine wasnt going to wash a third time so i decided to leave, my son stated we should wait outside, so i agreed to wait for 15 mins. During this time Stewarts family and others where gathering in the reception and i was begging to feel uneasy as i didnt want to approach Stewart whilst with his family. I didnt think it was fair to invade his personal space and possibly upset his family. However his family came out first and there was a moment where i turned around and there was Mr Copeland, i automaticly asked for a pic and he said "sure", despite how i was feeling about approaching him with his family i gave his daughter my camera and she took two cracking pics (well i think so). I cant up load them to this site, but ive put one of them on my facebook page and everyting re Stewart i put on my page also goes on to a Stewart Copeland facebook page. Its there for anyone wanting a look.
Now for some reason i asked Stewart about the roof top pic on the fall out single and made comment about how his career has developed. I was trying to show my respect to the hard graft he put into making the Police work, i hope it came out this way. Its one of them moments where there is a possibility that you could meet someone you admire so much and you have a short period of time to ask them anything , but when the moment happens you fold.
Anyway it was a great day and its good to share this on this forum, my wife/ mates dont get it and i can understand because if my wife met Robbie Williams, id be so what!

[smax]

i'm glad you stayed and that it paid off. nice.

[smax]

this is a link to pete lockett playing a kanjira, as he did yesterday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAdfoLp3ZBI

[ladyhawke]

these storys are really good to read thank you for sharing them all and i hope more are going to happen. this is fun to live it through every one here. im glad you all get these moments to meet stewart copeland keep sharing stories !

[Kim]

You guys rock! Good to hear the event was successfull and that Nutters convened. Thank you Gio and Stewart, for giving us a place to meet and discuss. \m/

[luddite lady]

I'm glad to hear you all had such a great time. It sounds like Stewart really enjoyed himself too. Thanks for sharing!