21 June 2025

BCSA Garden Party 2025

Somehow it has been ten years since I lasted posted about te BCSA Garden Party and while Covid carries some of the blame the main fault has been my laziness.

The intervening years also brought changes to the Czech and Slovak embassies which meant that when the Garden Party could be held it had to be held elsewhere. It was nice to be back in the Czech Embassy and in the shared gardens (that is the Slovak Embassy on the left).

The format was much the same as it ever was with food, drink, music, dancing and a raffle. Also the same as ever were the conversations that filled the afternoon and gave the party its purpose.


Towards the end this group photograph was taken. I think a few shy people hid and some may have left by then but I think that it includes around a dozen people that I spoke to at some point during the convivial four hours that the party lasted.

Not even the determined efforts of TfL (no District Lines, mainline trains severely delayed) could dent the simple pleasures of the afternoon.

19 June 2025

Parsifal at Glyndebourne Festival 2025

I am a late convertor to Wagner, and not a fully committed one at that, and it was more a sense of exploration that drew me to Parsifal at Glyndebourne, having seen it just once before in 2016.

I was keen enough to fork out £185 for Blue Upper Circle B6. I had gone for cheap seats (£95) last year and while that sort of worked I fancied something better this year.

We were a small familial party (parents and elder son) which made the logistics of the day simpler, e.g. we could all travel down by train and we did not need to try to impress guests with fancy food. A picnic of sorts in the Veg Patch Stretch Tent worked well, though the recently acquired bottle of champagne had not yet settled and opened with gusto.

Parsifal is a long opera and were were seated ready for the performance at 3pm with it due to finish at 9pm (with intervals).

It was stunning. There were several main characters and they all sang beautifully, and acted well to. The music was sumptuous and was played superbly, it was music to wallow in. The staging was interesting and active with things happening away from the main action. The only problem was the story that made almost no sense, despite the copious sur-titles.

Luckily the lack of story had no impact on my enjoyment, much is it does not with other foreign language music that I like (and also Yes songs that, despite being in English, often make no sense either). The music and singing carried the day gorgeously.

18 June 2025

Sparks at Hammersmith Apollo (18 June 25)

Sparks are now about the only band that I try to see every time that they play in London who still play in London who still play in London with some regularity, the rest have either stoped playing altogether or only tour here occasionally.

They somehow manage to play a different venue each time and this comes with different seating/standing options. This was their first visit to Hammersmith Apollo (in recent years at least) and when I booked, which was when the bookings opened, there were only standing places available and so I went for one of those at £45.

I had been seated the last few times that I had seen them so was quite looking forward to a standing show.

You may have noticed that they played two nights and I have only mentioned one. Unfortunately I had a much earlier booking for Glyndebourne on the 19th, otherwise I would have gone to both nights.

Not having a lot else to do on the day I found myself in the queue around 6pm whereas I was already behind a good number of serious fans.

The entry system whereby you had to show tickets on their app twice, once to get into the building and again a few seconds later to get into the auditorium delayed me a little bit more than it should but I still got a place about three rows back, on Ron's side of the stage and with no tall people  in front of me.

The picture below shows the view I had.


Sparks came on around 8:30 and after two and a half hours of mostly standing I was ready for some music and some modest dancing.

The first song was no surprise, So May We Start has been the obvious opener  since being released in 2021 as part of the Annette soundtrack.

Sparks have an extensive back catalogue, almost thirty studio albums, and are able to pull out any track from any time so each concert is full of some surprises as well as some greatest hits and some newer songs from the latest album. 

This time the surprises included three songs from Nº 1 in Heaven played in reverse order of familiarity so that when the third song, the title song itself, it came as surprise. An even bigger surprise were the two songs from 1973's A Woofer in Tweeter's Clothing. That is when I first got into Sparks via John Peel, of course.

In addition to The Number One Song in Heaven, the greatest hits included Reinforcements, When Do I Get to Sing "My Way" and This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us.

I was very happy!


Standing in a cramped area got to me slightly after a while and I slipped towards the back, helped myself to a refreshing pint, and settled down to listen to the rest of the show and enjoy the light show. It was still excellent from their and I liked the different perspective.

Sadly Sparks have yet to announce any more London dates so I will just have to wait until they do.

3 June 2025

Little Women at Richmond Theatre


I never read Little Women (no great surprise there) but I had learned about it from radio drama adaptations and also an In Our Time episode and that was enough to tempt me to seeing it on stage. The usual process secured me seat Dress Circle A 22 for £39.
 
Just in case you did not know, Little Women tells the stories of a family of four sisters as they grow to become women, a coming of age story with four variations.

These stories have their ups and downs, as life does, but it is all very gentle and there is nothing puzzling or overly emotional to get engrossed in. It is all very English, except technically it isn't.

The lack of depth to the drama gave the cast little to work with but they did what they had to do with wit and charm. They were all good if not stretched.

The staging was lovely too, able to present many different scenes with just a few minor prop moves, which the cast did themselves.

The one thing that confused me was in the story, possibly the most significant event was moved from the first half (where it would have been a natural consequence of events) to the second (where it came out of the blue). That may have been to hold a key moment back for dramatic effect but it confused me, and probably everyone else there who, I presume, all knew the plot.

Little Women did what good tour shows do. It entertained simply and professionally without taking any risks. I prefer challenging and contentious plays but there is also a place for simpler things, provided they are done well, as this was.