Now, the concert was free, but they were charging a £2 Meetup fee. They were having dinner and drinks beforehand, but it wasn't included for this price.. and I only knew one person who was going.. why on earth would it have been worth it to me to pay £2? Instead, I had a beautifully lazy day, ate at home, and headed in nice and late, since the concert didn't start until 9:45PM.
Of course, with so much time to spare, I was late. I was lucky with the train - one was waiting on the platform when I got there, and obligingly waited for me to gasp my way onboard - but still I couldn't quite make it to the centre in time. Ah well, I reasoned, at least the music will have started, and I can follow the sound to find it - the venue was the "Clore Ballroom", which is listed on the Southbank Centre website as being a "foyer venue", but they give no further details.
I entered by the nearest door, and sure enough, heard the music. The ballroom is, indeed, open to the rest of the foyer, and is down some steps from the café. A crowd was gathered around, and I made my way as close as possible to the band (the Royal College of Music Big Band, as it hppened). The seats were all gone by this stage, of course, but what the hey, it was only due to last 45 minutes anyway! I took up a position just at the back of the seating.
I could see several free programmes, but there weren't any of those for me, either. So I did my usual thing of reading over somebody's shoulder - which is how I know that each of the pieces was related to a piece of Shakespeare's work. I wouldn't have known otherwise, considering that the material was attributable to Duke Ellington - not a contemporary of Shakespeare's. I'd known that in advance, but had thought that there might be a speaker or something, considering that this was supposed to be related to Shakespeare!
Nope, just the jazz. But cool, cool jazz it was, played by a proficient student band, with an exuberant conductor who made most of them do solos, for each of which he turned to the audience with a gleeful grin on his face. They played one encore, for which he tried to encourage the audience to take to the floor - after all, as he pointed out, this was a ballroom; the clue was in the name! Only one actually did, letting loose to the side - and fair play to her. And then we were out into the night again.. not a terribly Shakespearian evening, to be fair, but an enjoyable one. And no, I didn't see that guy I knew.
This post would have been earlier, except that I'm thinking of going to a film tomorrow - and given that I choose on the basis of IMDB ratings, and have a spreadsheet for that, that meant I had to update the spreadsheet: which I only got around to starting today. And given that there are several shorts, each of which I have to check on IMDB - I've given up for the night. It's mostly done, but I won't be able to determine what to go to until I finish. Watch this space.. and, of course, whatever it is will have to be showing at a time I can manage!
Anyway, to finish off the long weekend, on Monday I'm back with London Dramatic Arts Meetup, for the rescheduled trip to see Dr. Faustus, at the Duke of York's Theatre.
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