Chateau Keyboard

Sunday, June 15: First gig

Today is the day of my first ever public performance. Perhaps, in years to come, there will be crowds of fans gathered around the school cantine in Monoblet, leaving graffiti all over the walls as they do now for The Beatles at the Abbey Road studios. Then again, perhaps not.
We - me and Mrs K and Daisy - get there a bit early. Then Françoise my teacher arrives, shortly followed by Emile who has the lesson before me on Wednesday evenings. Then an 8-year-old called Pierre comes in. He has the slot before Emile. Then the place fills up with 8- to 12-year-olds. Hmm, the children of my fellow students?
Apparently not. I am, it turns out, the oldest person who studies music at Lo Quinquet by at least 25 years. In fact, I'm older than just about everyone else put together. Good grief - I had no idea, I thought nothing of the fact that the person who has the lesson before me is only 12 or so. I hadn't realised he was one of the older ones. That does explain a few of the funny stares I've had in the past…
Still.
Obviously, the first worry was what to wear for the gig - got to make an impression on your audience, right? Shades, black pork-pie hat, black tie, black suit obviously. Which eventually all gets tamed down to a purple short-sleeved shirt and chinos. I do wear my black suede shoes, though.
And it goes pretty well, I think. Although some of the kids are brilliant - one young girl playing the piano is nothing less than a virtuoso - enough of them are as bad as me that I don't stand out like a sore thumb. Which is comforting in a strange sort of way.
I play Mack The Knife, which is a fantastic song to play, and When The Saints… I play the second part while Emile ploughs through the main melody, it sounds very cool. Then La Roulotte and La Valse Triste, two rubbish old French songs Françoise loves so much. And Yellow Submarine.
And I love it all. When I started playing the saxophone I thought, being the shy, retiring type, that I'd never want to play along with other people, let alone in public. But playing with others is very satisfying and playing in public great fun too. Really. I could do more of this, I think.
Françoise is keen to do some ensemble playing next year and I'm up for that.