Without wishing to sound like the old Yorkshire men in the Monty Python sketch, ‘it wasn’t like that when I was at school’. The best we had was a sixth form disco at age 18. Amber, now aged 16, has been excited about attending her school prom for some time now. Imagine the turmoil when Janis phoned to say that her car had broken down on the way back from work and she woldn’t be able to take Amber to the prom at Kingston Maurwood near Dorchester. Even worse she had Amber’s new shoes with her.
We quickly went into action, Margaret went off to help Amber get ready and I went to find Janis and rescue the shoes, whilst she waited for the breakdown services. After much faffing we eventually took a beautifully made up Amber her friend Matt’s house near Wareham, where she met up with her boyfriend Josh. Josh’s mother then took Amber, Josh and Matt to Kingston Maurwood. Sue’s comment ‘wow Amber you look like you are 21’ says it all.
These photos were taken in Wareham before they set off.
On Saturday we went over to Bournemouth for a concert, but first we called into John and Anita’s flat for one last time. They were all packed up for the move to Essex. It has been great visiting the Bournemouth flat, which overlooks the pedestrianised Old Christchurch Road, the scene of many a stag or hen party. Over the last year we have attended lots of interesting events, beach parties, concerts, firework displays etc, of course we can still go to them, Bournemouth is only a 20 minute drive away, but somehow I doubt if we will be quite so motivated.
We were on our way to the BIC to see the 40th anniversary of Rick Wakeman’s ‘Journey To The Centre Of The Earth’, a musical version of the famous Jules Verne novel. I have enjoyed keyboard virtuoso’s music since his days with progressive rock band Yes. I have to say that on the records I prefer ‘The Six Wives Of Henry VIII’ to ‘The Journey To The Centre Of The Earth’ but tonight’s concert was excellent. Any fears that I might have had after the Martha and the Vandellas concerts that these ‘blasts from the past’ are not worth going to were completely unfounded. The rock band were supplemented by a full orchestra and choir and the concert was very well received by audience.
During the short first ‘half’ Rick Wakeman played just four numbers illustrating various stepping stones on the way to the performance of ‘Journey’, in addition he told hilarious stories about the original productions world tour in the 70’s.
In the second ‘half’ which was three times longer than the first and comprised of the full concert and a lengthy encore. Rick Wakeman appeared with his trademark golden cape and played his usual bank of keyboards.
In the first photo below he is joined by vocalist Hayley Sanderson during the first section, the rest are from the full concert culminating in a standing ovation.
gryllosblog 
Leave a Reply