EDitorial ± 10-Mar-2006
Live At The Uni
Friday night is music night, as they used to say on Radio 2, and off
to "one of the finest early Nonconformist churches in the country", says my
newly acquired
Wharncliffe Companion to Ipswich.
For all my time in the town, I'd never been inside the Unitarian Meeting House,
one of the dozen-or-so Grade I listed buildings we have.
Event was "Music For A Spring Evening" -- blinking cold out, actually -- put
on by the
Ipswich Building Preservation Trust and attended by both (a) the
Great and (b) the Good. Headline act, indeed the only one on the bill, was
Musicology, a lively local singing group, featuring my ex-trumpet teacher's
younger sister on the keyboard, wouldn't you know.
Best bits, at least for me, were the various Noel Coward numbers: Mad Dogs
and Englishmen ("they foam at the mouth and run"), Don't Put Your Daughter On
The Stage ("she has nice hands"), and esp. I Went To A Marvellous Party. Quite
the wit, that Mr Coward.
And a rousing finish with the top tune from a recent Guinness ad. Nope, not
Leftfield's Phat Planet, but a rather good The Rhythm Of Life. Did you know
that Dickens, apparently, was a Unitarian? Must check that out.