Another brilliant weekend with our great friends Gary & Cathie. We went down to Leeds castle near Maidstone to see their classical concert featuring the band of the Royal Marines (Portsmouth), the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, with solo singers Alwyn Mellor, Louise Dearman, Oliver Tompsett & Nicky Spence, some 25 pounder field guns, fireworks and a Spitfire no less!
We set off mid morning and got to our hotel, within walking distance of the castle with no problems. Settled into rooms and went to the bar for a well earned drinky poo.( Well I think we'd earned it!)
G&C suggested we load up with our chairs food drink etc for the walk to the castle, so off we went looking like Sherpas attempting Everest! The gates didn't open until 4pm but many people assembled near the gates in order to get a good spot once the gates opened. Couple of drinks later it was time heralded by a maroon going off to go in. Bit of a mad dash as there's more than one entrance, the capacity for the gig was 14000 so you couldn't all squeeze through one gate. Once at a suitable spot Cathie sprang into action and put up a table, table cloth, Union Flag bunting and an absolutely delicious feast for us all. She made it look easy but she had obviously put in an awful lot of work and fed us admirably. I must mention Gary's equally awesome sausage rolls. There, I've mentioned them, no seriously they were delicious too!
The Royal Marines started proceedings with the Corps of Drums doing their drumming par excellence. There were two special pieces written that were rather sombre, one in tribute to the RM bandsmen murdered in an terrorist bomb some years ago and another in tribute the part the HM Jollies had in the D Day landings along with a video and list, a long list, of the fallen. That said the music wasn't downhearted at all, they were fine pieces of music.
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra were superb! Highlights of their offerings were Nicky Spence's solo of Nessun Dorma, sea shanties ( could have been RM ,I forget),the wonderful Pomp and Circumstance No1, Jerusalem, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture complete with church bells, fireworks and 25 pounder quick firing field guns (long since retired by the army so I guess handled by reenactors though I couldn't find out who), a truly magnificent piece of music that was second only to William Walton's Spitfire Prelude and Fugue taken from the film 'The first of the Few' made in 1942. To accompany this was one of the most iconic aircraft in the world. The Supermarine Spitfire. This one a mark IX (serial no TD314) coming off the production line in late 1944, it never saw action but did serve in the RAF, the South African Air Force and then ended up in Canada.
I have no photos of this display as I just wanted to enjoy the majesty and splendour of its graceful arcs and rolls as it flew over us time and again, also of course the growl of its Rolls Royce Merlin engine that could be heard over the orchestra, a truly magnificent aircraft, it really did make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up!
They finished the night with the 1812 and after the fireworks played some more modern stuff from Michael Jackson etc. It had been a brilliant night!
We set off mid morning and got to our hotel, within walking distance of the castle with no problems. Settled into rooms and went to the bar for a well earned drinky poo.( Well I think we'd earned it!)
G&C suggested we load up with our chairs food drink etc for the walk to the castle, so off we went looking like Sherpas attempting Everest! The gates didn't open until 4pm but many people assembled near the gates in order to get a good spot once the gates opened. Couple of drinks later it was time heralded by a maroon going off to go in. Bit of a mad dash as there's more than one entrance, the capacity for the gig was 14000 so you couldn't all squeeze through one gate. Once at a suitable spot Cathie sprang into action and put up a table, table cloth, Union Flag bunting and an absolutely delicious feast for us all. She made it look easy but she had obviously put in an awful lot of work and fed us admirably. I must mention Gary's equally awesome sausage rolls. There, I've mentioned them, no seriously they were delicious too!
The Royal Marines started proceedings with the Corps of Drums doing their drumming par excellence. There were two special pieces written that were rather sombre, one in tribute to the RM bandsmen murdered in an terrorist bomb some years ago and another in tribute the part the HM Jollies had in the D Day landings along with a video and list, a long list, of the fallen. That said the music wasn't downhearted at all, they were fine pieces of music.
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra were superb! Highlights of their offerings were Nicky Spence's solo of Nessun Dorma, sea shanties ( could have been RM ,I forget),the wonderful Pomp and Circumstance No1, Jerusalem, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture complete with church bells, fireworks and 25 pounder quick firing field guns (long since retired by the army so I guess handled by reenactors though I couldn't find out who), a truly magnificent piece of music that was second only to William Walton's Spitfire Prelude and Fugue taken from the film 'The first of the Few' made in 1942. To accompany this was one of the most iconic aircraft in the world. The Supermarine Spitfire. This one a mark IX (serial no TD314) coming off the production line in late 1944, it never saw action but did serve in the RAF, the South African Air Force and then ended up in Canada.
I have no photos of this display as I just wanted to enjoy the majesty and splendour of its graceful arcs and rolls as it flew over us time and again, also of course the growl of its Rolls Royce Merlin engine that could be heard over the orchestra, a truly magnificent aircraft, it really did make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up!
They finished the night with the 1812 and after the fireworks played some more modern stuff from Michael Jackson etc. It had been a brilliant night!
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