Holy Trinity and Ball Colgrave

 

Both went off well this week. No pictures from Holy Trinity (Headington) but keep your eyed peeled during the winter. BBC4 T.V. were there filming the Morris dancers but took a considerable amount of footage of Rosie, and got us a sign the relevant "release" forms. No guarantees the programs will actually go out but who knows, we may be famous yet.

 

Ball Colgerave mid week was as beautiful as ever. Over 1500 attended the open evening with  proceeds to  Katharine House, and to the David Colegrave Foundation.

 

 

On the way back to the car park
Seemed too good a shot to miss.

Rosie on site at Ball Colgrave



Hi, it's been a while since I updated this but a quick look through this morning suggests it still contains the essential information. I'm hoping to tidy it up a bring it more up to date in the days to come but for now suffice to say "Rosie", Anne and I (Alan) are still around.

Warming up

We're gradually getting back into the swing of things. No more trouble from the "pig farmers" but I've no doubt they'll find a reason for more. In the meantime we had a good day on Saturday at the Banbury Street Organ Festival. No pictures at the moment as I'm not taking any, our "friends are adept at interpreting anything they like to mean anything they want it to mean no matter how innocent it is, after all this picture  is pornographic in their eyes. It came as a surprise to all of us, especially those in the picture.

For now our next outings are in December at Woodstock and Bourton on the Water, but if the weather stays good we may just hit the local streets occasionally, probably Headington as although Oxford have often asked us to bring Rosie into the city they won't do anything to help and we can't just tuck her under an arm and catch the bus.

Back in Business

After an enforced break we seem to be back in business.



Rosie's problems had us worried for a while, and none of our efforts to make her better had any effect. Finally I went for major surgery and last summer saw a kit of parts for a small Fussell organ arranged in any available space round the house. I took a lot of pictures at the time but just at the moment can't find them. I hope they'll turn up but I have just a suspicion that they are on the backup disks my "friends" at TVP*  have taken.

That actually didn't achieve anything as once back together we still had the same problems - no air pressure, or at least very little and certainly not enough to play properly.  Finally common sense took over. If the problem's not in any of the parts I've checked out it has to be somewhere else. But where? There was only one place I hadn't taken apart but that was because it would have been a hammer and chisel job to do so. Then inspiration. The tracker bar has square holes (unusually) but the pipes coming out of the bottom are round. The old problem of a square peg and a round hole or vice versa. OK, but how to fix it? Well, to keep this short, a drop of water from an eyedropper. It trickled down the hole and filled the corners, and Rosie worked for a few minutes till the water got blown through. I've now found that three drops at every roll change keeps us going and am investigating the possibility that a drop of liquid soap will gradually form a permanent seal as the water dries out leaving the soap as a sealer.
 


After a quiet summer....

Bicester Avenue

After a quiet summer with very few outings except one or two regulars Christmas looks like being a busy time with several booking around Oxford, Bicester, Bourton on the Water and Abingdon. On the left a picture of Rosie at Bicester Avenue, taking part in the celebrations to welcome Father Christmas who arrived on a sledge drawn by huskies. The reindeer were taking it easy just off the right of here. Really. it seems to be the Fashion this year as there were reindeer in Abingdon last weekend when we "helped " turn the lights on, attending as guests of our friends at the Abindon speakers Club
      http://www.abingdonspeakers.co.uk/ 

Sorry, no details of dates as were still getting unwanted attention from people who claim to be our friends and only trying to help. Maybe more about this some other time.
Enough for now. Keep a lookout for us and come and say hello if you have time.
 
.

Still nothing much doing....

but after a very quiet spring we're beginning to get calls from our regulars so it should be back to business as usual soon.

Not much doing

This is just a short post to keep the blog active. After a couple of events over Christmas the season passed largely without going out. Due to problem beyond my control I'm looking into how to use he blog in the future for now it's enough to say to those causing the problems that thanks to you the charity takings over Christmas were down by about £1000 compared to the preceding two or three years.
Happy new year to all my real friends and to my self appointed  "friends" at TVP I hope you're satisfied.

A short story left over from the last post

I was going to add this story at the end of the last post but got cut short by the library computers time allowance.

When we were praising Quba for his ability to fetch Alison told us a story about another dog. This dog's owner was taken ill in the bath and sent his dog to get help. As taught the dog went to the neighbour's house and attracted their attention and they called an ambulance. The dog, realising that something was still wrong from all the commotion going on around him, and unnoticed by the adults who were now in charge  proceeded to work his way through a list of other commonly used commands and by the time the ambulance arrived had rounded up the mobile phone, the TV remote and a four pack of lager and laid them out neatly by the bath.

Quiet summer

It's been a quiet summer thanks to our "friends" at TVP but nevertheless we've been out a few times to organised events, but no roughing it on the streets. 

Morris dancing at Holy Trinity, Headington.





Firstly was Holy Trinity fete. After missing for a couple of years due to calendar clashes we were back this year and pleased to be there. The day started dull and damp but a window in the clouds from just after one till about five gave us a dry afternoon.  All the usual stalls for a church fete with the Morris dancers giving a good performance.





At the end of the afternoon we got an invitation to a street party the following weekend just a few yards up the road. Another fine afternoon in spite of the forecast.

Finally another good day at Banbury, down on Castle Quay along with the roundabout and bouncy castle. We were collecting for the mayor's charity "Dogs for the disabled"

http://www.dogsforthedisabled.org/



Quba

 Takings were noticeably up all the time we had one of their helpers.

In the morning it was Quba who made himself extremely useful fetching back any leaflets that blew away in the wind, something many of the dogs do for their owners. 

... Got to go, out of time at the library. another picture and a story to add some other time.  



Jubilee Weekend

Botley (West Oxford

First time out since Christmas and altogether a busy weekend. After a final tweak to the tuning on Thursday she sounded absolutely awful in the morning while I was loading the car, that’s what comes of tuning in the lounge on a sunny afternoon then leaving her in the entrance overnight. Never mind, worst case scenario see what happens when we get there and deal with the worst of it on the spot.

Friday afternoon we were at the West Oxford Community Centre for the Farmer’s and Community Market. This is a new venture on this site, the weather held up and Rosie behaved. A quick test and she sounded perfect , no need for any attention. Set up and take a tea break. 

Congratulations to the organisers, this venture deserves to succeed. Maybe not too many stalls but that will increase as word gets round and those that were there were first class, quality produce and goods. Other similar ventures could learn from here though to be fair the other market I know well, at Oxford Castle, is pretty good too. Others rate a diplomatic silence though I haven’t actually been to that many.

 

Sunday was intended to be a day out busking on the street, probably in Headington, but morning rain made me think twice about it and in the end a good book and hot bath in the afternoon won out.

 

Blockley

  
On Monday we were at Blockley, a beautiful village near Morton in the Marsh. Although we had covering to work under the rain kept off and it wasn’t really needed. As an ex music teacher I liked the kids singing – WELL DONE. The dog show must have been good but I didn’t get to look in. Lots of happy looking dogs and owners about though. 

Plenty of stalls,  good food and drink and a parade to kick it all off. No pictures of the parade as I was too busy watching and forgot to take any.  I did manage this shot of the “Queen” and a friend later on, also one of the “Queen” turning the handle. Rosie – by Royal Appointment.

 Sunningwell

Tuesday was Sunningwell Festival,

http://www.sunningwell.com/index.php/Festival/

which is actually much longer than just the Jubilee weekend. The weather wasn’t kind but the gazebo provided kept the show on the road. See their own web site for more about the festival as a whole. Tuesday  was devoted to watching the Service on a large screen followed by lunch, unfortunately indoors because of the reign. Another dog show in the afternoon which again I missed as we were earning our keep outside the village hall but lots of happy wagging later on says this one too went well. The dogs didn't seem to mind the rain. Sorry, no pictures as I left the camera behind but another good day. The evening concert, Spiers and Boden on the pond was first class. Not my usual style but makes me wonder what I’ve been missing. Look them up if they’re near you.

http://www.spiersandboden.com/index1.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiers_and_Boden

Warming up for the season

The best laid plans and so on...

Rosie has had her "annual" - all minor repair made, paintwork and polish touched up and tuning done. All ready for the new season and we'd planned to get out a bit at the weekends while the weather was good. Well, it's all our fault, every day we considered going out since then it has rained. Now it's always been our boast that we've never been rained off so we need to word this boast carefully in future. We've never been rained off on the day for any booked appearance, not going out in the first place for a bit of impromptu busking is another matter.

A few changes to the diary.
Livestock festival has been called off for this year. a pity because it sounded right up our street.
Bloxham isn't Bloxham at all it's Blockley, Glos. Blame it on my memory, trying to write this in the library without the diary to consult. the date was right though, June 4th.

Summingwell is still on on the 5th, and we've a possible locally for the 3rd, but nothing confirmed yet..

We're hoping to be at a couple of BOGA events http://www.melright.com/boga/ and at Banbury in September. Other than that local event are still in the planning stage but if invited we'll be there. apart from that look out for us on a street corner in the Oxford area.

No real organ news. Rosie has been taking a rest. Apart from a few "tarting up" jobs early in the new year nothing much has been done. I've a few litte jobs on the list but plenty of time yet before our first booking of the year.

Look out for us over the bank holiday weekend in June. Monday 4th at a street party in Bloxham and Tuesday 5th at the festival in Sunningwell (near Abingdon). 

Later in the year we'll be at the "Livestock Festival on Sunday 5th August.  http://www.livestockfestival.co.uk/.
Check their website, it's not about sheep and cattle though I believe there will  be llamas.

"Putting the boot into boutique festival, Livestock is a musical grand tour.

"A lazy weekend’s hoedown in a field. Fine food, local ales and great company.

"Exceptional performers from around the world.

"A heap of fun for kids, with all kinds of activities, animals and old tractors.

"Get off the beaten track and join us. Tickets available here soon."

I've updated the page for Beauty4Brokenness. Our friend Jenny has just reurned to South Africa for a while and sent the news letter appended here.

Rosie goes international

After various schemes to do things differently we ended up back at our regular spot in New Road by the entrance of Oxford Castle for 11 days of the Christmas Fair. It seems our music can be heard for some distance up the street and was attracting potential visitors from as far as Bonn Square and Westgate. I checked this out and you can hear us that far away as long as there are no buses around. All in all an uneventful few days though charity takings were well down on last year.

One event of note. We’re used to tourists taking pictures and video clips but one afternoon I became aware of a young man holding a phone out. It has happened before and we’ve been heard by various friends and relations over the phone but this one seemed to be taking longer than usual. At the end of the roll we got the request, “Could you play that again? ” We did ending with “We wish you a merry Christmas”. At the end we got a generous donation (compared to most this year) and the explanation. He was playing it over the phone to a friend in a café in Bulgaria, who happened to be a local radio producer. First time round the friend had simply put it on speaker so everyone in the café could hear it. Second time round he’d recorded it so he could play it back on his programme later that day. I don't know how good the quality would be at the other end but I guess that makes us international radio performers. Would this be a first?



Happy new year to you all.

Christmas

Just to say that we'll be with Oxford Castle, weekdays only for the next two weeks. Not sure yet whether it will be our normal pitch by the entrance in New Road on on their stand in Bonn Square, but they're only about 100 yards apart and if you get to one and we are at the other you should be able to hear us - traffic noise permitting.

Beauty 4 Brokenness

We've added a new page called  Beauty for Brokenness

This is the main charity we support and although they are supposed to have a web page of their own I've never managed to get it open so until they get that sorted I'm going to post their newsletters here. At the moment it's text only as I can't find a way of getting their pictures to display but I'll keep working on it, it can't be that difficult.

Minor problem but business almost as usual

Nothing to say for a while as things have been quiet on the organ front. We're gearing up for Christmas, checking lights and decorations and so on. Thanks to all those friends who are helping to keep us on the road for a while, often at expense to themselves. They say that's what friends are for but they have gone over and above any calls of duty this time.

Our weekend at the food festival has paid for a couple of new rolls - no titles here as these things can be misrepresented by those with twisted minds - but they're two rolls I've wanted for some time.  I'm still hoping to produce my own rolls at some time and now that Mel Wright will punch them from my files I guess I've no real excuse not to try something out over the winter. The arrangements all sound OK on the computer but the proof of the pudding as they say... 

My kitchen is currently a disaster area as I'm trying to build a bike trailer in the middle of it. Not a trailer for a bike, a trailer for the bike to pull with Rosie on it. Parking in Oxford has become so impossible now, either banned altogether, severely restricted by residents parking zones or just prohibitively expensive that I'm looking into other ways of moving Rosie around the town for local events. It could make the town centre a possibility and keep Headington on the map. Once outside the ring road the problem disappears.

Oxford Castle Food and Wine Fayre

A busy weekend with lots of people about and I suspect a big successs for the castle. Apart from a couple of showers which enforced short coffee breaks the weather was kind and the charity tins benefitted accordingly.
Thanks to my "monkey". Really he was with his own stall from "Swainswick Farm" but spent as much time with us as he did on his own. Took to organ grinding like a natural and I felt confident to leave him in charge while I took coffee beaks and so on. I didn't even get his name but if he's reading this he can have a job with Rosie any time. 

We got several enquiries for future events and I've updated the "engagements" page so no more here.

Look out for us on the streets in and around Oxford and in Woodstock on the 26th of November outside the museum.

Seriously cool

Seriously cool and "Lush"

I had wondered about accepting an invitation to a local rock festival albeit one billed as small and family friendly but it was actually an enjoyable day. The site was restricted to 500 people and by my judgement wasn't quite full but the atmosphere was good. We were right next to the children's tent where plenty of painting, faces and pictures, was going on and a bouncy castle next to that. To our right the main stage, a couple of smaller stages opposite, a bar, catering and book stall around the edge of a site no more than about 100 yards square.

How were we going to compete amongst this I wondered. Easily answered, we didn't. The principle is that each stage makes enough noise that the sound from all the others is drowned out when you are next to it and although we couldn't compete on volume we worked the same way - except that with main stage going you couldn't hear yourself speak by the organ. In practice we played when someone asked, which was quite often, and between acts you could just about hear us if you got close enough. Mary Poppins was the favoured roll.

It was an interesting experience trying to explain the workings in sign language, and a lot of people were interested. The sort of questions asked suggested serious interest not just politeness and were beyond me when it came to modern midi operated organs. Mostly they knew more than I did about how that worked but they favoured paper rolls and card books as more traditional, aesthetically more satisfactory and pleasing to use, and "just more organic". There were quieter spots between the main acts when Rosie was just audible to those stood round to listen and we got a lot of compliments. We were announced from main stage as part of the event as "something well worth a look and listen" and "seriously cool". Several of them thanked us for coming and said they had been considering trying to build one but didn't know where to start. Lots of info re BOGA and John Smith were taken plus info on where and how to punch rolls or to get them made. One idea is to have a small organ on the back of a tricycle playing ragtime that can be pedalled round the sites. I've seen this done by Will Kelders sons so I know it can be done. Another was looking for something bigger, more café organ style though I'm not sure about heavy rock played on it. He wrote his own songs and knew enough about midi files, midiboek and so on though that I reckon he might just manage it. How about a DeCap type organ playing heavy rock at Banbury in a year or so?

All in all an interesting day. Far more interest than you get from a day on the streets, and serious interest, but would we do it again? Well I'd already accepted when were invited for the same day to a village fete that had been rearranged at short notice after a wash out earlier in the year. One of our regulars. I think next year we'll be back at the fete.

Suddenly lots to do

After a quiet spell when all our bookings seemed to coincide with the wet days and got cancelled we've four coming up in the next two weeks. Saturday in Banbury and Sunday at the Arcane Festival, Eynsham. Two weeks later it's Oxford castle again for a weekend at the food festival. Lots to do and so little time.

Last Sunday saw us in Witney. A pleasant afternoon till the trolley wheel went down a pot hole in the pavement and trolley, organ and me ended up in a heap. Lots of help but no witnesses! Anyway they got us back on our feet and a quick inspection suggetsed no serious problems. Back at home it was a different matter. Rosie's casing was protected by the covers (an old sleeping bag well wrapped round her, and the trolley took the battering from the fall. What has suffered is the tuning. Every single pipe way out and it sounded like a cat/bagpipe fight. Four hours so far and we sound like an organ again but it will still need another go to get a sound anywhere near what it should be - and I haven't even started on the celeste yet. I feel a compensation claim coming on and the county council are proving very hard to pin down, but the work has to be done now. It can't wait for them to send an inspector, and even if they do will he be able to tell if the organ is in tune or not. Most people can't.

All quiet on the Oxford front.

Nothing much to say really but thought it a good idea  at least to say we're still around. After all that good weather we managed to get our only two bookings for the early summer cancelled by the following deluge. One might be rearranged and both are rebooked for next year but it leaves this year a bit quiet so far. I guess it's back to the streets but with all the resident and other parking restrictions introduced recently it's difficult to find anywhere to go that doesn't cost an arm and a leg for parking.

I did enquire about putting Rosie on the bus but the polite version of the reply was that just because it will fit doesn't mean we'll let you. I'm currently considering whether a trailer for the bike is practical but suspect there would be too much bumping about.

Anyway, enough of now. See you about.