Southampton Classical Guitar Society ~ Blog

20th July 2008 6:45pm - so what's the latest worry for a guitar society chairman? It was how to maximise attendance at our concert in September (coincidentally I'm designing the posters now). However, over the past week I've been obliged to spend time looking at the cost of Public Liability Insurance. Why is it necessary? You may ask! It is not a 'legal' requirement and yet insurance companies are, it seems, refusing to insure venues unless they insist all hirers have their own. It's like VAT - everyone can claim it back except the last guy in the chain. Maybe we should insist on all audience members having their own PLI?

The American litigation craving has finally hit our shores and is biting the ankles of dangerous social activities like playing classical guitar. There was a time when I could trip over a guitar case and say "Oops, silly me. I should look where I am going!". Now I have to call a solicitor and start proceedings against the owner of said case. As a result, insurance companies are doing their level best to pass the buck AND generate additional premiums so whichever one of them eventually has to cough up will have enough dosh.

I can't even think of a genuine risk that might occur at our venue for which we could be held responsible. Someone said, "what if a string snapped and hit an audience member in the eye?". (My grandfather was always telling me "You'll have someone's eye out with that!" for everything I held anything remotely pointed but even he didn't spot the obvious risk of such injury with a classical guitar). They'd have to be sitting within 65cm anyway. If we are ever so full that we had to put extra seats that close then maybe we'll issue the nearest people with goggles? But hang on - what if the strap on the goggles snaps, hits the guitarist in the eye, he then becomes enraged and attacks the front two rows with his guitar? Perhaps we had better not have any concerts, just to be safe? In fact, all future society meetings should be 'virtual' with members playing to each other over the internet. Ensemble should be fun!

And what does this insurance cost? I've had one quote of £300 per annum. That's an extra 10 members just to cover the cost of insurance. Very few other classical guitar societies I spoke to have it. Unsurprisingly, insurers are inexperienced with what we do and what risks we face. The best quote so far is £100 from a specialist group and even then they have us on a par for risk with a group of folk singers and dancers. I don't wish to speak ill of our folk colleagues - I have good friends who sing and dance - but let's face it, they do like a cider or two when singing and dancing, which tends to lead to broken glass and people falling over. We just HAVE to be lower risk than that. Most of the time our most dangerous activity is one person playing a guitar with plastic strings, while sitting on a sensible chair, not under the influence of any narcotics with a bunch of friends looking on. Even when we get over-excited and several of us play at the same time it can hardly equate to an all night acid house rave. I don't know what one of those is but it doesn't sound 'low-risk' to me.

In my nearly 20 years of playing guitar the worst incident I have witnessed is one old chap losing his footing on the stairs. Even then, his response was, "Sorry - my fault!". The fact that this type of insurance is not mandatory is supposed to give the likes of us the option of 'taking a chance' if the risks are really that low. The actions of insurers, sadly, means that venues simply will not hire their premises to us if we are uninsured and all activity would have to stop. Goodness knows what PLI would cost for the Southampton All Night Acid House Rave and Pyrotechnics Society. I must enquire. The world has gone mad(der)!

To hell with the risks - I'm going to both the big concerts in Winchester next weekend (see events page). Now where did I leave my crash helmet...

19th July 2008 - What a great concert from Michael Hulmes last night and how nice to see a very healthy turnout with quite a lot of SCGS members present. Indeed, this can only be a reflection of the esteem in which Michael is held by his fellow members and friends in the society. I was right about the programme too. It was fantastic. The 2 duets with his former pupils were a treat as were Michael's dedications of several pieces to various people present.

I enjoyed every single piece but if I had a favourite it was the duet with Leo Bowsher of a traditional shaker piece. It brought back fond memories of Ben Verdery and Bill Coulter it rehearsing in my lounge a few years back. All the way home I had the melody from Prelude and Wedding Dance in my head. Such a superb piece which must now be nearly 30 years old but still sounds like a premier every time I hear it. Ahhhh! Well done Michael. Thank-you for an excellent concert.

Next up are the concerts held in Winchester next weekend as part of their highly-rated guitar festival. See you there. Details on the concerts page as usual.

16th July 2008 4pm - stop press: I've just got the programme details for Michael Hulmes' concert on Friday. It looks fantastic to me with many of my favourite composers and pieces included. A superb mix of old and new, plus he is including a couple of duets with two of his pupils, both excellent players in their own right. I've listed all the composers on the concerts page but there just isn't room for all the pieces as well so I've listed the full thing here:

Gaspar Sanz - Villanos, Pavanas & Canarios
Francois Couperin - Les Baricades Mysterieuses
Andrew York - Andecy & Letting Go
Johann Sebastian Bach - Prelude from the 6th Cello Suite, Prelude from the 3rd Lute Suite
Agustin Barrios - La Catedral (Saudade, Andante Religioso, Allegro Solemne)
Trad arr Benjamin Verdery - How Great is the Pleasure (duet with Leo Bowsher)
           Interval
Benjamin Verdery - Mobile (duet with James O'Neil)
Gary Ryan - Railroad
Heitor Villa-Lobos - Prelude No. 3, Prelude No. 4, Etude No. 8
Andrew York - Marley's Ghost & Moon Tan
Benjamin Verdery - Prelude & Wedding Dance

Didn't I say it looks fantastic?

16th July 2008 - after many years I stopped subscribing to a well-known mag aimed at those who appreciate our great instrument, but re-subscribed in April. The first issue came a couple of days later but since then I have had to email every month and ask where it is. It gets resent a couple of days later but none of the originals have ever arrived. Of course, they blame everyone else. Anyone else get this problem? Does anyone else subscribe to such a magazine?

Exciting news: almost certainly we will have a workshop with John Mills on October 4th. Keep watching for details.

I promised to post programme details for this Friday's concert but I'm having difficulty getting hold of them. Bear with me.

Four days since my last post and no sign yet, except for the support from a good friend. Early days I know. All men shall have patience, but I want mine now!

12th July 2008 - yesterday I went to a concert in Warsash by young Cuban student, Ahmed Dickinson Cardenas. It was a good concert. You might not have heard of him. You might think Warsash is a quiet backwater. And yet there were nearly 200 people there who enjoyed it very much. As far as I could tell there was only one other SCGS member there. At our own concert on Wednesday, apart from those who had to be there, I only counted 3 SCGS members there. Do we like classical guitar? Are we taking ourselves for granted? It's a little difficult to be sure. Give me a sign. Please...

10th July 2008 - last night's concert went well in all respects: everyone played superbly, we had a very healthy turnout (even more so when you take into account it was chucking it down outside all evening) and all those present seemed to enjoy it. Watching the first half from the back I heard lots of positive sounds from those in front of me. I particularly noticed a 'sigh of satisfaction' at the end of Vince & Tim's duo rendition of Cavatina. Well done to David Tripp for organising a great evening's entertainment. Best of all - my mother-in-law fell in love with Vince!

8th July 2008 - OK some names for those who have emailed me: my new granddaughter is Jessica, 8lb 13oz; Amanda's baby girl is Olive Leila; and Helen & Mark's new son is Felix Oliver. It's been hard finding time to do any updates to the website since the birth but I'm getting there now. Yes, I know, I should be practicing for tomorrow night's concert. I have done some, honest!

4th July 2008 1:45pm - it's baby time yet again! Yes, I know this is a guitar society but this one is (sort of) relevant to you. My 2nd grandchild, a girl, was born about an hour ago so I might be difficult to get hold of for a few days. No names or weight yet. I can't tell you how impressed I am that both grandchildren were born on their due dates.

1st July 2008 - I was talking to the other Joint Chairman of SCGS yesterday about the Members Concert on July 9th. I've arranged many dozens of professional concerts but never a members one. How do you get enough people to volunteer for these things? If you have too many, how do you tell people they are not playing? Then you have to make sure that the programme content is varied and interesting in a way that a soloist would do naturally for themself. Of course, the audience might be a little less familiar with the classical guitar repertoire than normal, so you needs to cater for them. Not an easy job. Having said that, things are looking good I hear. Click on the above link for more details.

29th June 2008 - I finally got around to putting up a basic page for those members of SCGS who are available for hire as performers. In case you were unaware we have members with international reputations available for professional concerts through to those available for weddings, corporate functions or background music in restaurants. Have a look at the page for details.

22nd June 2008 - yesterday was a good day. I cracked a technical issue that I've struggled with for a couple of weeks (with the help of Mr. Hagosted, for which I am very grateful), but I have added new pages for society members who teach guitar locally. This is a deserved free advert for these people who are, after all, educating our future members. I hope it encourages more local teachers to join us and have their name added to the page. Coming soon will be a similar page for those members who are also available for hire as professional players. We have quite a few of those as well.

The day ended well with a concert in Portsmouth by two highly capable guitar orchestras featuring our local friends, HAGO directed by Derek Hasted and their guests, Cambridge Guitar Orchestra directed by Peter Rueffer. CGO outnumbered HAGO 17 to 13 but musically it was high scoring draw. Very entertaining.

18th June 2008 - I'm starting to think who we would like to invite to play celebrity concerts for us next year. I already have January confirmed (Xuefei Yang) but what about May and September? It's such a dilemma when you can only promote a handful of concerts each year but there are dozens of great guitarists that I'd like to see perform for us, and that doesn't count all those who have played for us in the past that I'd like to see back again. There is no easy solution but your thoughts are always welcome here.

15th June 2008 - we're coming up to a very exciting time in the SCGS calendar. Not only do we have 2 concerts of our own in July, but we have forged a partnership with the Winchester Guitar Festival organisers to promote their five concerts in association with our society. If you combine these with 3 others taking place in the region then it is possible to go and see no fewer than 10 (yes, TEN) classical guitar concerts in July in the Southampton region. There are larges swaths of the world that would give their eye teeth for a CG concert within 250 miles every year let alone 10 within a short drive in the space of just 23 days or so. Give yourself a treat. This also includes a quartet and two guitar orchestras. Aren't you glad if you live in the south of England?

14th June 2008 - Just back after 2 weeks walking the Lower Wye Valley, I've updated the events page just so that something has changed.

29th May 2008 - It's baby time again! Huge congratulations to two SCGS members, professional guitarists Mark Eden and wife Helen Sanderson. Helen gave birth this morning to a baby boy, a brother for twins Toby and Flossie. Mother and son are both well. "About 8 and a half pounds" is the only other information we have so far. No names yet. Shall we run a sweep?

See our events and concerts pages for exciting news of more concerts in July. It's going to be a busy and very enjoyable month.

27th May 2008 - I've found a temporary solution to the menu problem by doing away with the complex one we had and replacing it with a simple one row table with links to the other pages. It also means I can get the SCGS banner on every page. Next step is to figure out how to put the menu in one place so it can be updated once rather than twice on every page. Then I have to figure out how to have nested, drop down menus so I can group related pages together. It is probably blatantly obvious but I haven't worked it out yet. Still an apprentice! I've also done away with the 'Site News' page. It's still there but not linked from anywhere and no longer updated.

20th May 2008 - It's funny being part of a voluntary committee running a society aimed at giving pleasure to others from playing classical guitar. Like all such bodies, some people are in a position to give more of their time and energy than others. Some are more willing than others. That's all fine and normal. But the peculiar part is that those who are less able and/or willing seem inclined to spend what little time/energy they do have criticising those who are getting on with trying to make things better. It just shows the old joke is true: "How many classical guitarists does it take to change a light bulb? Ten: one to change the bulb and the others to say, 'I could have changed it better', 'who are you to change that bulb?', 'we should discuss how to change this bulb before we change it', or 'the old bulb is fine!'" This is, obviously, a personal view.

Hearty congratulations from all in SCGS to our friend and guitarist, Amanda Cook. She and husband Nik are now the proud parents of a baby girl, born Saturday at 6am weighing 7lbs 13oz.

16th May 2008 - Phew! Now I know why I left the links page until last to bring the format in line with the rest. It takes hours as each line requires several copy/paste edits and testing. It's not totally complete yet, but then again, it never will be. I've pretty much completed the 'facelift' of the whole website by which I mean taking the design and layout as it is but giving every page the same look and feel. Next stop is the menu entries, a bigger challenge for which I need a bit of help. Maybe once I have that skill under my belt I can think about the need for a total redesign in the future.