2 gigs, 3 dresses, many ‘celebs’

Saturday 9th July was a busy day for me; I had two gigs in the diary which is always good news!  The first gig was a wedding in Windlesham, Surrey, playing Trumpet Voluntary for the Bridal Procession of a wedding at noon.  I allowed plenty of time to get there but still was tight on time due to the Saturday morning traffic getting through central London.  I needn’t have worried though – the bride was 40 minutes late!  Apparently she arrived at the church late, realised she had forgotten her bouquet, went back to get it, and then was having photos taken outside the church while the congregation, organist, professional choir that she had hired and myself all waited around inside.  The choir had been hired mainly to sing Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus for the Bride & Groom’s recessional music, but as far as I’m aware they had to give it a miss as there wasn’t time!

I didn’t hang around to find out – I had to get to my second gig of the day (which I missed the soundcheck for because of the delay at the church in Windlesham).  Gig Number 2 was a performance with function group The Atlantic Band playing at theDuke of Essex Polo Trophy 2011.  I had an AAA pass for the whole event, and managed to get my sister (Nicola aka ‘Rubes’) a free ticket too – she has a keen interest in both fashion and minor celebs from The Only Way Is Essex (TOWIE) etc so she was the perfect companion.  Dolled up in our new dresses from my sister’s fashion boutique Ruby we enjoyed a pricey glass of Pimms while Nicola, in her element, told me who was who and why they were ‘famous’.  I’m sure I’ve never been surrounded by so many ‘reailty’ tv stars; most (if not all) of the TOWIE cast were there, but surprisingly no sign of the Made In Chelsea crowd.  Both Peter Andre and Alex Reid were there (who I’m reliably informed are both exes of Katie Price) along with many, many others, including a TOWIE cast member who is actually called Joey Essex – his favourite word appears to be ‘reem’, whatever that means?!  (See here for an UD explanation).  All in all it was a fun day in the sunshine, a short game of polo (I never realised how short a polo match is!) and then on to the gig.

Just as I went backstage to get changed into my 3rd dress of the day (another ‘Ruby’), the heavens opened and the whole place turned into a swamp – just what you need when the band is wearing all-white on stage!  I managed to keep my outfit filth-free though and had a fun gig – we were joined by Gareth Gates who got really stuck into a rendition of Mustang Sally, a guy from a new boy band I’d never heard of, and Dane Bowers (who was originally mistaken for ‘one of the ones from Blue’) singing an interesting version of Signed, Sealed, Delivered.  We were also due to have the pleasure of performing with Arg (James Argent from TOWIE) but he disappeared from the marquee before we could get him on stage and wasn’t seen by me again for the rest of the evening.  Perhaps these Tweets of his give us a clue as to what happened:

“Last year i was singing on a lil podium at the side of the tent and tonight im on the main stage wiv a live band, Crazy! Essex Polo lets go!” (@RealJamesArgent)

“@LydiaRoseBright @kirk_official in The Helicopter haha! I’m singing later with big band so nervous!! http://yfrog.com/kfi8hij” (@RealJamesArgent)

Don’t fret Arg, there’s always next year!!