I Know It’s Only Rock n’ Roll

 We’ve been watching some of the BBC Proms concerts, and last night we watched The London Sinfonia play some music by American composers. While I found the second half of the concert a bit ‘difficult’, Adagio for Strings (Barber) was utterly beautiful. You will probably have heard it. It’s been in all sorts of films and TV programmes from Platoon and The Elephant Man to The Simpsons and South Park. It was described by one of the presenters on BBC2 as a cry of grief. Have a listen. You will see what they meant.

This was followed by George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue which was wonderful and then the pianist did an encore of a Duke Ellington tune which, sadly, I can’t remember the name of. Listening to these two was a bit like listening to the birth of rock, pop and soul and everything else that we’ve listened to since the 50’s to the present day. A fabulous night’s viewing. 

All this followed on from a very pleasant afternoon at a birthday party. Apart from the hosts, we only knew about 4 people. I fell into conversation with a guy and we ended talking about rock gigs we had been to. He had just been to see the Killers in Manchester and, of course, we have recently been to see Bruce Springsteen. He was younger than me but still ‘mature’ and it got me thinking. I’ve had conversations like this loads of times and I wonder if there is some weird magnetic attraction going on between gentlemen of a certain age who still go to rock gigs.

However, if you have a blank evening do have a look on iPlayer for the proms. The first night was excellent and its mesmerising to see an orchestra in full flow.