Alan Holmes and others mentioned Richard Sleigh and his late evening, early morning solo session. ( I believe there were two occassions, I only caught a large part of one.
How could I forget to mention it?? One very good reason... When I was doing the write up a couple of days ago I was thinking in terms of 'performances', people getting up on stage and struttin' their stuff... kind of thing. Nothing could have been further from this than Richard's music
Late, late late, anything between half a dozen to ten people in a corner of a large room, relaxed, some with glasses, some not, couple of people lying on the floor, some sitting on a table, standing or just sitting on uncomfortable chairs... somewhere in this group was Richard quietly sharing music with us. Some of the pieces he sang and played you could imagine that he din't really care if anyone else was there or not, a couple he directed with a twinkle in the eye and with the knowledge that people enjoyed THIS piece... others he shared with you by looking at you as he played ...and you were in there with him making your own silent music with his ... the time just flowed and it felt like one of those excellent evenings conversations which you cannot remember in detail but look back on in future years with.. "Do you remember when...." and neither of you can recall who exactly was there, or how long it went on or what exactly was sung, but the warm feeling of sharing a unique occassion is there between you.
