Youlgrave
16th - 18th October 2015

No 1 Ladies are back!

Another fantastic weekend, this time in Youlgrave in Derbyshire. We assembled on the Friday night after very long journeys for some! But the LAO catering hit the spot yet again and, after suitable quantities of good food and wine, we were ready to sort out all the organisational bits and pieces that form an essential part of each weekend.
Saturday was a full day’s rehearsal in readiness for our first ever public paying concert under our new leadership and with the new repertoire. Much attention was paid to detail and timing and, by late afternoon, we were all exhausted - particularly those who were feeling distinctly under the weather. Bernie was suffering from a really bad cold and Ruth was in a great deal of pain in her hip – possibly self-inflicted though from too much Breton dancing! They both deserve a medal for continuing to the end of the weekend in the face of such adversity! So we all had a well deserved break before dinner, either resting or walking some of the paths in this glorious area. And after another delicious meal we all relaxed for the evening – yes, you’ve guessed it – by playing! Jane introduced a lovely new piece for the repertoire – in fact we managed to wangle 3 new pieces out of her altogether, so we had a wonderful time.

By Sunday nerves were beginning to show a little but there was so much to do that there was no time to dwell on it! We did 2 runs through of the full performance, complete with introductions and walking ons and offs; we set out all the chairs in the hall, got everything ready for the great tea and cake interval, set everything up on the stage and Gill’s video camera at the back of the hall, had a quick lunch and even quicker change of clothing. Mike – who looked after the village hall – did us proud with all the lighting and technical bits. And then we were off! There were just over 40 in the audience and they were lovely, very enthusiastic and very complimentary about the performance. The cakes in the interval went down really well and lots of people came over to talk to us all about the orchestra and our accordions. It was so nice to be gigging again and everyone felt that it had been a real success. And we get to do it all again next month in Bridgwater – Yay!