The MIll Hill Music Festival Diary - Day 3 - Uncovered Opera

 So having had a brilliant week of free events at The Adam and Eve at the weekend, last night we started our ticketed events. We hosted Uncovered Opera performing a selection of classic Arias. It may, or may not, surprise you to learn that Opera isn't my thing. Having said that, as a musician, I appreciate people on top of their game and it's fair to say that last nights company were brilliant. I started idly wondering what an operatic version of We All Love a Party by The False Dots would sound like? I've never thought of such a thing previously, but I suspect it would work rather well! That is what great musicians do to you! Maybe the next False Dots album will be full of Arias, although I can't see myself hitting those notes. The Hall was packed. I think we were five tickets off a completely sold out show, which was brilliant. There was a standing ovation at the end and the crowd were highly complimentary of our efforts (not that I did too much for this show).

So what did I do? Well I work on a Tuesday, so the usual routine, breakfast, take the dogs for a walk, go to work. We had a major IT issue at the studio. Our booking system stopped working on Monday morning and I spent two days working with our suppliers to get it back on its feet. It is 95% of the way there, but that was a really unwanted distraction in the festival week. At 2.45pm, I clocked off and returned home. We loaded all of the drinks up, collected wine and glasses at Mill Hill Wines and then unloaded at Hartley Hall. I did a few technical checks on microphones etc, collected a swinging sign from the studio, dropped it off and went to the gym for an hour. As I was about to come home, I got a call. Could I reprint the ticket list in alpgabetic order by surname. Clare had neglected to do this, so it would be difficult finding the payment details. I also had to pick up some bottled water. 

All of this was done and I arrived, with the reprinted list at 7pm, as the doors opened. I acted as doorman, directing punters to seats and urging them to spend their readies at the bar (sales were good, so the strategy worked!). At half time, I had a chat with some of the many friends who'd come. At 9.30 the show finished. We cleared the chairs, tidied the hall and went home. Onwards and upwards (literally, it's at St Pauls, up the hill on the Ridgeway) for Cellophonics.