Hot cross bun anyone? (Klub Kakofanney Lockdown Letter)

Hot cross bun anyone?

Great news this week. Trump has lost the election, even though he thinks coming second in a two horse race makes him the winner, a covid-busting vaccine has proved highly effective in trials, and,.... wait a minute, is this Groundhog Day? Didn't we have the same headlines last week,... and the week before that? Seriously though, with three different vaccines all racing towards production and a high-speed roll-out, we can start to see a way out of this.

Missing those Sunday sessions

Just about everyone reading this will have been to a Friday night Klub Kakofanney gig at some time or other. Many of you are regular faces at those gigs, and it is your endless support that makes it all possible, but I wonder how many of you have been to one of our Sunday sessions at the Wheatsheaf, held in the public bar on the ground floor? Free to enter, these sessions are much more informal than the stage gigs, and in the confines of The Wheatsheaf they are the very opposite of social distancing. But they are friendly, enjoyable, chaotic, and such good fun, and of course, some great quality music too. This charming piece comes from the a session in the summer of 2017, and features local acoustic band Song & Supper Rooms, playing a song called "Ormiston Chant"

Damsel flies in the darkness

The Wheatsheaf is hidden down an alleyway, so the lights are not great for filming at the best of times, hence the subdued colours in that video. This next piece is from December of the same year, 2017, a dark winter's day, so dark that I was reduced to filimg this one in black and white. The headline band on this day was The Demoiselles who delighted us with a semi-acoustic performance. This song is called "Change".

Friends indeed on a Sunday afternoon

Last year, at this time of year, we had The White Tips playing an afternoon session. They are a band who came all the way from Aylesbury. They had previously played at an upstairs gig for us and enjoyed it so much that they came back for an afternoon session as well. So last December they wowed us with a great acoustic session that seemed perfectly tuned to the afternoon vibes. This piece from it is called "Friend Indeed".

As well as being warm social events, the Klub Kakofanney afternoon sessions are great ways for new performers to get some experience of playing to an audience, a way for experienced bands to try out new material or to try out simpler acoustic arrangements of their repertoire, and an opportunity for everyone to rub shoulders with other people from the Oxford music scene.

Sadly, we cannot have our pre-Christmas afternoon extravaganza this year, so no mince pies and chocolates, but the corona numbers are going in the right direction, so maybe we'll be able to make up for it at Easter. Hot cross bun anyone?

27th November 2020
The Lockdown Letters
Klub Kakofanney