This was one I'd been looking forward to for ages as it was Andean related. I'd booked three single train tickets on a round trip of Bath to London, London to Birmingham and Birmingham to Bristol. Rather than leave the car parked in Bath all weekend I took the bus from Timsbury to Bath. On arrival there I had time to kill before my train, was en route to my favourite Latin American craft shop (Tumi) when suddenly I heard panpipes. I knew the regular Andean musicians were in Ireland so hurried to see who it was! I was delighted to see the band were Kausary who I'd not met before but whose first CD I have, and I had a nice chat with Johnny Rodrigues the band leader and we exchanged phone numbers so that he could let me know whenever they were coming to Bath. I bought a cassette to listen to during the journey and went to catch my train. However, I was disappointed when my cassette player started playing up before the end of the first song and resolved to buy another personal CD player whilst in London (the one that had caught my eye at MacDonaldsons in Oxford Street the previous Sunday when Colin and I had gone to the Fiesta in the Park arranged by Cuba Solidarity).
I reached Camden Centre in good time for Contigo Peru - a big Fiesta to mark the 179th anniversary of Peru's independence - and being one of the first in I had a choice of places to sit and noticed two English women on a table near the stage and sat at their table. Once they realised I was there alone they introduced themselves and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole evening with them. They were Carolle and her son's fiance Margo, and her son Angus joined us a bit later and was equally nice. We had a fantastic Peruvian meal and Peruvian beers throughout the evening. There was wonderful cabaret - troupes of dancers in traditional costume - I especially enjoyed the little boys in their knitted hats and embroidered suits and the chap doing his famous Scissors dance. The music for dancing was provided by two bands who each did two sets - Apu, one of the best Andean bands in Europe - and Septeto Familia - a huge 11-piece salsa band. Margo and I danced through both sets of Apu as well as most of the last set by Septeto Familia.
Throughout the evening I enjoyed meeting up with and chatting to various Peruvian friends - Dante who is the first Peruvian I ever met - Carlos Saldana with his wife Suzanne and adorable baby Tupay, the other members of Amaru III, and Edwin's nephew who danced one dance with me. At the end of the evening at 1 o clock whilst saying goodbye to Dante, Angus came over and said they would give me a lift to Whitechapel where I was staying the night with Labu (my ex husband) and his wife. I thought this was very kind of them as I had been a bit worried about getting a cab on my own late at night! It didn't take long to get to Whitechapel. Angus and his Mum took me there, Margo staying behind with the band Apu who were staying overnight at their flat. I made up my mind there and then that if they could accommodate travelling Peruvian musicians I could do the same and resolved I would do so in future! A decision which led to a lot of fun later.
On arrival at Labu's flat it was nice to see them again as it was a year since I'd last visited them and we had lots of news to catch up on. Next morning Rekah took me around the famous nearby flea market which was fun. I left them around lunchtime as I wanted to visit Oxford Street before taking the 4.30 train to Birmingham. I bought the personal CD player and also a couple of new Andean CDs to go in it.
On arrival at Birmingham, Lil met me at the station and we found a nice cafe for coffee and cakes before making our way to Adrian Boult Hall for the Colombian ballet that evening. In the foyer they were selling Andean crafts and I bought yet more earrings to add to my fast growing collection of Peruvian earrings. Also I was delighted to bump into Carlos Munoz (of the Andean band Caliche) who was with his wife and daughter in the foyer before we went into the theatre for the show.
Lil and I thoroughly enjoyed the wonderful ballet, which was the first visit by the National Folkloric Ballet of Colombia, and one of only two performances during that first visit to the UK. It was worth going just for the music alone - performed by eight musicians, but the 20 dancers who performed stories in dance, and their frequent changes of beautiful costumes were absolutely brilliant. We enjoyed ourselves immensely. Afterwards we had one last drink in the bar and I went back with Lil and stayed overnight at her house at West Bromwich. Next day after breakfast we took a bus back to Birmingham and did a tour of shops before I caught the noon train to Bristol. My son Justin met me at the station there and took me home, where I then had to get busy because I had friends coming over for a meal that evening.
A couple of days later my sister came over for lunch and whilst we were relaxing in the garden afterwards I said how much I regretted not being able to go to Sidmouth International Music festival and she said "Why don't we go?" I was delighted and amazed because she normally needs at least a week to contemplate whizzing off like that. With no more ado I was on the phone enquiring about train times etc, and the following morning we caught the 7.30 am train from Bath and two trains and a bus later arrived at Sidmouth at 10.45 - a day early!
We walked around the town, the shops, etc and were pleased to find out that some bands would be doing a taster session of half an hour each that evening in the Market Square and that Dante's band, Amaru III, who we'd come all that way to see, were one of them. Sure enough we made our way early to the Market Square to get a good view of the performances. I hadn't had time to let Dante know we'd be there, and he saw me in the square before I saw him and was amazed to see us there. We enjoyed the various performances - especially Amaru III's set - and afterwards with the four members of Amaru III (Dante, Marcos, Carlos and Kieffer), went to the nearby pub and sat at tables outside and had a wonderful time with them. Dante lives in London so I don't get to see him very often, which is a shame because he is such fun. We keep in touch with letters or phone calls. After a while the members of the band were improvising with their instruments, and a young girl singer joined in and everyone within earshot enjoyed a lovely impromptu performance, especially Kathryn and me. It was really wonderful. We'd planned to stay two nights at Sidmouth and the next day we saw the members of Amaru III at the same pub we'd been to the night before and had a drink with them. The band then had to disappear to the arena for sound checking, as they were the finale act of the Family Premier Show that afternoon.
Kathryn and I made our way there in good time and joined the queue early as I wanted good seats and a good view of their performance. It was worth the wait as we had front row seats. The show began with various song, exotic drum and dance acts which were okay but we were dying to see Amaru III's performance and when it started we enjoyed their show tremendously. After it finished Marco said to come backstage as they could give us a lift back to town once they'd loaded up their equipment. We had a good laugh and joke with them and in the process saw the proofs of photos taken by a photographer and I promptly ordered one of Dante on his panpipes and one of the whole band. Then the video was being shown on screen and Amaru III looked so good on screen that I ordered a copy of that as well!
The band gave us a lift to town and when we piled out at the pub Kathryn and I were thrilled to realise that Amaru III were doing another performance there. A makeshift stage had been erected with scaffolding bars, and the rear carpark was ringed with tables and benches. These soon filled with families and we had a wonderful time. The band played all evening with just one short break, people were up dancing and the whole atmosphere was really magic. All in all it had been well worth the effort of going to Sidmouth to see so much of such a brilliant band.
