Hi all from your slightly worn and wearying reporter. Sorry I don’t have time, with a house full of guests and Southampton to get to, to do any proper blogging today. But here’s a pretty full account of the show (though I don’t guarantee, given my current rate of progress towards brain death, that it’s all here or all accurate. I may well be having hallucinations by now).
The only touristic description of MK I’ve read says that nobody goes there. But The Stables is down a remote little country lane outside the town, and a lot of people make the pilgrimage there as it was opened by a famous British jazz couple – John Dankworth and Cleo Laine, sax player and singer, who lead a big band and had it designed for that kind of music. It’s a 350-seat theatre, with a very steep rake and a low stage (see later) so the band are in an intimate kind of bowl; everyone can see; and usually the sound is superb.
There were clearly some problems last night, though, where we were, the horns sounded absolutely superb, the solos better than ever, and it was a real pity South couldn’t hear himself, ‘cos he sounded magnificent to us. It’s also a pity that, having not seen them last year, MK evidently got unused to the Jukes and didn’t get up out of their seats, for the most part, until the encores – although me, Liz, Karin, Deborah, da Druids, Miss October and Kirsten, at least, were bopping in the aisles from early on.
