Transatlantic Sessions, Southbank Centre

The undoubted highlight of the day was tonight’s concert by those fabulous musicians who come together from both sides of the Atlantic each year to perform at Celtic Connections and around the country on a 10 day tour.

LED and directed by Jerry Douglas (Union Station) and Amy Bain these musicians provided another energetic, moving and uplifting performance. We’ve been seeing them for many years and have 3 of their DVDs, 3, 4 and 5 which we regularly play on winter Saturday evenings.

Only trouble is their last DVD was in 2011 (I think) so they are all a bit older and grizzled than on the screen - the ladies excepted. The ensemble is led by the house band with Douglas and Bain accompanied by Mike McGoldrick, John McCusker, John Doyle, Donald Shaw and Janes McIntosh to name just 7. The ensemble is joined by guests who tonight included the wonderful Julie Fowlis and Louden Wainwright III.

We made the best of an atrocious day by walking from Victoria station to a Pho restaurant in Southwark then back to the Southbank passing Westminster and St Paul’s cathedrals. Now on the last (slow) train home getting to Bearsted at 00.37. At least it wasn’t cancelled.

The day began well, if rather nerve wracking as I watched the England v France Men’s 6 Nations where England snatched a victory from the jaws of defeat in the 80th minute. France should have won, they had all the possession but made too many handling errors. England were always chasing the game, taking advantage of the few opportunities they had to score m. A much needed win