The Trumpets of Michel-Ange

Today was the reason we were in London - for P's birthday I got him tickets to see Ibrahim Maalouf who has been on the 'must see' list for some years now. He doesn't come to the UK often so when I spotted a London date I bought the tickets straight away and thought about it later.

As a birthday treat, there were no plans for the monring so after a recommendation from the big sister we has breakfast at Dishoom in Kensington.  Witnessed an interaction just outside the door with a delivery chap on a scooter pipping his horn at one of the 'posh guys' (these guys that must only exist down sown with beige trousers, pastel shirts, floppy hair and jumpers around their shoulders who seem to teem around the nice bits of London but  are a fiction in Glasgow) and his mum.  The posh guy starting shouting a number of expletives at the delivery guy, who very calmly and firmly stated that he pipped his horn as he didn't know if posh guy and his mum knew he was there and he didn't want them to get hurt.  We both admired the demeanour of the scooter driver, not so much the posh guy.

Breakfast was delicious, I had the bottomless chai and Uttapam stack, whilst P went for the Chole Puri Halwa.  Both delicious and worth a couple of stops on the tube.  We decided that walking off breakfast across the parks to get to our next stop at Euston was a nice idea, and it was really lovely seeing the flowers and birds in the parks. I enjoyed the African Geese and Goldeneyes in the ponds, plus the coots building a nest!

For the afternoon I'd booked in a climbing coaching session for P with one of the coaches from Catalyst at the Euston Wall.  We had a bit of climb, then P had his session whilst I tackeld some of the baby climbs.  He seemed to have a good time and learn quite a bit, plus got some encouragement and chats with Louis - who is an epic climber and runs the Catalyst youtube channel that we both watch.  Good times.

It was back to the hotel for a quick shower then out for some Korean food which was a first for both of us.  It was delicious and much lighter than we both exepected, and quite needed after a few days of solely eating out.  We then found ice cream and took our places in the queue outside Shepherd's Bush Empire so we could nab a good seat for the gig.  This worked as we were second in line, and the 45 minute wait to the doors passed quickly as we chatted to a lovely Italian woman who worked for the UN.  We got seats at the front of the circle when we got in and had a cracking view.

The show was the Trumpets of Michel-Ange, and it was a bit of a concept album show.  Ibrahim explained that the album was about weddings, and that we were all going to married as part of the show.  We were all dancing in our seats for 'the proposal' and other celebration tracks and generally having a good time.  

We got the explanation about the trumpets - with Ibrahim having recently released a student version of the quater tone trumpet that he plays and was pioneered by his dad ("When I was a kid I wanted to play the trumpet, but I wanted to play the normal trumpet with three valves, and my dad said no, my trumpet is better.  In thirty years, everyone wll be playing my trumpet and do you want to be the only idiot that plays the trumpet with three valves?  And I listened to him and now thirty years later, I'm the only idiot playing this trumpet whilst everyone else is playing the normal trumpet with three valves").  The album and show is encouraging people the learn the quater tone version of the instrument, and those who buy it get free lessons, plus the chance to come up and play on stage when the trumpets of Michel-Ange is performed.  There were six musicians that joined the stage tonight for the last few tracks and it was really great to see.  The blip is from the final track with 12 trumpet players on stage!

The audience even got a rendition of 'True Sorry' which wasn't originally on the menu and it was all just stunning.  Very good gig and worth heading to London for.