Sting stuff

Well, Peter, Julian and I just spent a rather surreal fortnight in Durham cathedral rehearsing then peforming with Sting. It was material from his forthcoming album 'if on a Winters night' and we had an amazing time.
The music was incredibly quiet and intense, with lots of space - incredible for a band of 40 players! Sting said it was the quietest music he'd ever done, with the biggest band! The players were inspirational though - all very generous musicians who were happy to underplay and to sit back and leave the spaces for the music to shine through (rather than just showing off and trying to play as many notes as possible - there was none of that)
I could go on and on about the fantastic friends we made, but I'd be here for hours and hours, so best not (I have a Folkestra rehearsal to do this afternoon and need to leave soon)
Suffice it to say that we had a fab time, we enjoyed the music, I'm more a fan of Sting than I was before we started (and I was already a fan then!) and the sessions in the hotel bar afterwards were amongst the best/most enjoyable/most surprising/most diverse/most friendly I have ever been involved in.
And I was very delighted to see that Mary Macmaster managed to get a Gaelic song into the concerts and on the album (it's one of my favourite tracks, along with The Snows they melt the Soonest) Well done her!
k