Adventures in engineering

Old fat furry catpuss

The art of blogging, apparently, is to record one's day-to-day life on a regular basis. I generally find that events of interest pass by without me blogging about them. So this post is about something I actually did two weeks ago...

Songs from Bagpuss was a show staged at the smaller of the two venues at The Sage, Gateshead, a decagon-shaped room, with at least three tiers of seating. It was the first time I'd been to The Sage, though I'd seen it many times from the other side of the Tyne (being an actual Geordie, I don't normally go south of the river). It's an impressive space, on the inside as well as on the outside. The acoustic of the venue was great, and the audience, primarily though not exclusively parents with small children, very much enjoyed themselves. We were all asked to join in with singing, squeaking along the mice, and shouting out the relevant missing words in some of the songs. Most of us were also wearing paper mouse masks which were supplied at the door.

There were four singers and musicians, two men and two women; two of which had been involved with the music for the original Bagpuss programmes, fondly remembered by many thirty-somethings. These were Sandra Kerr, voice of Madeleine, the rag doll, and John Faulkner, voice of Gabriel, the toad. Kerr and Faulkner had actually written many of the songs themselves, and the other songs were traditional folk songs. It was amusing to see that the two newer performers were the ones who knew the words... Very impressed that the younger woman (apologies, can't remember her name) could play the violin while clog dancing.

Anyway, the songs were sung enthusiastically by the performers and the audience, all in the auditorium squeaking loudly along with, "Heave! Heave! Heave!" in response to Sandra Kerr's "Marvellous mechanical mouse organ!" We had a great time. If the show ever comes your way, I'd recommend you go and see it: even if you don't have kids.

posted by Tamburlaine @ 9:28 pm