May 2002, and the Jubilee celebrations are fast approaching! The "Last Night of the Jubilee Proms" tour sees the Locrians touring to all parts of Britain, and to venues which we have not previously visited, so we are really looking forward to showing the country how much we can enjoy ourselves.

There are many dates that catch my attention; obviously we are especially pleased to be playing in Windsor on 3rd June, and likewise I am delighted that we are also performing in both Wales and Scotland, so our celebration has a truly "international!" flavour. Christine Teare, our enormously popular soprano for these concerts is currently searching out the appropriate flag to drape around herself when she appears in L'andudno - for many years she was a principal singer with Welsh National Opera, so she will be singing a few songs in Welsh there, as well as in English.

Of course, it will be fascinating to be touring during the progress of football's World Cup. I do hope that both England and Ireland have a good run, as it will boost morale both throughout the country, and also inside our touring bus! Our double bass player, Patrick Lannigan, comes from Ireland, and he will be cheering the team on, in the early hours of the morning, when the pictures are beamed across from the Far East.

At the moment we are exploring new venues for our concerts; we shall be appearing outdoors on a few occasions, trusting that the weather will not be too inclement. For instance, we shall be performing in Wimbledon in Cannizaro on August 10th, and I have already bought the clothes pegs to keep the music on the stands, rather than floating through the air. I am also keen to take the ensemble on cruises.....what a hard life it is being a musician!

I have only been on one cruise before, which took me around the Baltic. It was many moons ago, just after I had left the Royal Academy of Music, when I was playing with the Locrian String Quartet. Along with famous musical personalities of the day such as Anthony Hopkins, Steve Race and the Lindsay String Quartet, we boarded the P+O cruise ship, the S.S.Uganda. Many of you may remember that this ship later became the hospital ship that used in the Falklands War, and I was reminded of that when I saw pictures of "her" in the retrospective films about the war on television, just last month.

In any case, we young musicians were placed at the back of the ship along with 1000 children who were all studying music. The only access we had to the deck was at the stern, where there was a small swimming pool crammed with youngsters screaming and running. The celebrities and paying passengers had the run of the upper decks, and were treated to fabulous food, since the crew were all Indian, and the fabulous smells of cooking curry wafted down to the lower decks, making us feel so envious.

I had to adjudicate a competition between all the children, who had come prepared to do battle. Choirs singing Gilbert and Sullivan vied with violinists playing unaccompanied Bach; girls who danced and sang were pitted against spluttering guitarists. It was impossible to get a fair result, but the winners went on to entertain the first class passengers after their sumptuous evening dinners, leaving me to face the losers over second-class stew.

I certainly remember playing quartet concerts in a force 9 gale, to an audience of four or five pale-faced passengers. Looking at the leader of the quartet, one moment I would see the waves billowing behind him, and on the next glance, I'd be presented with the sky! Also, I'm used to changing position on the cello by moving my hand upwards on the instrument, but when the boat hit a particularly large wave, I'd feel like I was in a spaceship with zero gravity.

If the Locrians get to cruise again, I would l hope that it will be around the Caribbean, or the Mediterranean. Hot weather, rather than hot food! Here's hoping that this June will be "flaming", and that we shall all have a brilliant Jubilee month.

Looking forward to meeting you all (again) on the road over the Summer. Do please keep your wonderful emails arriving. It's great to get feedback. We are hoping to launch a "Friends of the Locrian" (FLOCK) in the near future - watch this space; if I design some wallpaper, we could have Locrian Flock wallpaper.....