On the hottest day of June, under a cloudless sky, we played an open-air concert at Maidstone in front of an audience of 3,500 people. After a hectic rehearsal when most of our music was blown from the platform into the bushes behind, the wind mercifully dropped, and as the sun disappeared we were left playing a concert to a wonderful audience, who listened to all our classical items with patience and interest. Owen Gunnell and Oliver Cox, the brilliant young percussionists, played Vivaldi on marimbas, and Jean Kelly, the angelic harpist, charmed the audience with her Handel Concerto. Then the party really started, with thousands kicking their legs in the air to the Can Can, and the usual rousing ending with flags waving in the night sky, to the strains of Land of Hope and Glory and the Dambusters March. We received spectacular coverage in the local press for this concert, and it really was a great night for all those who took part.

What a startling contrast at the outdoor concert at Canizarro Park in Wimbledon, when we almost floated away! Thunder and lightning crashed away at the start of the rehearsal, and soon we sheltering from a downpour that would have more befitted Bombay in the monsoon. As the water poured down the hill from the pond above, our ensemble huddled together on the stage, as the water level rose higher and higher. We were entirely cut off eventually, on an island called the stage, lifting up our instruments and music so that they didn't all float away! Everything was soaked, and there was genuine concern that the electrics might all short out. When the rain stopped, and a fast-flowing river presented us in front of the stage, only the heroics of the crew with brushes and mops managed to allow the concert to start on time.

Different memories from Taunton, where we were playing the Brewhouse Theatre for the first time. I left London early, taking the slower, but scenic, route to the West Country along the A303 passing Stonehenge. The rest of the Locrians, including our soprano Christine Teare and the set and costumes, opted for the more simple route along the M4 and M5 motorways. All was going smoothly when there were two separate and terrible crashes on the M5. The traffic simply stopped, and atrocious queues developed on every small country road that led to and from the motorway. I sat at the theatre, receiving urgent calls from all concerned, as the hours slipped away. Far from getting any rehearsal at the venue, it was now touch and go as to whether we would have sufficient musicians to put on a concert. I took out my solo Bach suites for the cello, and began to practice, my fingernails already bitten to the quick! Musicians always seem to be able to find a route through traffic, as we are well used to getting around jams, and after negotiating their way down small farm tracks, with literally minutes to spare, I finally saw an exhausted quintet staggering through the stage door, ready to start the concert at 7.45pm. We all fortunately had our tailcoats, except for our pianist, Kathy, whom we dressed in anything (male) we had to spare! Christine's friendly face appeared mid-way through the first half, and she walked on the stage with a beaming smile, calm as anything, to sing her Puccini number. All hands were required on deck at the interval, when the set finally arrived, almost seven hours late, and the Last Night of the Taunton Proms was saved!

By the way, for those of you who observed that our pianist Kathy Rockhill was more than a little pregnant on the tour, I am very pleased to announce that she delivered a beautiful baby boy, and she will be joining us again later this month for recordings and concerts.

So as I write, we are experiencing something of an Indian Summer, with a weak but welome sun giving us a few consecutive days of dry weather. I have not managed to take a holiday this year, because I accepted the invitation extended by Lord Lloyd Webber to open the new musical "Bombay Dreams" in the West End. We are currently enjoying capacity houses, and the production has been declared a hit ! I am most grateful to the management who permit me to fulfill all my Locrian engagements, so I am enjoying the best of all worlds: touring my own show, as well as appearing in theatres all over the country. Some of you who have seen our concerts have popped your heads over the rail into the pit and given me a shout to say hello at Bombay Dreams; if I am not there, then you know I shall be "on the road" in wigs and tights somewhere else in the country.

I was delighted that my show about the life of Astor Piazzolla, "Devils and Angels", sold out at the ICA Theatre in London. It was commissioned by the tango band, "Tango Volcano", and featured the stunning actor, David Graham, who is best known for being the voice of "Parker" on "Thunderbirds". I researched the material about the greatest of all modern tango composers at great length, and was delighted to be interviewed at length on BBC Radio 3 from the Proms, when Piazzolla's music was featured. "Devils and Angels" will definitely be appearing again, hopefully in the West End, so if you are a tango fan, then watch this space!

The next stage show I am writing is for our "home theatre", the Maddermarket in Norwich, and is a vehicle for the brilliant countertenor, Nicholas Clapton. He will be performing a script I have written about the last castrato, Alessando Moreschi, "The Angel of Rome". Moreschi sang in the Sistine Choir at the Vatican, working and dying there in 1922. Nicholas Clapton has now also become so immersed in this poignant story that he has been asked to travel to Rome to write the official biography of Moreschi in 2003. For some 200 years the castrati were an extraordinary operatic phenomenon, the 'pop stars' of their day. "When I sing men shiver, women faint", says Moreschi, in the script. Telling his life story, the elderly singer deliberates as to whether or not he should encourage a younger boy treble to follow his path. Was Moreschi actually the "last castrato" after all? Clapton has studied the singing techniques that made the castrati so astonishingly successful, including amazing breath control, ornamentation that sounds like birdsong, and musical fireworks for the voice - all part of the original repertoire for the castrati. On stage, Clapton will be accompanied by the Locrian's musicians, but the show also includes a recording of both Moreschi himself from 1904, and the sound of the Pontiff of the day, Pope Leo XIII. I can't wait for November 3rd to come around, so I can see Nicholas' performance for myself !

In the course of my musical travels I have never been more impressed than when I was introduced to the Cumbrian Woman of the Year, Annie Mawson. She is a wonderfully accomplished Celtic harpist who runs a truly remarkable charity named Sunbeams. Annie started playing her harp with an infectious enthusiasm in places where live music is scarcely ever performed. She serenades patients in hospices, stimulating patients to remember whole verses of songs when they couldn't even remember their own names; she works with children with learning disabilities producing performances which are extraordinarily moving and profoundly fulfilling for these wonderful children. Annie sings and plays the harp with total integrity and brings harmony and good humour wherever and whenever she performs. So it was a great honour for me to be invited to become a musical patron for her charity, The Sunbeams Music Trust. I shall be visiting Cumbria again very soon, playing at many of the venues where Sunbeams carries out its work. The Locrian Ensemble has already toured to Cumbria, raising funds and awareness for the charity, and I very much hope we shall be able to do another tour again.

Jill Lea, who runs the Friends of the Locrian, FLOCK, has had more Larks and Cuckoos join recently, and I would like to thank her for her sterling work in supporting us at so many concerts, and for organizing the newsletter. As the work of the Ensemble continues to grow, it is wonderful to feel supported by the special people who work with us, and the audiences who come to hear us play.

We are all looking forward to meeting you at venues across the country during the Autumn and beyond, especially in our new "Romance" show!

For now, best wishes to you all,

Justin