A Chiswick Band's Hectic Jubilee Weekend

Alan Bignell on A Wing and a Prayer's busy schedule

Singers Trisha Higgins and Arlene Bignell and guitarists Antonio Morra and Alan Bignell

What a special couple of days the Jubilee weekend turned out to be for those of us who sing and play with A Wing and a Prayer.

We had two gigs lined up for the Jubilee. The first on Saturday, a lunch for seniors at the Chiswick Catholic Centre and the second on Sunday, performing at the street party in our own Fielding Road.

To say we were nervous about playing at the seniors Jubilee lunch would be an understatement. Even though two of us in the band fall into the same category as those attending, we had no idea how our old rock and roll and country songs would go down. We needn’t have worried as from the first number the audience were with us all the way.

Mind you, minutes before we were due to play I realised I’d made a bad choice for our first number. It was Ralph McTell’s Streets of London which my wife belatedly pointed out is entirely about lonely, old people. Hopefully, no one attending matched the descriptions of those in the song but we couldn’t take the risk. The Streets of London was summarily dropped.

Instead we opened with the Everly Brothers ‘Dream’ which seemed to strike the right note. We followed with a few more gentle numbers before cranking things up with Ricky Nelson’s ‘Hello Mary Lou. We hadn’t planned on doing any up tempo Irish songs but the atmosphere seemed right to include a few. And so it proved as people clapped and sang along. Perhaps it wasn’t the most appropriate prelude to the noble toast and national anthem that followed but no one seemed to mind.

Back with the music our version of Country Roads had almost everyone singing along. It was an ideal number to bring the afternoon to a close. Our own delight at how well things had gone was mirrored by the smiles on people’s faces as they left. It seems today's seniors enjoy rock and roll and driving rhythms every bit as much as those a quarter of their age.

We’d hardly packed up all our equipment than we were unpacking it again for the next day’s gig. This one couldn't have been closer to home - just four steps down the garden path from our front door. There we'd erected a gazebo on the pavement as insurance against the rain that was forecast for later in the afternoon. (In fact it held off until the early evening.)

The street had been closed for the event and the row of tables down the middle of the bunting decorated road was groaning under the weight of mountains of food and drink. There was an easy going atmosphere with children and dogs running wild as we took to the stage (well pavement really) only ten minutes after the planned 2pm start time.

As the crowd was younger than the previous day, we reinstated Streets of London as our opening number. It went down well as did 'Dream' that followed. When we finished the song, an older neighbour came forward to tell us this Everly Brothers classic was the first record he ever bought.

Even though the majority of people were eating and drinking they clapped each number up to the time we completed the first half of our set. It was then our turn to meet neighbours we'd never talked to before and have a cuppa from the Jubilee teapot.

The band members have a cup of Jubilee tea

The children and dogs were still running when we returned to the stage. As most of the adults were chatting away by now, this time round we were more background music. That was until we launched into our last couple of numbers, Paul Simon's The Boxer and John Denver's Country Roads. They both had people joining in with the choruses. I don't know what it is about 'Country Roads' but every gig it's the one number that always seems to get people singing along.

So our very busy Jubilee weekend came to a highly pleasing end with these kind email messages.

"Thank you so much for today. It was a great success. The feedback was amazing." Caroline Doyle, Organiser of Chiswick Seniors Jubilee event.

"Great music. Particularly enjoyed Country Roads." Sarah Brough, Fielding Road neighbour.

"Brilliant!" Paula Nelson, Organiser of the Fielding Road Jubilee Street Party.

Alan Bignell

June 12, 2022