The Wild Blue Yonder

The band played for the annual Air Force Association ball last night at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. A very nice venue, but murderous to get to from this part of the county. Beverly Hills would prefer that the riff raff not go trolling through their city incommoding the residents and tacky-ing up the view. Consequently no freeways go through or even very near their fair city. So, just as everyone is getting out of work, I have to drive from the far eastern part of the county through the middle of downtown Los Angeles, the Wilshire district and into BH. Wonderful. It took about two hours.

The gig is good fun. We’ve done it every year for maybe ten years now. We play through the cocktail party, usually held out by the pool, and lead the assemblage into the dining room for dinner. Then we play a few sets for 15 or 20 minutes while they find their seats. I think it went pretty well. The acoustics were such that I couldn’t hear the whole band, just Allen’s snare and my own pipe. And with the two spotlights in my eyes I couldn’t see much either. But they were very appreciative and seemed to like it.

It’s a shame the American Air Force tune doesn’t work well on the pipes. But the RAF March Past fits pretty well and “Wings” would be appropriate. If we could just get the band to pick them up. . . .