New Proms Director

[Flosshilde]

An example for us all, although in my case it would probably be gin.

[Serial_Apologist]

An example of second childhood entered, I would say...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

An example of second childhood entered, I would say...

On holiday five years ago, I bought myself a kite and took it down to the beach to fly it. "Second childhood?" snarled a solitary passer-by. "No, " I responded, "Making up for the first!"

[Flosshilde]

S_A - did you really drink gin (or vodka) as a child?

[Serial_Apologist]

S_A - did you really drink gin (or vodka) as a child?

Probably, Floss. My mum was apparently somewhat the worse when she breastfed me prior to my Christening, which I slept throughout.

Explains everything.

[Flosshilde]

Reminds me of a trip to Venice on the Orient Express, when I shared a compartment with a Swiss trapeze artist & his wife & baby. I'm pretty sure they dosed it with laudenham when it was time to go to bed.

[Sir Velo]

Personally, I wouldn't worry too much about ageing audiences. One only has to look at archive footage of concertgoers in the 30s; 50s or 70s to realise that it was ever thus.

Looks like I'm not alone with this thought. Stephen Hough writes eloquently in his blog of how a new wave of grey has replaced the old grey. Moreover, Hough points out that it's the elderly who often have the leisure to attend concerts.

[Bryn]

Looks like I'm not alone with this thought. Stephen Hough writes eloquently in his blog of how a new wave of grey has replaced the old grey. Moreover, Hough points out that it's often the elderly who often have the leisure to attend concerts.

Maybe, but I certainly attended many more concerts in my teens and early twenties than I do now. There again, for much of that period of my life I either lived within convenient striking distance of London's concert venues or worked close to a railway station just 1 hour from Waterloo. These days even the Proms present a problem. In previous years the last bus hack from the RAH was at 22:40. This year the fast failing First Berkshire Greenline operator cut the service back so that the last bus now leaves the RAH stop at 20:40.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Maybe, but I certainly attended many more concerts in my teens and early twenties than I do now.

Yes - as a student (with time and a Grant) and then in my first years in work (living in London) this was certainly so. For the thirty years following, I was more involved in actually performing or taking kids to concerts than going (exclusively) from my own leisure choice. But since I turned fifty, and with unexpected extra "leisure" time, I've started getting back into the habit. The audiences don't look much different from those of thirty or forty years ago; mostly older than me (still - even whilst I have grown closer to their age group) but with a few teenagers - who I realize are now looking a me in the same way I looked at the decrepit regulars when I was their age; a mixture of pity and admiration that anyone could survive that long!

Grey hairs? I wish! Short back and polish for me these days.