We started today’s rehearsal revisiting some of the material we’d used for the previous two projects, including the Australian song ‘Ballina Whalers’, a very fast Egyptian tune and a Saudi oud tune in 7/8 called ‘Mudather’. We teach the tunes to the new members of the group and start working them into arrangements suitable for the new line-up. After lunch we start work on new material, Mohammed Aseeri (our qanun player) teaches us a Bahraini love song, and Inge Thomson (accordion) gets us singing ‘Mingulay’, a Scottish sea song.

For this evening’s extra-curricular activities Pete Flood and I went to the gig at the Fruit Market, Mama Rosin (rough-and-ready cajun rockers from Switzerland) and Taraf de Haïdouks (lightning fast Romanian gypsy outfit). The place went off, it was a really fun gig. Apologies to the auburn-haired woman dancing in front of me who asked why I looked so serious (I told her I was dancing on the inside).