Definitely some tired faces in the rehearsal room today. Our Musical Director Andy Mellon is unwell, but valiantly battles on regardless and we manage to get another few tunes sorted for the gig. Particularly interesting was a Bahraini tune in 6/8 that sounds like a jig displaced by a quaver, which makes perfect sense to our Middle Eastern friends but initially leaves a few of the UK musicians - myself included - looking a bit baffled. After a few run-throughs it sinks in, and we work on integrating the Bahraini melody into ‘Herring’s Heads’, a Scottish song that Corinna teaches us.

In the evening a few of us head to the Blind Boys Of Alabama gig, which is brilliant. Authentic weather-worn gospel voices with a great choice of material including Ben Harper, Tom Waits and Stevie Wonder songs, and a 20 minute encore that sees one Blind Boy romping around the concert hall, seemingly intent on thanking every audience member personally. Wonderful stuff and much needed after a hard day’s rehearsal.