When I was a student, I really enjoyed playing background music gigs for weddings and functions. For the weddings, there was something really quite touching about playing for someone's special day and making a real contribution to the atmosphere, even if you aren't the main event... and even more so when it is a funeral.

Meanwhile, playing for functions was always really quite interesting as well... most of the time, it was corporate functions, but every now and then there would also be something for the Government as well... and it would mean that you would be playing for visiting Heads of State and people that you only ever really ever see on the television! I played in the same room as Prime Ministers, Presidents, and royalty... once, I even played for the Queen of England!

So, for a student, it was stupidly well paid job... and a nice cushy one where you were paid to play music with friends, and then get served up a really nice meal that was the same as what the VIPs were eating! Except... you would eat it in a small room next to the kitchen! But often the servers would make sure that we had the nibbles get to us before the "real" people got their grubby hands on them!

So, when I left Australia, I found that background music gigging wasn't really that much of a thing in the Netherlands... people tended to have low-key City Hall weddings, and most corporate functions were a bit tight with spending on frivolous things like live music. So, it has been nearly twenty years since I have played for background music.

But, now that I'm back again, I am being asked to do the occasional function or wedding. I can do some of them... of course, I have to still play for the "real" concerts more often than not, and quite a lot of the time, I'm just away or unavailable to play. And I do wonder if some people are "scared" to ask me to play? They shouldn't be, I'm really quite an easy going person, and if I'm available and free to play, I'm always happy to play with anyone!

I would love to have my own group that did these things... I did remember when our old quartet (those two decades ago...) played all sorts of things as we all decent sightreaders and we could just hack and slash though a whole heap of new and interesting pieces. This was always in stark contrast to some of the jobs when we would be reading the old popular favourites, and sometimes some pretty horrific arrangements of them... plus, sometimes, the people who played would be playing at very gentle interpretations... and that would always make the time pass a bit more slowly than a daring and interesting run!

But the other night, I did my first Great Hall gig since I returned... I had actually forgotten the protocol and layout of the building! But as soon as I parked and walked in, it all came flooding back... and that was a great fond memory!

These days, there are a good deal more "pop" tunes that make it into the standard gigging repertoire... music that is quite unfamiliar for me, but still quite fun to play! I'm afraid that I'm more often than not just hanging on my the seat of my pants for that sort of music! Thankfully, musical instincts and training do manage to carry me through mostly!

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