Not quite out with the old, but definitely in with the new.

Wow....March is here already and the days are getting warmer. A day on the boat potentially on the horizon for tomorrow and life is good - apart from work of course. 403 days and counting until retirement !!

A music post for the blog after our night out in Sheffield last night. We spent the day with our close friends Fiona and Rob from 'The Black Country' and travelled north to the 'Steel City' where we met more friends Wendy and Martin to see The Orchestra at 'Plug' - usually a student venue, but one which prides itself on putting on some good live acts, including in the past, Arctic Monkeys, Lily Allen and The Prodigy. So when Louise saw that The Orchestra were booked to play one of just three UK gigs there, we jumped at the chance. The fact we were going to this venue didn't exactly go down with our eldest 'student' son Liam, who was mortified to think that his parents were going to such a 'sh*thole' but what a great night we had - even if our feet did stick to the floor a bit !!

Who are The Orchestra you may ask.... Well they are former members of E.L.O. and E.L.O. Part II. We saw them last year at Rewind Festival and were hugely impressed then, but as is the norm with festivals, the set was quite short, so last night we were treated to a full session and they just blew the crowd away with a string of hits taking us all back 30 years or more.

                                                       Video clip of 'Mr Blue Sky'

At the other end of the scale, and obviously not old enough to remember anything about E.L.O. we were fortunate enough to see one of the support acts - sixteen year old Beth McCarthy from York. Not only a very talented singer / musician, but a totally engaging girl with an fantastic attitude and personality who chatted away to us after her performance as if she'd known us for years. If the name rings any bells, then you may well have seen her quite recently, as she appeared on The Voice on BBC1 tonight, winning her singing battle and moving onto the knockout stages. Well done Beth !!!

Fiona and Beth