Heavens Above – Wakeylele at Wakefield Cathedral.

by Phil Barr. Video James Fischer

   5th October, 2024.

Listed on the Church Suite Events leaflet as:

 Afternoon Tea with Flat Cap Three, 

( I will refer to them as our support act for the purposes of this report so that I can re – title it Afternoon Tea with Wakey – Lay – Lee), this turned out to be rather an unearthly experience in more ways than one. Firstly to have the unexpected opportunity of playing inside such an awesome building seemed unreal but also to have to perform in such a cavernous space with less than twenty members of the band was a herculean task especially without the new sound equipment, left behind for security reasons as we were all expecting to be playing outside on such a fine October day. In the event it may not have been straightforward in any case as there was a busker performing close by who didn’t appear to have a decibel limiter on his amplifier. David was not the only one who turned up expecting to see a gazebo in place outside the cathedral and Thelma allegedly did the best part of a half – marathon circling the perimeter looking for clues as to our whereabouts before deciding there was nothing for it but to step inside and pray for assistance. 

  So, from what by all accounts was a highly successful evening at Sandal recently,  this was a real test of resilience for the band. And did they overcome the hurdles, given the difficulties, yes I would say we did what we could in the cicumstances. It really was a tale of two halves – the first set felt  a bit flat with one or two exceptions as we came to terms with the acoustics –  also the audience was thinly spread out over such a capacious area which was the nave. David, naturally concerned about the transmission of sound, urged us on to even greater efforts. (I should just  mention at this point that I was on the verge of pulling out a megaphone I happened to have in my bag in case of emergencies but a raised eyebrow from our leader was enough to nip that idea in the bud.)

 The interval allowed us time to re – group, to socialise and to gather the odd freebie and leaflets from the Our Year (Wakefield) organisers and Geoff was seen wandering around with what looked to me like a long back – scratcher but which turned out to be an even more useful accessory – one for testing smoke alarms or similar without having to first balance on a deck chair or similar  Then, having sung Happy Birthday to our esteemed treasurer and committee member,  Margaret – I think today is her real, as against official birthday, it was onto 

  the second half and with this came a change of mood – as a collective raucous cry of ‘Wakeylele’ preceded the very familiar ‘I’ve got a lovely bunch… with Pop being unavailable, ( hope to see you back in action soon Pop). The audience by now had swelled to a very healthy extent and several numbers were met with resounding applause, not least On the Road Again and The Union of Different Kinds. Having saved the day by and large, as soon as we had rounded off our performance we were kindly informed that a buffet luch was ready. I should add here that appropriate decorum was shown in such hallowed surroundings with no evidence of unseemly grappling for position in the queue which already resembled the feeding of the five thousand. For those of us who waited patiently, though, the refreshments were very nice and thanks must go to the, I guess volunteers, who made this possible and a word too for Roy’s Margaret who helped me out when I made a complete hash of making sense of the milk / water flasks when attempting to make a cup of tea. It only remained then to chew over   the day’s events as we partook of the tasty sandwiches, sausage rolls and mini quiches and sweet fancies whilst listening to the Flat Cap Three, who I must say weren’t at all bad! 

Thanks go to David for not buckling under the challenging circumstances, and to Joe’s grandson, James, who as you can see  is already providing stiff competition for our video team.