I went to two very different gigs at the weekend....
On Saturday evening, we saw the young, gifted, Montenegrin guitarist Milos Karadaglic at Cambridge Corn Exchange; he was playing with the English Chamber Orchestra. If ever you could say "This guy has it all" about any 30-year old, then you could say it about this chap. Tipped to be the next Segovia, he has charm, modesty, and the looks of a male model. When he appeared on the BBC Breakfast programme some months ago, he certainly brought out the girlie in Susanna Reid! My only disappointment with Saturday's concert was that he only played (the admittedly, fairly long) Rodrigo's Concierto di Aranjuez and Spanish Romance.
Milos only came to my attention some 6 months ago when my son, a cameraman and sound engineer, mailed me a couple of photos of a fine classical guitar made by Greg Smallman. The luthier operates in Australia, supplies the likes of John Williams, and the instruments cost around $A24,000. When I asked how much he paid for it, my son admitted that he'd been recording Milos K, and that the guitar was only on loan, even to Milos!
For Sunday evening, a friend found himself with a spare ticket to see the Manfreds at Bury (St Edmunds) Apex concert hall, and offered it to me. I'd never paid a great deal of attention to Manfred Mann/the Manfreds in the early days, but 3 out of the 6 musos were from the original line-up. They were a very tight band, and I guess they should be after all these years - but I was amazed at the vitality, the stage presence, and the fine vocal skills of Paul Jones. We tried to work out how old PJ was ...... 67? ....... 68? ........... when I got home and looked him up on Wiki ......... he's 71! He must be taking the same medicine as Cliff Richard.
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