'Last Night......!'

 

I suppose that the Last Night of the Proms, the Great British Tribal Convention marks the end of the silly season, although in current politics it is now lasting all year round.

 

The Henry Wood Promenade concerts are something that the BBC does superlatively. It is the biggest music festival in the world.

 

The Last Night brings together the entire British family. It is held not just in the Albert Hall but in Hyde Park (audience 40,000 with many young people), Scotland, Wales and Ulster.

 

I had once thought that BBC PC had taken over after the incomparable Andrew Davis was enticed away to Chicago.

 

We got an American in return, one Leonard Slapkin. He thought that the Last Night was nationalistic (a sharp cookie, our Len), so he chucked out many of the traditional parts of the programme. From memory, that was his first and last. It is said that the band refused to play for him.

 

Last year for the very first time I switched channels. The programme had been so bowdlerised that it was almost unrecognisable. Even ‘Sea Songs’, Sir Henry’s own contribution, was shamefully dropped.

 

This year the Last Night was a triumph. All the ‘nationalistic’ tunes were there. A Maltese tenor – new to me, but magnificent – sang ‘Rule Britannia’ whilst casting baseball caps emblazoned with the Maltese Cross into the audience.

 

There was a terrific choral rendition of ‘You’ll never walk alone’.

 

But this was beaten by an extraordinary choral version of ‘God Save the Queen’ with the audience lustily joining in.

 

There were many foreign flags being waved (I didn’t notice the EU rag). I wonder what foreigners think of it all.

 

As if we cared!