Sax and the City
source: http://www.demotix.com/news/800-saxes-make-midsummer-hit-london
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- petermarshall
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800 saxophonists on London Bridge on Sunday was quite a sight, and also quite a sound, celebrating 800 years of a stone-built bridge there. Over the previous 1000 or so years, numerous wooden bridges had been burnt deliberately or by accident, so finally they decided that stone might be a better bet.
Quite why this was celebrated by four packs of several hundred sax-players wandering the 'square mile' playing a specially commissioned composition, 'Leviathan' by John Hayle is beyond me, but they ended up all being conducted by the composer for the finale of the work on London Bridge itself.
Not of course the original stone London Brdige from the 12th century, which only lasted aroudn 700 years, nor its replacement now languishing in the Arizona desert, but its modern replacement from around 40 years ago. It was in any case a nice day and a chance to take some unique pictures. And you can see Tower Bridge in the background, which all Londoners believe is what those guys from Arizona thought they were going to get. Might not be true, but a better story.
Quite why this was celebrated by four packs of several hundred sax-players wandering the 'square mile' playing a specially commissioned composition, 'Leviathan' by John Hayle is beyond me, but they ended up all being conducted by the composer for the finale of the work on London Bridge itself.
Not of course the original stone London Brdige from the 12th century, which only lasted aroudn 700 years, nor its replacement now languishing in the Arizona desert, but its modern replacement from around 40 years ago. It was in any case a nice day and a chance to take some unique pictures. And you can see Tower Bridge in the background, which all Londoners believe is what those guys from Arizona thought they were going to get. Might not be true, but a better story.
