WHEN FRIENDS MEET - HEARTS WARM

The impressive music room at the Owl in Rodley, was the venue of a birthday celebration and re-unions, all rolled in to one. Jackie Willacy who’s birthday it was, had organised the event, and as always when Jackie is involved, this resulted in a room packed with an A-Z of Yorkshire’s finest musicians. Artists performing included, KwameD, Duncan McFarlane, Ramon, Joe Gallagher, Rosie Clegg, The Lowtown Blues Band, Jackie’s class of 74 and Peculier Blue. With the music as hot as the free Chilli and Curry available, this was a wonderful evening which ended with a jam session into the early hours.

The re-union side of the night was two-fold, most of the people present at the Owl had enjoyed a memorable weekend in the lakes to celebrate Jeff and Jackie’s Silver wedding last year, a review of the weekend appears on this site under April 2006. The second part of the re-union was the celebration of the “Gig in the Sky” an event still talked about, when Jackie persuaded many of the musicians already mentioned, plus more besides, to walk / stagger to the top of Inglebrough to perform a gig, this event raised £1300 for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and St Gemma’s Hospice in Leeds. Hopefully some sort of re-union / Gig in the sky 2 may take place in the future.

A photograph of the “Gig in the Sky” is featured on www.myspace.com/leedsmusicpromotions