Prom 75: Roll Call

Prom 75: Roll Call, originally uploaded by Thoroughly Good.

I have to admit that I wasn't concentrating on the Beethoven 9

in Prom 75 especially closely. My mind was on other things.

There are special arrangements for queueing for the Last Night

of the Proms (Prom 76). Those queueing arrangements begin at

4.00pm the day before, which also happens to be the day for

Prom 75.

Consequently I turned up at the Albert Hall for 5.00pm, got my

name on a list of names for the Last Night of the Prom queue on

the strict understanding I turned up for a roll-call outside

the Hall at 10.15pm that night. After that I'd be required to

attend a roll call on Saturday 13 September at 10.00am and then

another at 3.00pm. I know all of this because the helpful

Albert Hall staff handed me an A4 page of instructions. It does

make for quite dry reading.

So having attended the first roll-call last night after Prom

75, I can now confirm I am sick of queueing and arrangements

and lists and having my name called out.

Not only that, I can now absolutely confirm based on personal

experience alone that gaining entry to the Last Night of the

Proms is considerably more difficult than getting into the

Eurovision Song Contest.

Still, at least I have the prospect of watching a mate play the

trumpet fanfare from Belfast live in the second half of

tonight's Prom. Over the past three years I've watched him do

that on TV at home. Tonight I'll see him on a massive screen in

the arena.

That's surely worth all the roll-calls.