Page 78 - Cormorant Issue 20 2017

PAGE 76
Red Light
Lt Cdr Rachel Singleton
BACK IN SEPTEMBER, THREE ghter pilots, three engineers, a doctor, two logisticians and a policewoman met in the
Fieldhouse coffee room. This eclectic group, from all three ACSC divisions and two continents, also incorporated two drummers, a pianist, a
bass player, several guitarists, vocalists, a saxophonist and a trumpeter: all the ingredients of the course band. At this stage, the ingredients were pretty raw; this became clear at the rst full rehearsal at which, with uncharacteristic shyness, the band dusted off their long-neglected instruments and jammed ‘Let Me Entertain You’.
We completely killed it – in a bad way. This was obvious from the number of complaints about
the ‘noise’ from fellow students trying to work in neighbouring syndicate rooms, highlighting one of
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the ongoing challenges faced by the band: of nding a location to rehearse that would offend the smallest number of people. With the help of the sound engineer from ACSC 19’s band, a location was found as far away as possible from JSCSC, in a little used training room at the other end of camp.
The noise gradually became something that might, after a couple of drinks, be described as music and a tentative booking was made for the band to play after the Taranto dinner on 24th November. The
set list, which included a slightly improved ‘Let Me Entertain You’ had grown to 12 songs, which, helped by a liberal sprinkling of ‘SRT’1 in the preceding week’s programme, provided the backdrop to some enthusiastic dancing after the dinner.
Having successfully started and ended, almost together, all 12 songs, the evening was considered a triumph and the band became the compulsory late night entertainment for most of the remaining mess dinners, two of three divisional guest nights,
We completely killed it – in a
bad way.
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1 Sustained Rehearsal Time