I’m still not convinced that supermarkets need to have had some of their Christmas stock out since the beginning of September but, as a musician, you do need to start reasonably early on preparing for the spate of events that come with the season. Most bands tend to put it off a bit longer but a scratch group formed out of members across the three Charnwood concert bands is playing at the Needle and Pin in Loughborough on 6 December, so we’ve begun working on Christmas material together. I’ve also had the first rehearsal of the term for the University choir and that is also focused on Christmas music. Fair enough – it is good to be prepared, especially when you only have a limited number of rehearsal hours together before the performance.