The reason that we chose to take our holiday in Spain this year was because the guitar orchestra our younger son plays in was touring there and this was to be our last opportunity to see him play with them.
Mat has been learning to play the guitar with Berkshire Maestros for ten years now and has been with the Berkshire Youth Guitar Orchestra (BYGO) for probably about five years. During that time he, amongst other things, has toured Italy and Spain and played at a garden party for the queen. So it has been a fantastic experience for him.
Our final outing to see him was in the classy seaside resort of Lloret De Mar. While the town was nothing special the venue was – an ornate church which looked fantastic when lit up as you can see from the pictures below.
BYGO played probably the longest set that we have ever seen them play and we have been to a few. They included the excellent Final Calling, which is written by a former BYGO member, and a cover of Santana’s Smooth. The latter is played by the full orchestra on classical guitars and Mat as the sole electric guitar. If you have a listen to the track embedded below you will hear his solo towards the end (along with assorted coughing and shuffling!).
Both Helen and I are incredible proud of him and what he has achieved with BYGO and listening to the track below really makes me swell with pride.
All of this will be of deep embarrassment to Mat as he likes to slip under the radar a bit but as I have already said it is a a great achievement that we are all proud of – well done Mat!
