End of Proms Service

End of Proms Service

Holy Sepulchre London

It's the morning after the night before [The Last Night of the Proms]. My National Express bus to Liverpool is due to depart London Victoria coach station at 10:30am, and my alarm is set to 9am, so that I can get there on time. This afternoon there is to be a 'End of Proms' church service. Traditionally, I read, this is when Henry Wood's bust is removed from its temporary summer home at the Royal Albert Hall, and placed back at his graveside - his ashes are interred in the Musicians’ Memorial Chapel, so I believe.

This service is to be held at 3-4pm. My initial thoughts were that I would like to retrieve a ticket. However, before this Proms run came about I had booked to see Eric Idle's Always Look on the Bright Side of Life Live! show, at the Liverpool Empire, and this starts at 8pm. No matter, because the service is to be broadcast on BBC Radio 3, and, in a way, it will be nice to tune in that way, because this is how I have done it for most of the run.

When the time comes, I am sitting on the coach and I place my cans on my ears, ready to listen to Radio 3 on my phone. However, there is someone in the seat next to me, Facetiming someone at an inanely loud volume. I can't hear a bloody word of this service. Sod this, I thought, I'll listen back on BBC Sounds when I get back to Liverpool, because there'll be a couple hours of dead time between getting back and the show starting.

After a pint of tank Pilsner Urquell at Albert's Schloss in Liverpool (and a burger at Archie's on Ranelagh Street), I head back to my car which is parked at the Mount Pleasant multi-story. I sit here and press play on BBC Sounds. I have to say, the ambience of the place does not quite live up to the Royal Albert Hall and the like, but nonetheless it's the best I've got - Cinderella's coach thus reverts to pumpkin.

The service plays out for a few minutes, and I am wondering what is going on. The announcer soon butts in to tell us that we are now going across to the choral evening song at the Holy Sepulchre London (I thought we were already there?!). This plays out for a couple of minutes before the broadcast goes silent. After about a minute the announcer says that 'due to ongoing technical issues,' BBC Radio 3 is not continuing with this broadcast, and will instead play something that was recorded the other year.

That's no good for me. To be loyal to the Proms, I am in need of a pointless ritual to mark an end of the season, and thus get closure from what has been eight weeks [nine, to be precise], of Proms listening and blogging. What should I do??

Before attending Eric Idle's show I nip over to a newsagents and buy myself a packet of five Hamlet cigars. Incidentally, I do not smoke. [Toyed with the idea in 2011 when a girl rejected me and I wanted to do something 'rebellious', but nothing since then.]

    I get home about 11pm [Eric Idle was cracker, by the way]. I am still a bit flustered from the proceedings of a long day of travelling and suchlike; but, once I've put the bin out, I sit back down in the living room and kick off my shoes. I play Bach's Air on the G String on my HiFi, lighting a Hamlet cigar with the strike of a single match. For anyone wondering, the level of relaxation was everything the advertising campaign told us it would be. I won't lie to you, I enjoyed it immensely - and for that reason I cut the rest of the cigars in half and put them in the bin.

So, to quote Eric Idle with regard to the anti-climactic finale of the End of Proms service: Always Look on the Bright Side of Life [at least I heard a couple of minutes of it!]

And to quote the Lord's Prayer in regard to Andy's 2025 BBC Proms Marathon: Thy Will Be Done.