Yesterday (Feb 15th 2011) Brian May appeared at West Lea school in north London. He and Anita Dobson are the sponsors of their new mini-bus, which was presented to this lovely special needs school by the Variety Club. My younger sister is an administration manager at the school, and as I'm involved in sporadic fund-raising she managed to wangle me the job of semi-official school photographer.
As you'd expect, Brian (and Anita) were great with the kids and really made an outstanding effort to make it a special day for them. As part of the fund-raising Brian agreed to autograph a not-very-expensive guitar which is to be sold on E-Bay in the near future. He then proceeded to pick up the guitar and play it: "I know you're all very good at stamping... can you stamp twice like this and then clap once like this..." Needless to say everyone was familiar with that song. Then a small choir of kids sang and Brain played along, while Anita danced with the children at the front.
I met him briefly (for the second time in 31 years): "Brian, do you mind if I write about this on the Queen forums, or would you rather keep it schtum?" "No, no, go ahead." I wish there had been the chance to talk at length but it was impossible to get anywhere near him at times and in any case, his visit was for the kids, not for the likes of me. Despite this it was a great experience, if slightly surreal... world-famous guitar legend plays in school hall (an even smaller venue than Tottenham Mayfair).
I left after a couple of hours, and Brian and Anita were still being shown around classrooms. As I said, an outstanding effort. Brian's patience and kindness were reassuring to anyone who might have thought he'd turned into an obnoxious old curmudgeon, and Anita is a lovely friendly lady too (and she looks about 30!).
My photos from this event will hopefully appear on the school's website very soon, so in case anyone's interested I'll post a link as soon as I can.
Gaz (Fanny)
Big Fat Fanny