The band I’m in is playing its penultimate gig of 2022, in Stroud. Our trumpet player is not available, because she just had a baby. We’ve rehearsed a set that covers for her absence, but at the last minute the fiddle player tests positive for Covid. Suddenly we’re down from seven to five.
We swap parts, change arrangements and add songs we haven’t played in years. It feels like a high-wire act, but it