Last night was the Last Night of the Proms. The Proms are a funny thing, they’re a part of British culture that doesn’t really translate and I feel that I’ve always known about the last night even though I’m not terribly keen on Land of Hope and Glory or Rule Britannia and the flag waving (and bobbing) that it seems to provoke.

I only turned it on because of the Mary Poppins medley (and I still maintain that no Londoner would feel pigeons!). But it went into Plymouth Hoe and then Rule Britannia and then Pomp and Circumstance and then Jerusalem. Then God Save the Queen and then Auld Land Syne, and in the week before the Scots vote on independence, that all felt quite significant, in fact if the Scots do decide on independence, all those people in the RAH will be waving different Union Flags, because they won’t be red, white and blue anymore. Maybe we can sing the 1745 version of God Save the Queen which includes this verse:

Lord, grant that Marshal Wade

May by thy mighty aid,

Victory bring.

May he sedition hush,

and like a torrent rush,

Rebellious Scots to crush,

God save The King.

Anyway all of this is a way of saying that this week’s Sunday music is Pomp and Circumstance because I’m quite fond of the bits that aren’t Land of Hope and Glory (yes I know Elgar, at some point I’m going to have to admit that I have no natural musical taste!) and because there is something about cultural traditions that is reassuring, even when we’re not certain that we like them. This is from 2012 and if you don’t already know about the Last Night of the Proms, here it is in all it’s madness….