All right, I admit it, the post title may have seen me get carried away by my taste for puns and verbal misdirection …

I spent most of Sunday 12 July in a field in Essex, playing music back when we weren’t allowed audiences at all. I was playing viola in, and attempting to help coordinate, a small orchestra forming the third side of a triangular video shoot / live session, along with singer-songwriter WILDES and Hackney Colliery Band. (I had also previously remote recorded the violin and viola parts for the mix being used as a guide track and to stiffen the live audio – something I’m still very much available to do more of, as well as location recordings and indeed video shoots!)

It was a total privilege to be able to work (and hang out a bit) with such high-level musicians. The track for the session was a new orchestral version of WILDES’ ‘True Love’ (are you following the post title connections here?), and I’m delighted to say that track and video are out now, and even if you can’t aurally separate my playing from the rest of the string section I’m definitely visible:

And the getting burnt? That was literal (well, sunburnt – not chemically oxidised!). I hadn’t been outside for anywhere near that long since last summer, didn’t so much as own any sun cream, and by the time we wrapped my arms and face pretty much matched my shirt …