The Uni Adventures: Musical fusion

One of the things I've loved about this place is the musical side of things. Maybe it's one of the perks of being at art school - but at least one person in every house in the village seems to own an instrument of some sort, 'specially guitars. Often you can hear people playing out on the street in the evening or out on the green when the sun makes an appearance.

Before we moved here Laura had started teaching me guitar, so it turned out pretty handy when we rolled up to Farnham. One night I came up into the kitchen to practice as everybody else seemed to be out. A few minutes later Ace appeared and sat down at the table with his laptop, humming to the chords I was strumming. Within the hour we were singing together and even daring some harmonies. It was brilliant!

A few weeks later, the whole rabble was sat up in the kitchen nattering and I was sat on Laura's lap. She was guiding my paws into shapes, trying to teach me how to play the ukulele. Whilst we twanged out some tunes, Russel started tapping on the table.

"You should get some saucepans out," I laughed, "...Use them as drums."

In a passionate dash, Russel slid down the table leg like a fireman down his pole and scurried over to his cupboard. With a gigantic heave, he pulled out an assortment of pots and pans, placing them upside down on the kitchen floor. Next, he beckoned over Bradders and asked him to fetch him two wooden spoons. The squirrel nimbly hopped onto the counter and dropped the cutlery down to the hedgehog, who was now calling me over.

Laura set me down and I trotted over to Russel, starting to strum out some chords. Russel grabbed the spoons and began clinking out a beat. And y'know what? It sounded pretty good! We got into it a little more and introduced some head bopping and paw tapping, when a beautiful voice sounded over the music. Lui stood beside us, singing along to the beat.

Within a flick of the tail, Ace plodded over and began purring some lower notes in a wonderful harmony to Lui; followed by Lisa, who sang some lovely "Ooooo"s over the top, whilst Brad and Al sampled some of their dazzling dance moves... And Andy shook his head, spectating.

The kitchen was filled with the sounds of singing animals... And it even later encouraged us to try out the student karaoke. With confidence, we sang into the mics and danced awfully, and managed to clear out the entire room. Perhaps we struck a chord with the audience, and they needed to tune us out... But no matter, it inspired many-a jam session throughout the year, including writing and recording some songs too!

Who knows, maybe some day you'll see a fox, panther, tiger, rabbit and hedgehog ripping up the stage on MTV...