Many, many years ago I attended concerts at the City Hall, Sheffield. Indeed I purchased a season ticket for the fortnightly Saturday series. Orchestras from around the country played, indeed we had the occasional overseas orchestra.
The Halle Orchestra were regulars, conducted by Sir John Barbirolli. The fact they came from Manchester was forgiven, indeed they were enrolled as honorary Yorkshire men and women. The audience adored Barbirolli. He would shuffle on to the podium, strike up the National Anthem, turn to the audience to conduct their singing, shrug his shoulders as the audience uttered not a note and turn to the orchestra shaking his head. It was a ritual enjoyed by all.
I recall Sir Adrian Boult conducting one of the London based orchestras and Sir Charles Groves was a regular visitor with the Liverpool Philharmonic.
Part of the enjoyment was the interval drink. Not in the crush bar, but a dash out of the City Hall, down the steps (tricky in winter) and across the road into the pub. Just time for a 'steady' pint and then back for the second half. We knew the repertoire well enough to know that one pint meant a comfortable second-half, more and it became a mite uncomfortable!
Some of the audience sat behind the orchestra, only a couple of paces from the percussion instruments. I often wondered how an orchestra sounded listening to it from behind.
After the concert it was a dash to The Talbot Arms in Dronfield Woodhouse for a couple of pints. In those days the pub was in a terrace and very popular. A roaring fire beckoned on cold evenings, but one soon discovered that proximity to the fireplace had its disadvantages in a crowded pub!
The Talbot Arms closed and was replaced by an estate style pub which took the name of the old pub. It was never the same, the atmosphere created in the old pub was destroyed in the barn like proportions of the new building.
Our party transferred to The Green Dragon in Dronfield - but that is another story!
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