In November 2010 I was on tour in India with the Bollywood Brass Band. We played some frankly insane weddings, spent a lot (and I mean a lot) of time travelling and waiting for baggage, explored Jaipur a bit, ate some incredible food and generally had a great - if utterly exhausting - time. A radio producer was on this trip with us, and there we'll be featuring on a Radio 2 documentary sometime this year. Will post more info when I have it.

Here's me with a security guard with a gun. Nice.

One of the unexpected benefits of having a producer with us was that we visited another band. The Jaipur Kawa Brass Band is run by tabla player Amrat Hussain and is one of the best-known Indian brass bands in the world (there are more than you might think…). We spent a great afternoon at Amrat’s house in the outskirts of Jaipur and sat in on a band rehearsal, which was really fascinating. They rehearse in Amrat’s idyllic garden, meaning that lots of local kids come and watch and it has a community kind of feel to it. The music can sometimes sound almost improvised, but it’s absolutely not – every little twiddle and inflection is carefully learnt and practiced.

The producer interviewed a couple of the band members, and we were treated to an impromptu solo concert including an amazing indianised version of Tequila which felt somewhat incongruous played by a turbaned bloke in full Rajasthani costume, but was ace.

Ate a huge volume of superb food, played some music, met some other musicians, learnt some stuff, had a great time.

Quick tip: if you're flying Air India, do NOT drink the coffee. It's on the right in this photo (the other's tea). And that is true.