The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge appeared close to letting out their musical side during their royal train tour this week, according to the performer. Yesterday, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge stopped off in Reading, where they paid a visit to the Royal Berkshire Hospital and met with NHS staff.
The engagement was part of their three-day tour of Scotland, England and Wales aboard their personal royal train.
While in Reading, the couple were treated to a performance by a steel drum band.
Mary Genis, director of the Reading All Steel Percussion Orchestra (Raspo) and a performer on the day, claims the Duke and Duchess enjoyed the music so much they wanted to have a go themselves.
However, Covid restrictions meant the couple had to resist the urge.
She told the Reading Chronicle: “It was really exciting talking to Kate, they were both really friendly and you could see they were absolutely itching to have a go but of course because of Covid they couldn’t.”
Ms Genis commended the couple for having “spent so much time” to listen to the band play, adding: “we really appreciated that.”
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They were greeted by members of the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust.
The hospital has a link to Kate, being the one in which she was born in 1982, Hello! Magazine reports.
The Duke and Duchess’ train tour started on Sunday last weekend, when the private royal train set off from Euston on a 1,250-mile journey around the three nations.
A spokesman for the couple said they would be “shining a spotlight on the incredible work that has been done” by certain people throughout this year’s Covid-19 outbreak.
The tour ended yesterday. While some were happy to have met the royal couple, the trip reportedly caused some uncertainty within Government due to coronavirus restrictions in place.
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said of the trip: “The Scottish Government was advised about the intention to visit, and we made sure that the royal household were aware, as you would expect, of the restrictions in place in Scotland so that could inform both the decision and the planning of the visit.”
It prompted speculation about what Ms Sturgeon meant by the statement, though a Scottish Government spokesman said the first minister welcomed the Duke and Duchess’ NHS support, the Guardian reports.
Wales’ health minister Vaughan Gething seemed to take a lukewarm stance.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme that he would “rather no-one was having unnecessary visits”.
The Royal Family’s private train is made up of nine carriages in its current iteration. Some attention has been paid to the cost of running it.
According to the BBC, three trips were made on the train during the 2019/2020 financial year which cost more than £63,000 altogether.
