Monday 31 October 2011

UEA Music department closing

Sad news that the University where I studied for my music degree has decided that it 'cannot afford to run the music department anymore'....
UEA is in the beautiful city of Norwich, for those who do not know...

Here's a satirical look at it - (but the subject isn't that funny!).

Benjamin Britten, who helped set up the department will be revolving in his grave...
Ho hum...

Monday 24 October 2011

Bocholt

Tour done, and minor coughing fits aside, I am a Fleming in Belgium who has one the Phlegm battle!

Another excellent evening accompanied by the redoubtable Paul Plummer. Bowler hats, celeb masks and umbrellas to the fore... we took this small part of north Belgium to Britain... tea, royalty, muddling-through, Elton John, Rice & Lloyd Webber & a cross-dressing lumberjack:- what more could one ask for?
...and our dear friends Gertie & Jolein were there too from The Netherlands... how splendid!

It'll be Christmas next time we are here, but that'll be fun too... we'll dust off the German version of Best of British for January...

Songs of Cricket

...is now available on:

iTunes
Amazon

or, naturally via US!

Click for Promo video


Good to see Rory has been overtaken by dance in his Strictly sojourn.... he is great on his beeb blog - shame he is out now....

Saturday 22 October 2011

Aalst

Best of British went well to a packed house at Aalst... Our wonderful Belgian agent Thomas Van der Spiegel brought his whole family as they live nearby...
Lovely huge theatre, and friendly and excellent staff... and pre-gig meal in a restaurant that used to be a chapel - De Kapelaan - beautiful both architecturally and nutritionally...
Apart from a 30-second long coughing fit - I managed to obscure a Mike solo - which felt like about 2 hours, everything went well.
Did a very bad impression of HMQ, whilst wearing her face mask, as I stumbled into a chair, thus breaking one of Noel Coward's two golden rules of acting.... know your lines and don't walk into the furniture...
Steve's acres of Flemish, as ever, a great delight... (tho' we all join in a bit!) ...as indeed were his knees during the Lumberjack song...
Great to be back with Herr Paul Plummer on piano; and we have another show together tomorrow at Bocholt...

These last three gigs of this tour said together, with an overgutteral accent & a scowl - Jezus-Eik, Aalst, Bocholt - might give the idea that we are cross, but far from it, we are having a great time over here amongst the Belgae...

Friday 21 October 2011

Bonheiden and Jezus-Eik

Two lovely full gigs in Belgium, performing our Madrigal to McCartney show...
Proof once more that it is a splendid country to visit... all the staff and people around are so friendly, helpful & uncomplicated... and the food is so nice!
And all managed with a nose full of phlegm... thank goodness it is a nose and not a throat... luckily only I am thus afflicted.
Two more in the next two days, giving our Best of British programme.... today in Jezus-Eik [Jesus Oak, btw] we had a rather British time too; it is just down the road from the English school over here.... lots of children [some Flemish speakers and some English] had a concert in the theatre, and we sang at the end of their time... they were delighted to see how silly it is possible to be whilst singing!
As ever, both new and old friends were about... including today someone we worked for last in Germany in 1992; hoping it will be less than 19 years before we meet once more!
We continue to spread Songs of Cricket amongst the unsuspecting Belgians.
Tomorrow we welcome back pianist, Paul Plummer, who now works in Austria; we have not worked with him for many a while... let's hope he has some cold remedy with him; it will be great to see him...

Thursday 13 October 2011

Classical Rolls Royce!

We are very blessed by our accompanists!
These days for our shows, on piano we have the fantastic Chris Hatt, the worldwide MD of Billy Elliot...
...and soon, because Chris is not free, we have the pleasant delight of working for a couple of Belgian nights with our previous chap, Paul Plummer, who is presently working at the opera house in Innsbruck...
...and now we also have the splendour of working once again with that Rolls Royce of classical accompanists, Malcolm Martineau. We are recording a third album with him, this time under the Champs Hill label - in November for release next year. We had a rehearsal yesterday, and it was as we have come to expect when we work with MM... looking forward to the CD very much.

It is loosely based on the concert we performed together in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris in March...
Songs of Love and Death/War... (to be decided)...

Wednesday 12 October 2011

Urology Foundation

Now there I was thinking we were to sing to lots of Doctors, but in truth, last night at The Savoy, it was mainly only real people there... in support of the fine charity, The Urology Foundation. Some very senior doctors of course, but the event was a fundraiser.

The chairman of the Foundation, Steven Norris introduced us and we sang to the assembled throng; after a sumptuous auction which had clearly raised much for the charity.
...and Ian Hislop and Ronnie Corbett were there too...
Even at the late hour, and after auction exhaustion, people were fabulously attentive...

Not that I was eavesdropping, but earlier I had heard Mr Hislop talking of another beano in a few days' time, to celebrate 50 years of Private Eye - with everyone still alive who ever worked for it, invited... sounds huge fun...
(contd. page 94)

Sunday 9 October 2011

Bayreuth - die Kirche

Our concert at the Ordenskirche Bayreuth has happened... and we are still alive!
Thrillingly lots of people turned up, some after the church service, others who had seen us last night in die a cappella Nacht - and we gave them an hour of early tunes... Bingen, Byrd, Bennet, Monteverdi, Arbeau, Arcadelt & Weelkes through Rossini, Genée & Sullivan up to Richard Rodney Bennett [no, he's not so early, but the piece we sang is a setting of 17th Century poet, Francis Quarles!]

Wonderful - even more so, having repaired to a typical upper Franconian restaurant for meat and dumplings and lovely dark beer of the region...!
The aeroport beckons...

Splendid... home for a quick day off, then the Savoy on Tuesday night... entertaining at a meeting of Urologists... hope they won't be too probing...

Bayreuth

No Wagnerian gestures onstage tonight, just Medlz and us once more, but tonight joined by Six Pack - we realise it is even longer since we saw these guys... 7 years... they were cool and fun as ever... and they all became 7-pack when their old bass, Peter Martin Jacob, joined them for a rendition of Ring of Fire...

All marvellous - and the audience were, if anything, even more enthusiastic than last night...

A morning concert in the church beckons... at 11am... tra la la la la....

Saturday 8 October 2011

Biberach

Marvellous 'Die a cappella Nacht' in Biberach... for the uninitiated, this is not an a cappella evening which makes you die... but one in Germany, thus with an article... designed and promoted by our German agent, Peter Martin Jacob and his agency, Magenta...

Two groups were with us - our old friends from this circuit, the Dresden group, Medlz - they have lost their definite article since we last worked with them in 2007... we were all amazed that it was four years ago that we last met... they looked remarkably similar; although there is a new one of them! Lydia has an 11-month old daughter... but Bine, Lydia, Silli, Mary and Nelly were as wonderful as ever [if not better!] - fantastic tuning...
...and some new friends, muSix from Berlin... a great group of er... five, who were splendid and polished too...
In fact this is a bit of a theme of the evening, Medlz started as a nine-part group, and muSix as a six-part; clearly they both decided five was best after all... & both groups met whilst singing together in children's choirs... that's why they still seem so young!

A very fine evening for all of us onstage, and by the sound of it, the audience too...
...snuck a few more Cricket CDs out too... to Germans!!

On to Bayreuth tomorrow with Medlz... and a mystery someone else...

Thursday 6 October 2011

Leuven

Another fantastic evening at the Lemmensinstituut at Leuven.... where Steve studied when a boy... he mentioned being an alumnus on stage, and when he chatted with some of the students afterwards, he saw them realise just how really old he was... it happens to us all!

Best of British (Belgium) went splendidly well, and the amount of noise the audience made [at appropriate moments] was sometimes deafening...

The mountie hats were an excellent addition to Steve's knees in The Lumberjack Song - splendid...

And we sold more Songs of Cricket - this could be the start of something very big!

International train journey to Biberach, Germany tomorrow for an a cappella nacht - more news tomorrow...

Breast Cancer Care show

Attended a wonderful, life-enhancing event at the Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane this afternoon... a fashion parade of cancer survivors being the centre-piece of a day in aid of the Breast Cancer Care charity

Highly moving, of course, and everyone with such a positive outlook, as they share their stories of Breast Cancer... a disease that affects so many people each year; 50,000 new diagnoses in the UK alone.

We were treated like long-lost friends, and all were delighted that we were there to sing... and they were indeed pretty good at joining in with The Lambeth Walk!

But clearly, we were a side-show:- there is marvellous up-lifting spirit in this charity's heart...

Wednesday 5 October 2011

Kortrijk

Wonderful theatre, and excellent audience to watch Best of British - and now for something completely different première...
Joined by trusty Chris Hatt, and with brolleys and bowlers, we showed them a thing or two, eh what!?
Off to Leuven tomorrow to do it again... with added mountie hats... [any ideas why we need them?]
More cricket CDs have been spread amongst the unsuspecting mainland Europeans...

Sunday 2 October 2011

Herent

Another balmy night in Europe last night... excellent audience at Herent in Belgium; just a few miles from Steve's hometown... many were, however, surprised when he revealed his citizenship, and just how near he had grown up.

The bells of the church [striking every hour and urging people to services from 8am] were very forthright in our hotel 15 metres from the church door... not quite up to Swiss standards however, as it was only the one church!

First night of 'Best of British - and now for something completely different' tonight in Kortrijk, before the première in Leuven on Thursday... looking forward to it - and gloriously Chris Hatt has arrived off the Eurostar.... and we'll all be home this evening as tonight's show is at 5pm...

What a small world we live in...

Saturday 1 October 2011

Zurich

Wonderful evening in an unusually balmy late September Zurich...
Singing at a restaurant after the opening of Marco Perego's new exhibition at Galerie Gmursynska
... it just goes to show what a footballer can do after his career [I am being serious - look him up! Slight warning, he is explicit and courts controversy with his views on the way society 'devours itself'...]

We have now been entertaining for Krystyna and her Gallery for well over 20 years, and this night was even graced by UK royalty... tho' of course I cannot tell you whom... She and her friends were suitably gracious about our contribution to the evening...

Now in (still summery-hot) Herent, BE awaiting the next concert; must admit to being grateful for our schedule, as it meant I was saved watching England struggle their way to a limping victory over Scotland in the Rugby WC - much better to be in mid-air...