A lovely trip to Ankara, invited by Firat Dadaş & Euphrates Artists...
As we always find in Turkey, we were looked after splendidly and had wonderful food at every turn... Ece gave us a splendid tour of ancient Ancyra & helped us with our Turkish words.
The audience for the concert were very receptive and excellent. Cheering our Turkish introductions to the rafters; they must have understood them; they seemed especially delighted when berated at their attempts to join in The Lambeth Walk - marvellous!
Great to see another old Turkish friend Ilker Ersil at the concert too...
Then on to Germany; Kisdorf in particular [Schleswig-Holstein in the north, as you ask...]; another excellent welcome, and lots of laughter rang around the room as we gave our Best of British show
A return to Wilhelmshaven (but with B.o.B.) next... (Sunday)
Saturday, 29 March 2014
Monday, 24 March 2014
New CD at Barnes Festival
A first outing since the appearance of our new CD, Songs of Love and War at the opening concert of the Barnes Festival on Saturday... Only in its second year, it is already growing! - and a delight because of the hard work of Daniel Turner and Andrew Summers and their team.
We were introduced by that irrepressible local boy Gyles Brandreth & once he'd had his say, a lovely crowd in St Mary's Barnes welcomed us to the festival & it is a pity not to be able to see some more of this, as we are off abroad from tomorrow for a while...
We had the splendour of firstly giving, in the afternoon, a masterclass to the six St Paul's Boys School pupils who make up vocal group Motley Croon and then singing together with them in the rarely-performed 1913 piece by Gustav Holst (setting poetry of Walt Whitman from US Civil War time) - A Dirge for Two Veterans; also needing the talents of three trumpets, side drum, bass drum, trombone and bass, all also from St Paul's. Thanks to their Director of Music Mark Wilderspin for his great help in preparing the guys for the performance.
Very moving indeed it was...
Excellent to not only celebrate local boy Gustav Holst, but also Sir Tim Rice! (..and we did feel the love that night...)
We were joined on piano by the ever-excellent Chris Hatt.
Our rendition of Richard Stilgoe's bathetic celebration of the English cricket fan was all the more poignant as I was informed onstage that we had capitulated helplessly to New Zealand only a few minutes earlier!
All the more festive it was, as our dear friend Carole organised a party for our more dedicated followers before the concert... & so the church was not only full, but with many old friends there too...
Off to Ankara for a concert Wednesday, and then 8 concerts in Germany...
We were introduced by that irrepressible local boy Gyles Brandreth & once he'd had his say, a lovely crowd in St Mary's Barnes welcomed us to the festival & it is a pity not to be able to see some more of this, as we are off abroad from tomorrow for a while...
We had the splendour of firstly giving, in the afternoon, a masterclass to the six St Paul's Boys School pupils who make up vocal group Motley Croon and then singing together with them in the rarely-performed 1913 piece by Gustav Holst (setting poetry of Walt Whitman from US Civil War time) - A Dirge for Two Veterans; also needing the talents of three trumpets, side drum, bass drum, trombone and bass, all also from St Paul's. Thanks to their Director of Music Mark Wilderspin for his great help in preparing the guys for the performance.
Very moving indeed it was...
Excellent to not only celebrate local boy Gustav Holst, but also Sir Tim Rice! (..and we did feel the love that night...)
We were joined on piano by the ever-excellent Chris Hatt.
Our rendition of Richard Stilgoe's bathetic celebration of the English cricket fan was all the more poignant as I was informed onstage that we had capitulated helplessly to New Zealand only a few minutes earlier!
All the more festive it was, as our dear friend Carole organised a party for our more dedicated followers before the concert... & so the church was not only full, but with many old friends there too...
Off to Ankara for a concert Wednesday, and then 8 concerts in Germany...
Friday, 7 March 2014
NEW CD: Songs of Love and War
Our new CD has arrived.
It is now available on our site - I delivered a batch to our Carole this pm...
So order your copies now...
Come to the website shop !
Lots of new splendour on the album, where we are joined for the third CD by the wonderful Malcolm Martineau on piano... Poulenc, Vaughan Williams, Haydn, Elgar, Bridge, Jobim, Chopin, Randy Newman, George Brassens & Yazoo! ...and much more: including a tribute to President Kennedy written only in the days after his untimely death for our old friend Ned Sherrin's BBC show TW3...
So pleased to have a new product to share...
Also, just a quickie to say about the TV we recorded last month:-
Rule Britannia, BBC4.... April Mondays - 7th, 14th & 21st - we're in all three (a bit!) at 9PM
It is now available on our site - I delivered a batch to our Carole this pm...
So order your copies now...
Come to the website shop !
Lots of new splendour on the album, where we are joined for the third CD by the wonderful Malcolm Martineau on piano... Poulenc, Vaughan Williams, Haydn, Elgar, Bridge, Jobim, Chopin, Randy Newman, George Brassens & Yazoo! ...and much more: including a tribute to President Kennedy written only in the days after his untimely death for our old friend Ned Sherrin's BBC show TW3...
So pleased to have a new product to share...
Also, just a quickie to say about the TV we recorded last month:-
Rule Britannia, BBC4.... April Mondays - 7th, 14th & 21st - we're in all three (a bit!) at 9PM
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