German Summer Sunshine

Two terrific nights in Germany... surrounded by lots of wonderful singers and artists!

We did these two particular gigs in the same way three years ago...& it was great to be back.

First to Fritzlar... in the North! (quite near Holland)
In the old town... in the open air...
We had a fabulous time; singing Beatles, Mills Brothers, Hi-Lo's, Manhattan Transfer, 16th century Pavane by Thoinot Arbeau & Adele; as well as instructions as to how to make Tea set to the National Anthem... a glorious German text by our old friend Rainer Wallraf...
Both nights a great joy and success....

As so often, we met old and new friends!
The brilliant Sebastian Fuchs who we worked with in Bayreuth last year, did a fantastic double act with Tobias Wenger aka Wall Clown .. a tremendous act which has had huge success in recent years; at the Edinburgh Festival too... quite breathtaking... Sebastian provides the sound track (with his mouth only!) and Tobias - with the aid of a camera turned through 90° - acts as if can float in mid air and defy gravity... as you can see both Tobias' antics on the floor, and a screen with everything the 'right' way up, it is a mesmerizing display of physical comedy...
Amazing!

This blurred photo gives you a slight impression of their genius!

....and from The Netherlands we met another excellent vocal group, The Junction - two guys and three women with high energy, cool arrangements.... singing jazz, pop, classical and a Catalan folk carol (their Soprano is from Barcelona!)

Great to meet Isa, Margriet, Joyce, Paul & Henk! (& we saw them the next day too...)

At the end of the gig, all involved, including our agent Peter Martin Jacob (a splendid bass, of course), joined together to all sing I'm Yours by Jason Mraz

Then it was down to Friedrichshafen (quite near Switzerland) - three years ago, we got stuck on a train with track issues and arrived with a few minutes to spare... this time, we took the car - surely nothing could go wrong - we got stuck in one traffic jam, and then stationary behind an accident for 1.5 hours... what joys... this time we arrived with 3/4 hour to spare... so a slight improvement.

We were in a Zelt... during Festival time on the banks of the lake...

So we shared the stage with The Junction once more & also with Swiss group BLISS ... five guys with sharp-suited confidence and humour too! Classical parodies, A splendid Swiss version of the German National Anthem to Prince... glorious!

Here they are once the jackets came off halfway through their set!

Super also to meet Claudio, Lukas, Matthias, Tom & Viktor!

Then we had a glorious lake crossing on a ferry... on the way to the airport to go home... ferry does not seem too splendid to the English ear... but here it was beautiful!

Sarah-Ann looking wistful in the early morning light...

Dawn

Sunny (occasionally stormy) Germany

Two splendid gigs in the sunshine in Germany...
Firstly a Peter Martin Jakob a cappella nacht in Fritzlar... in the open air just outside the Dom... In the afternoon this did look a very dodgy idea, but we had rain just for about two minutes and then all was blessedly (and decidedly) hot.
We shared the stage with excellent VoxNorth from Denmark (altho', like so many excellent vocal groups, one of them was a Belgian! - their wonderful Flemish chap is Roxorloops, beatboxer par excellence)...
They provided a lovely mix of Nordic folk sounds with percussion (both live and mouth) & pop/jazz too... Great to have another vocal group friendship!
The audience were terrific & happy to stay up nice and late to see both acts... we were delighted that our Dutch friends, 'Reet, Jo, Jolene & Jasper were only holiday in Germany near enough to come and see us - a great joy to see them! ... also Birgit came for the second weekend in a row - one day we shall have a concert where she actually lives, so she need not drive!

Then it was simply a train ride down to Friedrichshafen:- simple you might think... but not when we are chasing an electrical storm all the way down there... enough trees were felled on a particular branch of track that we were delayed for four hours & had to finish the trip by taxi.... We did got the performance tent on the banks of lake Constance with 42 minutes to spare!
Friedrichshafen was both a great relief, and as beautiful as when we were here in 2001 & 2002.
The concert went very well - an excellently excitable & appreciative audience & thanks to our Swiss friend Silvan for coming over the border... We'll see him again in early September for the two gigs he has organised in CH.

They did have a dark beer for me to sup afterwards - splendidly names Zeppelin, which I drank in the shadow of Zeppelin house, just down the road from the Museum... there was even one in the sky as we started our journey home this am...
If you're interested - New Zeppelin History

We have an interesting Friday this week - more news once it is done... (sorry, you're going to have to wait!)

Soho party night

A fascinating evening in central London...
Forgive the swank.... (if you fear I am being rude, do please look the word up)...

Tim Rice, for it is he, invited us to sing at a charity party - the summer get together for Samaritans in London.... we entertained these wonderful people, before allowing them to get on with their party... and even accompanying the great man in his excellent hit... Wanderin' Star... the people in the crowded top room above a bar in Soho were splendid, and good (if sweaty) fun was had by all...

Afterwards we were invited to an excellent place, Brasserie Zédel - which is home to the Crazy Coqs cabaret venue... and there, would you believe it we bumped into C-3PO himself, Anthony Daniels - amazing... & he joined us for a meal.

So we had much discussion of the entertainment business, both musicals - Tim's new show, From Here to Eternity opens in preview next month - and Star Wars too... I was able to tell Anthony how much my family and I had enjoyed his MC-ing of the Star Wars orchestral concert/show at the O2...

Quite er.... out of this world!

Back on planet Earth, off to Germany at the weekend... (The F's tour... Fritzlar & Friedrichshafen).

St Michaeliskirche, Hildesheim

Beautiful sunny summer evening in St Michaeliskirche, Hildesheim
Lovely building and excellent acoustic. (Do look at above link...)

Entitled O Sing Joyfully! - we sang early music for the most part for the first half... Arcadelt, Henry VIII, Hildegard of Bingen, Byrd, Mozart & Batten (whose anthem provided the title).... as well as Bist Du bei mir (Stölzel, of course) and Thoinot Arbeau, with some Peter Warlock touches (two movements from Capriol).

Our more conventional fare in the second half from Johann Strauss to Billy Joel via Ellington and Frank Sinatra.

Our delightful German audience were happy to join us in our journey from the middle of the 12th century to today!  ...and seemed gloriously happy about it.
Thanks so much for Sven for looking after us...

Another sojourn to Germany next weekend (Fritzlar (with Voxnorth from Denmark) and Friedrichshafen)... more fun in the sun!

btw.... two brushes with fame... I walked past Andy Flower at Heathrow before this trip (he's the England Cricket Coach - doing quite a good job at the mo!) & also, when I went to see Maria Freidman's wonderful production of my favourite musical ever - Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along - A certain Lord Lloyd Webber was in the audience... small world, eh!?