NLC London & Bergen

Two excellent gigs in the last few weeks.
We were invited by a friend of ours, Rupert Preston-Bell, to perform in the National Liberal Club - it was born with political affiliation (started by Gladstone), but is now for the liberal-inclined rather than the political! - and a fine time we had too.

A great early evening concert, allowing people to get home or eat out after - a very convivial evening was had by all.  We had a splendid audience in the David Lloyd-George Room & enjoyed it all tremendously.

Then last weekend, we had a terrific trip to Bergen - our first outing to Norway.
We were part of the Festival of Song run by the Bergen Opera, and shared a concert firstly with the wonderful Janie Dee - even singing and dancing He's a Tramp with her - what a privilege; accompanied brilliantly by Stephen Higgins at the piano.
...and also in the Nachspiel after this show (this is a bonus gig event after), we sang with the brilliant Edvard Grieg Kor - singing together Richard Rodney Bennett's Fanfare.


It was an excellent trip - fantastic to work with Janie - such a star! - & also to work with teh Edvard Grieg Kor - a glorious 8-part ensemble, who sang a great Jonathan Rathbone arrangement of Yesterday quite beautifully, led by their MD & old friend, Paul Robinson.

A marvellous trip to Norway was topped off by a boat-trip around the fjords on a fabulously sunny day, piloted by another old friend (and manager of EGK) Simon Kirkbride.

Glory

And tonight we are back Live at Zédel - at the Crazy Coqs in central London - with Chris Hatt (fresh from the #Hamilton pit) and once more singing He's a Tramp with the excellent young Mhairi Angus.

Exciting times... more London dates at Zédel, the Pheasantry & The London Library and more...

Seasons of Love

Fabulous charity evening at the Royal Albert Hall a few days ago...
Lovely array of stars, and a gloriously moving & life-enhancing show for all.
Lynda Bellingham, Janie Dee, Jennifer Ellison, Jan Harvey, Julia Hills, Sue Holderness, Lesley Joseph, Gay Soper, Hannah Waterman, June Watson, Stephen Tomkinson, Christopher Timothy, Peter Skellern, Richard Stilgoe, Edward Baruwa, Tiffany Graves, Patrick Doyle, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Tim Firth, Alan Titchmarsh, Tabitha Webb, Debbie Kurup, DMJ & Willy Russell... were all there live; John Alderton, Julie Walters, Celia Imrie & Patricia Hodge all appeared on film with messages of support.

Also on film was Neil Sedaka, who was clearly delighted that we sang his song, Calendar Girl... we were delightfully aided in not looking too dreadful in our 'dancing' as we were joined by the gorgeous and talented, Rossana Stocchino & Lucie Waugh, who danced beautifully.
We also sang Scarborough Fair (in our great John Rutter arrangement) with the excellent harpist, Vicky Lester.

Another wonderful moment, when a young tenor from the West End Chorus, Ian, stepped in at just a few hours notice, and sang the absurdly hard song, 'Til I Hear You Sing from Lloyd Webber's Love Never Dies - terrific job to learn a song over night & do it so amazingly in the show

The show was a celebration of the work of those WI Calendar Girls who we know from the film and stage play, but are real splendid Yorkshire people whose calendar has to date made £3m for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research...
The audience, it was clear, loved the film, the play and these amazing fund-raisers.
The evening culminated in the real Calendar Girls, along with their photographer Terry Logan, coming onstage, and being the recipients of the first Baker awards, which will from now on be awarded annually for people who do great things for fund-raising.
The 'Girls' were tickled pink when the postman from their village of Cracoe, who had only been to London once before ("It's all right", he said when asked by Alan T. how he found it)... very moving and funny all at once.
Indeed we all sang Jerusalem together at the end it all...

Hugh Wooldridge as ever, did a wonderful, efficient job devising and directing all this, and getting it to work in the RAH over just a few hours... super MD: Kevin Amos, wonderful choreographer: Kevan Allen.

PS: lovely also for me to hear once more Make Our Garden Grow from Bernstein's Candide, which we had sung at our wedding...

Blieskastel, DE

Another excellent a cappella nacht organised by Peter Martin Jacob & Magenta, this time in Blieskastel... with some new and some old friends...
Lovely to see our Belorussian friends, Camerata, and to meet the male quartet Die Bogarts who are based in Berlin.
A packed crowd enjoyed all three groups & cheered us to the rafters...
A terrific evening, and lots of convivial meals too!
Delightfully, we're back in the same hall in Blieskastel, doing our Best of British show on Valentine's Day next year... How romantic!

In the last few days we have been rehearsing, and are now looking forward to our bits in Seasons of Love at the Royal Albert Hall tomorrow evening... at 6pm... along with Stilgoe and Skellern, Janie Dee, Stephen Tomkinson, Lynda Bellingham and Alan Titchmarsh amongst others, as well as the City of London Philharmonic and our old friends the West End Chorus...
We're singing Scarborough Fair as well as the Neil Sedaka hit - Calendar Girl - the evening is in aid of Leukaemia charities, and some of those Calendar Girls will be there...
Climaxing with that great WI hit... Jerusalem!