Bridewell Hall & St Barts EPAM bash

Two gigs in one night - how splendid....luckily within a mile of each other.

Having spent a pleasant afternoon wandering on the South Bank [Globe & Tate Mod.] with Cantabile friend from Austria, Lotti...
& then had a pizza with my son & met up with my wife...
We had the first of our Bridewell Tuesdays [there's one more if you missed it on the 13th!] at 7pm, and had a lovely time with a great crowd in the splendid-to-sing-in Bridewell Hall; which had been especially Christmassed up for the occasion...
Friends old and new greeted us at the St Bride Institute, where, of course, we are Artists in Residence.

We chased on to St Bart.'s Church & heard the last half-an-hour of Tenebrae singing under the masterly direction of Nigel Short some carols published by Peters Edition and Faber [and a bit of OUP] - wonderful to hear the choir again.
Once everyone had a mince pie and some wine in their hand in the long gallery after all that, we sang our newly-published A Festival of Carols in Two Minutes (Carol, as was)... and The Twelve Days of Christmas to cheer everyone on in their drinking!  Good to see old friends there - Steve McNeff, Ben Parry (who have both written for us), as well as my ex-UEA colleague, Griselda who works for OUP... (very good to see rival publishing houses being able to work together amicably!)

Off to Eurostar and Belgium in the morning...

Limburg

Sitting in Frankfurt aeroport, having performed in Thing last night.  Disappointingly, we find that in fact the venue was called Thing and not the place... we were truly in Limburg itself [we had thought it was a suberb of same]... but it was indeed a fine thing nevertheless.
More Christmassy atmosphere... not least in the fact that there was a Chocolate shop opposite our hotel, full of treats [don't tell my wife & son]... it rained a bit, but still surprisingly temperate for wandering around the Christmas markets...
Bliss.
Various winter ailments held off long enough for the audience to hear us...
Martin looked after us well for these two German days... & our old friend Marco did the sound last night.

Now looking forward to the first of our Bridewell Tuesdays.... tomorrow... then it's off to Belgium for two days before Captain Beaky at the RAH; rehearsal then show on Sunday at 6pm... We are singing songs on our own, but also accompanying Miss Rosie Ashe... marvellous.

In case you did not know, Hissing Sid is innocent...

Burbach Christmas

Christmas starts... looking forward to all; but especially our Bridewell Tuesdays... (6th & 13th)...

Had another Captain Beaky rehearsal on Friday... & everyone was happy...
All looking good for Sunday 11th; where we will share the stage with lots of huge names:-
O More Roger
Marsh Titch Alan
Grave Van Redessa
...and Joanna Lumley amongst others.

We then landed in Germany, and had a lovely Christmas evening in Burbach...
... a great crowd in the excellent 1950s theatre [which used to be a Nobel dynamite factory!], provided a splendid atmosphere; our first Christmas concert hopefully sets the tone for the next few weeks...

We are playing Thing tonight.... what larks!

(Sir) Tim

Had a morning recording vocals on a track for a demo of Tim Rice's new musical (written with composer Stuart Brayson):- From Here to Eternity... recorded in Tim's son-in-law's studio (Pete Hobbs of The Boy Least Likely to).
Great fun....
Let's hope it works... it's planned to come into town next year!

Whilst on the great man - here's a video of our all performing together:
CLICK HERE for fun!
Our 'hit' ...Wanderin' Star, btw... (as recorded at Lady Taverners do the other week).

Champs Hill & Malcolm...

Great day down at Champs Hill, recording with Malcolm Martineau at the piano...
We completed everything we planned; Vaughan Williams, Haydn, Bridge, Poulenc, Quilter & Heneker - splendid - thus (working title) Songs of Love and War is well on its way; one more recording day, we feel and we will have all...
With our schedule in the next few weeks (and Malcolm's more so!), we 're not sure when we will finish all this... but we'll keep you posted!

Off this am to record a quick demo of a song for the new Tim Rice musical... (From Here to Eternity)... no waves in the studio, I think...

Christmas Cheer

Our Christmas album, including the newly-published, A Festival of Carols in Two Minutes, is newly available for digital download....

Hooray!

Luton Music Club

Lovely evening on the Thameslink line! [Home by 11.43 !]

NEWS FLASH! :- choralstore.com have our newly-published Xmas arrangement, as their work of the week... look here

Luton Music Club are a thriving club meeting on Mondays at Luton's Library Theatre; and we had a great time; beginning in the 12th century with Hildegard of Bingen (Ave generosa); and ending with Billy Joel's Goodnight, My Angel.... and much inbetween - Byrd 4-part Mass, Lambeth Walk etc.!

Our old friend, Richard Sisson [Widow of Kit and the Widow] came, as he is a longtime supporter of the Club, and it was great to see him... and congratulate him on his part in the Comedy Prom! He said he enjoyed himself...

We have a Captain Beaky dance (hah!) rehearsal at the RAH tomorrow morning... so night night!