Touring Germany

Four contrasting dates in Germany kept us busy last week.

We are now being joined rather more regularly on the topline by Billy Purefoy, which is a splendid idea... (his biog. is on the website, should you wish to know (a bit) more...
...my spellcheck wishes to rename him Billy putrefy, but I digress... (not a nice thought!)

First stop was at Burgwedel for a Full English Brexit - we were treated splendidly (as we were for the whole tour... great food every time!)
We are very grateful to Maggie and Julian Forsyth for helping us make our wordy FEB show more helpful to a German-speaking audience.
Including a great new song about the amount of English words in German, which the people loved... a lot!
A wonderful audience forgave our discussing Brexit, and even laughed and applauded (at apt moments).

Then it was a Madrigal to McCartney concert in Oldendorf, where we sang in a beautiful church, and were attended on by a wonderfully attentive group of people... we were lucky that they wanted their first ever concert to go very well... and we were spoilt!

We were even chalked up outside the church...

We gave the world première of our arrangement for four voices of Et Misericordiam from Bach's Magnificat - marvellous alto & tenor duet - Bill and Chris obliged, Mike sang the bass... and I did everything else!

In our hotel, we found proof of the enduring link between singers and (p)faffing about (geddit!?)

Then it was on to Frankfurt-Höchst, and back to Brexit... Our fourth visit here - they must be gluttons for punishment!
Old friends Carole & Birgit were also in attendance, splendidly & did  a very good job of selling our CDs and music-books!  Great to have them both with us.

Here we are relaxing after the gig, or is it, after relaxing after the gig...?

For the last night at Biberach - another FEB show - we were joined by pianist, Ben Costello - he accompanied us in some Christmas concerts in Belgium last year & we are doing another Christmas concert with him this year on December 1st, as part of Thames Concerts... a festival which Ben is the Artistic Director (do come along, if you're near London!)
Lovely to have Ben with us again.
Lovely also for the hotel bar to be open 24 hours... marvellous... German beer (and for some wine) was enjoyed immensely

We had a little snow on way back to the airport... not any problem, but this sight at alarm-clock time did feel a little concerning....!

Zédel joys

Wonderful evening in Crazy Coqs at Brasserie Zédel...
Full English Brexit had another outing and an enthusiastic crowd joined in the fun.

A delightful venue for those who do not know, and such a splendour in which to perform - Art Deco all over the show!

We were joined by old friend, Bill Purefoy on the topline...I say old friend, in fact, he was in the group 1992-3... so a wee comeback after just a quarter of a century.  Fabulous to have him back, still huge fun and of course with a beautiful voice... hoorah.
...and also we had Chris Hatt on the piano - having taken a night off from MD-ing Hamilton; lovely to see him again after a while (as he has been a busy busy boy!) & to have him accompany us with such brilliance.

Many old fiends in the audience, which obvs. was lovely; special mention to two people... my old friend Colin Warnock, who came to hear us sing one of his songs (She's Gone - with lyrics by Martin Tyrrell, mostly rewritten as They've Gone); and Lotti Viola, who came all the way from Vienna... now there's dedication!