an evening of Champs Hill cheer

Joyful evening in aid of the excellent Sussex Snowdrop Trust at Champs Hill...

This being the home of, verily, Champs Hill Records... we were in the very room where we recorded Songs of Love and War...
So this room which is attached to David and Mary Bowerman's lovely home is a recording studio, a concert hall and indeed an art gallery!
Here we are rehearsing... (amidst the art):-

You probably cannot recognise Chris Hatt at the piano, as he has lost loads of weight (not that this was a desperate need), and now looks like a teenager again!

His very svelteness puts us to shame (well, speaking on behalf of the male department of the group... well, perhaps, just myself!)

The audience were warm and splendid from the very start; Diana Levantine, Chairman & co-founder of the charity made sure that everyone was sure that this was to be a happy evening.... and so it was!

We performed some Christmas, some of our film/musical show, some classical music and a fair sprinkling of silliness...

Good to sing the Pavane - Belle qui tiens ma vie captive dans tes yeux by Thoinot Arbeau in the same place we recorded it for the album...

We are singing Infant Holy, Infant Lowly this Christmas as a tribute to the wonderful talents of Sir David Willcocks, who died recently after such a glittering career. Its simple beauty has such a great effect.

Excellent to once again have Chris Hatt around, so we could do some great piano numbers... Skyfall, Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, Laurel and Hardy (Way Out West songs and dance), He's a Tramp and White Christmas (the full Bing, courtesy of Mike - other browsers are available)... 

Also we gave our Sleigh Ride, with the crowd supplying both jingle bells (using car keys for the most part) and the horses' neighs!

The audience appeared mesmerised by the end of the evening... and Chris Hatt's tour-de-force accompaniment to See Amid the Winter's Snow (arranged gloriously by Jonathan Rathbone) was a great part of that!

Lovely to meet/see everyone afterwards... including Chris (O'Gorman this time)'s parents.

Thank you to Diana, David and Mary for making this whole experience such fun!

....and royally entertaining us too!

The guy below is in the garden... he commemorates the huge storm of 1987 !

Marvellous also to see this great George Rowlett painting with such thick daubing of the Thames at Greenwich...

Next stop, the Royal Albert Hall, for a gala evening - Christmas with the Stars - in aid of Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research.

Grand Night in Grantham

Excellent evening with the Grantham Music Society at Guildhall Arts Centre;

Amazingly the building kept changing colour - here's one:

...and another (I won't show you the full rainbow!):

...and all this under the watchful eye of local hero, Sir Isaac Newton!

The audience came with us on our conventional journey from Henry VIII to Richard Rodney Bennett, from Bach to the Beatles, and of course there was Christmas too!

There was a great excitement before the concert when Sarah-Ann locked herself in her dressing room (not incompetance:- it has a dodgy lock); luckily technician Laura was on hand to deal with this... altho' it did take about 10 minutes!

...but she was .... free at last! 

This is our third concert for the Society & it was as splendid as ever... lovely receptive audience... and excellent to sing in the Guildhall Arts Centre for the first time.

Thanks to Bob and Maryan for looking after us so well...

We also got to serenade Sarah-Ann's parents... a joy!

It was possible to get home on the same day by train, so brilliance all round.

A super day in Grantham!

Off to Champs Hill, near Pulborough, where we recorded our last album, Songs of Love and War, for a charity evening on Friday...

BBC Radio 3 - CD Review - Saturday 5th July

Hooray - have just heard that our newest CD, Songs of Love and War will be reviewed on BBC Radio 3 Saturday morning - in the war CDs section from 10:50 - 11:45...

This is course can be listened to live, but also in perpetuity!

Look/listen HERE !

We're on a new CD...

Excellent new CD from wonderful jazz singer Kate Dimbleby, Love Comes Again: featuring many talents... Jonty Fisher on bass, Sophie Alloway on percussion & Naadia Sheriff on piano to name but three...
...and on the last track us as well!
(Everybody Eats... Cab Calloway)

Some classic jazz numbers and Kate's own hilarious/poignant songs!

Simply go here:- & you can have it yourself.... either download, or physical (plus free download!)

Hooray!

PS: Don't forget to get your Songs of Love and War, if you have yet so to do!

Banstead & a great CD review

Banstead Festival was a delight - a glorious Spring Saturday & a very enthusiastic audience... happy to receive Poulenc, Sullivan, Chopin, Jobim, The Mills Brothers, The Beatles, The Manhattan Transfer, Randy Newman, Billy Joel & sing along with both The Lion Sleeps Tonight & The Lambeth Walk...
One man left a note saying that having heard our Cricket Tea Towel song he now finally understood the laws of the game! Glad to be of service...

In case you have yet to find this.... here's a review of our newest CD - (hooray!):-

Telegraph review of Songs of Love and War

Have you got your copy yet?!

Now we are preparing for our concert in Hannover (two 'n's), celebrating the 300th anniversary of the House of Hanover (one 'n')... more news later!

We were In Tune!

Oh yes...

...we were indeed on In Tune - and if you missed it - listen here (We were on between 5.24 and 5.57 - just under an hour into the show... but it's all good, natch!)
I also reckon that you do not have to be in the UK to do this - hooray!

Great to be in studio with Malcolm (as brilliant as ever at the piano); and to meet Sean Rafferty and Andrew McGregor - and John Wilson and Simon Butteriss too....
...and cool to do a big advert for Songs of Love and War & also the Crazy Coqs next week...

All good... next it's Gaby Roslin on Sunday PM....

Radio Days & Walter Swan

Looking forward to being on the Radio over the next few days...

Tomorrow (Friday PM) we are on BBC Radio 3's In Tune - the show runs from 4.30 till 6; we are joined by the splendid Malcolm Martineau, as we share some of our new album together - Songs of Love and War... four or five songs and chat - can't wait!

Then on Sunday afternoon we are on the Gaby Roslin show on BBC Radio London  -  where we will publicise our imminent shows at the Crazy Coqs - 29th & 30th April & 1st May...

Can't promise we'll keep the red flag flying on the last night, but there is at least a tube strike for most of the run to help us into that mind-set...

Very sad news at the beginning of the week; another far-too-young death.  My old English teacher, now a writer and someone who has booked us twice to work at Ilkley Playhouse, Walter Swan has died at 59 - quite awful and such a waste; such a decent, caring man - we send lots of love to his wife and sons...
Yorkshire Post Obit.

Philippsburg & Frankfurt-Höchst DE + TV & Radio

Two more German joys...

First the Jugendstil splendour of Philippsburg...

 

...beautiful hall from the outside and a fantastic place in which to sing... a final Best of British performance for the moment, and the last of four gigs with Gareth Hunt - excellent to have him around for these few days...

Then a second return visit to Höchst (very near to Frankfurt), for a Madrigal to McCartney show.

Both audiences were warm and delightful and fully ready to partake in our shows, and great technicians too!
Sales of Songs of Love and War were very fine - we have started spreading our new CD around Europe!

Apologies if anyone tries to watch us on BBC4 tonight - the programme was moved to Mondays and thus the first wee bit was on near the end of last night's viewing of Rule Britannia on BBC4 at 9PM... the next two episodes are on the 15th and the 22nd - at a similar time (we have a small bit in each it seems!)

Also:       BBC Radio 3 - In Tune - 4.30-6: Friday 25th April
                BBC Radio London - Gaby Roslin show - 2.30 - 5: Sunday 27th April

Then on to Crazy Coqs 30th, 31st April and 1st May - 8pm

Ankara, TK & Kisdorf, DE

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)

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...

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

Final Recording Session

Managed a rather magical image with my phone!  Here is Richard, taken through a window, thus the garden-frame is reflection - sadly some of my forehead in shot too!!

Final day of recording for new album at Champs Hill, with the terrific Malcolm Martineau on piano too - splendid...
Songs of Love & War - out in 2013 we expect... more news when we have it.

Great studio to record in... picaresque views, art on the walls... all gorgeous.

New things

Lots of new things on offer...

We have been busy preparing new songs for our show On the Funny Side of the Street - lots of new stuff for us; the show is a selection of funny UK material... from Monty Python (not just Lumberjack...), Hee Bee Gee Bees, Instant Sunshine, Barrys Cryer & Took, Tim Minchin (yes OK, he is Australian, but he has lived here for years), Flanders & Swann, Coward and Stilgoe - we have been finding it hard to not collapse laughing in rehearsal!

We are preparing also, a few new songs for publishing by Edition Peters - we'll say as soon as we know more...

We are three-quarters through a new CD with pianist Malcolm Martineau - working title, Songs of Love and War... if only the venue of recording (Champs Hill), MM, we & the producer were available on the same day (ever), we'd be able to finish it soon... as soon as we know etc...

Also another digital CD release - Hear no Evil... from 1984 - will happen in late April.

More news on all this soon,
Have a Happy Easter...

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...