Brilliant Belgium Noel

BRIIANT BEGIUM

(geddit??)

Two splendid concerts in Belgium, two different programmes too!
Both accompanied by the incomparable Chris Hatt... (who also brought his adorable family over for the trip!)

Showtime at Overijse
&
Christmas at Oud-Turnhout

Here we all are, after both were done (photo taken by Sian Hatt!)

So it was songs from the shows and film firstly; Skyfall, Kiss from a Rose, Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, He's a Tramp, Laurel & Hardy, Guys & Dolls medley, Over the Rainbow & Happy... to name but a few!
Wonderful it was to do a full programme of theatre/film music.
There are more Showtime performances in the Spring in Holland and Belgium... have a look at our schedule!

As this concert was at 2PM, we had plenty of free time to get to the next place... & stayed at Turnhout (Christmas concert in a church in the Oud bit!)...
I did a great deal of Christmas shopping there!

AND, they had a real ass in the Nativity at the town square... tho' it looks blurred below:

But the concert was a pure delight - Christmas concerts so often are - but the church acoustics, and the clearly-joyful crowd made it all feel very special indeed...
We went of course from the sublime (Wexford Carol) to the ridiculous (See Amid... accompanied by attention-seeking pianist:- very funny!); from Elizabethan England to California via The Comedian Harmonists!
...and the packed church also was full of percussionists, as the Sleigh Bell (Keys) players were all terrific... and did excellent horse impressions in Sleigh Ride!
Chris Hatt's young family were terrifically amused to see Daddy wearing the Turkey carcass hat.... he does look quite spiffing thus!

It was great to see our Dutch friends Gertie & 'Riet too - a bonus!

Thank you, as ever, Thomas (& his sister) and Eurotheater for all your hard work...   

Here's a quick photo of the excellently-lit church just by our hotel... this angle just felt right somehow!

Happy Christmas!

Festive greetings to all!

Lier was a beautiful place in which to have such a last outing just before Christmas ... beautiful city...
...& no weather-travel issues, unlike previous Belgian trips in the Festive season... Hooray.
...and a splendid on-time comfortable Eurostar home... bliss.

A great Belgian tour - thanks to Thomas Van der Spiegel for all his hard work.

Oh, we had Christmas at home!

Now we are in the middle of our run at the Crazy Coqs cabaret in central London at Brasserie Zédel... delightful venue with wonderful staff... and the shows are going very well... a little bit valedictory as they are Richard's last gigs in the UK - very last one tonight - but still a lovely atmosphere and great fun.... only slightly hampered tonight that we have very early flights in the AM to get to Switzerland... what larks!!

...sadly we even had to leave a very loyal old fan outside the room (well. he's not that old!), as they could not get any more inside.... great for us perhaps, but annoying for him... sorry, Mark!

Great trio of destinations to come.... London, Fischingen, Esch-sur-Alzette....

Temse, BE

As we watch the Thames on the TV swelling to fearful proportions, we remember being in Temse, BE a few days back...
Temse has the French name Tamise (from the Romano-Gaulish Tamisiacum), so has the same root as Thames...

But enough linguistics... we had a splendid time in Temse - a really quite large community, of which I am ashamed to say we had never heard!
They bought lots of songbooks and CDs, and thus...
...lovely to see a large audience... & our ever-hard-working BE agent, Thomas Van der Spiegel (NOT Thomas Van den Spiegel the basketball player)... great to see Thomas... and indeed to share some splendid dark Belgian beer after the show.

Eurostar a wee bit delayed on the way home, but not too much - home in time to watch England beat Scotland at Rugby.

Forgot to say that in Linkebeek, we saw our old friend and opera singer, Margaret Lysack - good to catch up with her.

We have some filming on Thursday for TV - some of it outside... hope the rain is good to us here in London (and everywhere else too)...
...more info on TV anon...

De Haan, BE

An amazing Sunday for us!
Depending on which of us you talk of, we were out of our houses for 11 to 13 hours and out of the country for about 8 hours.... the chunnel (and Steve driving) got us To the Belgian coast and back for a New year's concert at Wielingen, De Haan ...
With the hall packed to the rafters of people eating and drinking, and with our ever-busy Belgian agent, Thomas Van der Spiegel on hand once more to look after us, we had a lovely afternoon on the coast... even tho' the temperature was 0°.
...but we were mostly quite amazed that we could do all this so quickly...& in just half-a-day!

btw, our last journey was enlivened by seeing Ben Bradshaw MP at Heathrow & Mark Urban (BBC reporter) at Hamburg airport... no such touches of fame this trip!

Aalst

Best of British went well to a packed house at Aalst... Our wonderful Belgian agent Thomas Van der Spiegel brought his whole family as they live nearby...
Lovely huge theatre, and friendly and excellent staff... and pre-gig meal in a restaurant that used to be a chapel - De Kapelaan - beautiful both architecturally and nutritionally...
Apart from a 30-second long coughing fit - I managed to obscure a Mike solo - which felt like about 2 hours, everything went well.
Did a very bad impression of HMQ, whilst wearing her face mask, as I stumbled into a chair, thus breaking one of Noel Coward's two golden rules of acting.... know your lines and don't walk into the furniture...
Steve's acres of Flemish, as ever, a great delight... (tho' we all join in a bit!) ...as indeed were his knees during the Lumberjack song...
Great to be back with Herr Paul Plummer on piano; and we have another show together tomorrow at Bocholt...

These last three gigs of this tour said together, with an overgutteral accent & a scowl - Jezus-Eik, Aalst, Bocholt - might give the idea that we are cross, but far from it, we are having a great time over here amongst the Belgae...