Opwijk, BE

Despite my having forgotten my computer's power cable *, a fine two-day sojourn in Belgium was enjoyed by all...
Opwijk was a splendid Christmas evening, and we were treated excellently... Could this be because it is the home town of our Belgian agent, Thomas? Who knows...
... we did Sleigh Ride, asking the audience to provide the bells with either coins or their keys... one guy asked to borrow Richard's! Richard said it was the first time he had indeed handed over his keys to a gentleman!  Oddly enough when he asked for them back, the man's wife had them.
Funny Old World.
Gertie was there once more (and heard some different songs from yesterday, thank goodness) - and we put the world to rights in the bar afterwards...

Captain Beaky weekend awaits...

* Although this is of no interest at all, let me tell you that I was able to borrow Richard's power cable when he was not using it.

Herk-de-Stad, BE

Two Belgian dates before our Beaky weekend...
Just a slightly Christmas concert to start in Herk-de-Stad - near enough to Holland for our dear friend Gertie to visit - how splendid!
Once again, our new CD, Songs of Cricket outsold the others - it's a miracle; we are spreading the cricket word abroad!
As is so often the case in Belgium, the theatre here had an excellent restaurant attached - all good!

The people at the Theatre saw us at Lemmens, and convinced everybody else that we should come to Herk - these are great people! - fantastic that they did... we had a splendid time...
...on to Opwijk today...

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...