They flew to Bruges

A lovely Bruges Blog
...apologies if you are not fluent in Dutch/Flemish... (There is a photo.)
...but I am told it is a positive thing!

Seasons of Love

Fabulous charity evening at the Royal Albert Hall a few days ago...
Lovely array of stars, and a gloriously moving & life-enhancing show for all.
Lynda Bellingham, Janie Dee, Jennifer Ellison, Jan Harvey, Julia Hills, Sue Holderness, Lesley Joseph, Gay Soper, Hannah Waterman, June Watson, Stephen Tomkinson, Christopher Timothy, Peter Skellern, Richard Stilgoe, Edward Baruwa, Tiffany Graves, Patrick Doyle, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Tim Firth, Alan Titchmarsh, Tabitha Webb, Debbie Kurup, DMJ & Willy Russell... were all there live; John Alderton, Julie Walters, Celia Imrie & Patricia Hodge all appeared on film with messages of support.

Also on film was Neil Sedaka, who was clearly delighted that we sang his song, Calendar Girl... we were delightfully aided in not looking too dreadful in our 'dancing' as we were joined by the gorgeous and talented, Rossana Stocchino & Lucie Waugh, who danced beautifully.
We also sang Scarborough Fair (in our great John Rutter arrangement) with the excellent harpist, Vicky Lester.

Another wonderful moment, when a young tenor from the West End Chorus, Ian, stepped in at just a few hours notice, and sang the absurdly hard song, 'Til I Hear You Sing from Lloyd Webber's Love Never Dies - terrific job to learn a song over night & do it so amazingly in the show

The show was a celebration of the work of those WI Calendar Girls who we know from the film and stage play, but are real splendid Yorkshire people whose calendar has to date made £3m for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research...
The audience, it was clear, loved the film, the play and these amazing fund-raisers.
The evening culminated in the real Calendar Girls, along with their photographer Terry Logan, coming onstage, and being the recipients of the first Baker awards, which will from now on be awarded annually for people who do great things for fund-raising.
The 'Girls' were tickled pink when the postman from their village of Cracoe, who had only been to London once before ("It's all right", he said when asked by Alan T. how he found it)... very moving and funny all at once.
Indeed we all sang Jerusalem together at the end it all...

Hugh Wooldridge as ever, did a wonderful, efficient job devising and directing all this, and getting it to work in the RAH over just a few hours... super MD: Kevin Amos, wonderful choreographer: Kevan Allen.

PS: lovely also for me to hear once more Make Our Garden Grow from Bernstein's Candide, which we had sung at our wedding...

Blieskastel, DE

Another excellent a cappella nacht organised by Peter Martin Jacob & Magenta, this time in Blieskastel... with some new and some old friends...
Lovely to see our Belorussian friends, Camerata, and to meet the male quartet Die Bogarts who are based in Berlin.
A packed crowd enjoyed all three groups & cheered us to the rafters...
A terrific evening, and lots of convivial meals too!
Delightfully, we're back in the same hall in Blieskastel, doing our Best of British show on Valentine's Day next year... How romantic!

In the last few days we have been rehearsing, and are now looking forward to our bits in Seasons of Love at the Royal Albert Hall tomorrow evening... at 6pm... along with Stilgoe and Skellern, Janie Dee, Stephen Tomkinson, Lynda Bellingham and Alan Titchmarsh amongst others, as well as the City of London Philharmonic and our old friends the West End Chorus...
We're singing Scarborough Fair as well as the Neil Sedaka hit - Calendar Girl - the evening is in aid of Leukaemia charities, and some of those Calendar Girls will be there...
Climaxing with that great WI hit... Jerusalem!

Brugge (anag...NOT!)

Two contrasting, tho' both excellent, experiences in the Netherlands and Belgium...
On the Dutch reclaimed coast to the west of Rotterdam, we had a splendid a cappella time at the Theater Twee Hondjes (Two Puppies' Theatre!)... singing Madrigal to McCartney - Back in Holland!
...and great it was to be back in a Dutch theatre.
There was a wonderful moment in this show, when Bob accidently stood on a prop - he was not affected by this, except that it was a car horn; the timing of which was quite excellent, & thus we others did all find it rather funny... we managed to sing the next song, I am delighted to say!

Then, after a day off in Rotterdam & Bruges (how lovely!), joined by Chris Hatt we performed a Best of British show at the Stadsschouwberg Brugge... Chris once again brought his whole family, wife, kids and parents too.... fantastic...
...and to a packed house once more, complete with an after-show dance for the audience (it's becoming a bit of a habit!) - wonderful theatre... as you can see; and we had a forest of union flags waving away at our Land of Hope and Glory (spoof) at the end of the show...

PS: Theatre in Bruges is in Vlamingstraat... so I felt at home!!

Belgian tour

A fine four days in Belgium... before the deluge at home...

de kam, Wezembeek-Oppem

de Maere in Tielt-Winge

cc palethe, Overpelt

de Markten, Brussels

Gigs one and three were opening nights of the theatres' new seasons.
Gigs two and three were 'Best of British' & we were joined by the wonderful, Chris Hatt...

Wonderful places, and as ever in Belgium, excellent cuisine on most occasions, friendliness & happy audiences.  The Brussels gig turned into a dance after we had performed (no-one was silly enough to ask us!)

Back at the end of the week in Hellevoetsluis in Holland on Friday for an a cappella concert & Belgium once more (Bruges) on Sunday afternoon for another Best of British...

You'll Never Walk Alone

A great dinner with the Medical Defence Union to celebrate the end of Dr Chris Evans' tenure as Chairman, at the Royal College of Physicians, Regents Park.

As this Royal College was started in 1518 (in London, nationwide in 1523) under Henry VIII, we began by singing the great King's Pastime with Good Company ... the audience were in fine mood, and loved it all; but as Chris Evans is a proud Liverpudlian, Yesterday & You'll Never Walk Alone were especially well received.

Such a delight to be home before 11 two gigs in a row...

Belgium awaits...

We can call him Al

A quite terrific evening in central London - Skinners' Hall, Cannon Street - celebrating three anniversaries in the same family... all ending in zero; founding counter-tenor of The Kings' Singers, Al Hume is 70, his car (a beautiful Lagonda sitting outside in the lane) is 80, and his wife Diane, (I shall graciously say) is much younger!

Lots of excellent jokes along the lines of... how lovely to be celebrating the birthdays of the beautiful Diane, the old banger.... and the car outside! (tee hee)... (Al did have the good grace to laugh).
Diane and Al's son, Alexander gave a fine speech belying his youth, introducing Dad, who was also hilarious!

Lots of other luminaries there, including organist/conductor Simon Preston & fellow ex-KS, Brian Kay, but more of that later...
A tough audience, it might seem, but all was sweetness and light... our set was delightfully received, once Richard had warmed them up by giving them an audition!
The highlight of the evening was indeed a counter-tenor extravaganza.... we started off the foundations for The Lion Sleeps Tonight... and then Richard pounced on all the counter-tenors (+1) in the audience; eventually we had David James (the man who first gave me singing lessons!), Michael Chance, Mark Deller, Richard Baker, Al Hume and also his wife up onstage to sing the tune to the song... and what a glorious noise it was... climaxing in a husband and wife duet of the last line.

Glorious.

Lovely evening , lovely setting...