breaking and entering in Montréal, & St-Jean-sur-Richelieu

We found another hall in which to sing in Montréal.... I do not think we have to come to the end of our search to perform in every possible place here!
This time it was Patro Le Prévost auditorium... perhaps our sixth venue after TV, radio, Jazz Festival (open air), Juste pour Rire, Pierre Peladeau & Chapelle Historique...

A fine lunchtime (vibrant) audience greeted us for two hours of jollity... & they bought songbooks and CDs too... how splendid.

At the end of our show, especially complicated as we were needing to rush on to St-Jean-sur-Richelieu for an evening performance, we found ourselves locked out of the dressing room:- here is what they did to their door (it wasn't us, guv!)...

Then we did get to go to SJR, although the traffic issues which plague Montréal at peak time did make us sit about in traffic all the way to Pont Jacques-Cartier, and after... but we managed to get there in time to perform... sound check, who needs 'em.... The tech staff & everyone else at Cabaret-Théâtre Vieux St-Jean were terrific & the audience lapped up everything we offered with great enthusiasm... All done and dusted by 7.20... a busy day!!

Thank you to all at l'Agence Station Bleue for their hard work on our behalf...

The pleasure of Ontario

Four excellent places to stop and enjoy autumnal Ontario...

Deep River, Orillia, Burlington & Lakefield.

In Deep River, we started with a lunchtime performance to lots of schoolchildren, before the evening show... they were clearly very excited... I suspect they may have decided before we showed up that we might be boring... we showed them! 
Lots of hilarity...

There was a 15-minute Q&A after this; one question was how old we are (clearly... very!); Richard asked them to guess our combined age... 736 was the loudest and first guess!  How very Old Testament.

We saw this wonderful sign in a shop-window... presumably it's all about Thanksgiving (which has just happened over here) excess... funny ol' habits here in Canada!

Splendid day here, and Jim, the light and sound man made everything sound wonderful!



Then on to Orillia & the excellent Orillia Opera House - gloriously shortened to (you guessed it!):

OOH

Another excellent place in which to sing and with the Jazz Festival over three days when we are here, awash with music in every bar, café and spare space in the town... great.  We heard a super trio over lunch (with real espresso). Great bookshops too...
The fantastic autumnal colours are all over the place too - our hotel was here on a lake by a park - from deep reds through orange and brown to yellow... excellent.

Then two gigs on one day, a lunchtime at Burlington Arts Centre, followed by an interview onstage by Barbara Budd - esteemed Canadian actress and CBC presenter... she was very professional of course and teased out all our secrets!  The audience tittered...

...and quickly on to Lakefield - return visit after almost exactly 4 years...last time we got a puncture here and then had our internal flight cancelled because of fog & had to drive for miles & miles the next day.... no such problems this time!  Lovely to be back (and they said this almost never happens)... We were looked after as before, in grand style and enjoyed Lakeside's cuisine and wine.  The Hall was wonderful to sing in too...  Some members of the audience cheated and already knew all the words to The Lambeth Walk... I still made them have a practice, of course.

Mike stopped off for a bit of electioneering (I don't know where he finds the time)...

We then found out on the way to Québec what Bob was going to do in January....
Following Mike's lead, here he is canvassing for office:- to be Mayor of Kingston [ON] - outside the beautifully apportioned Wendy's car park-cum-rubbish tip.... All the Best, mate!

So here we are in Montréal, one of our favourite cities... three concerts to come here at St Jean sur Richelieu, Montréal itself & Repentigny...[October 23rd - 25th]... bring it on!
Details of gigs HERE

David Rayvern Allen RIP

Very sad news to hear that our old friend, David Rayvern Allen has died...

Such a polymath; radio producer, presenter and announcer from the latter part of radio's golden age, speaker, author of huge numbers of authoritative biographies, books and anthologies on his beloved game of cricket... and collector of sheet music of a huge range, but mainly a vast collection of sporting songs... (which we have plundered over the years).

A supporter of many artists over decades, and a great friend of the indefatigable Richard Stilgoe, he of course mentored and co-produced our Songs of Cricket CD on Signum.

No more jolly cricket evenings at Lord's (and elsewhere) with DRA doing his presenting bit and our all being able to mess around in whites.

A sad loss...

Kate Dimbleby Album launch

Lovely evening at the Dean Street Jazz@Pizza Express to launch Kate Dimbleby's CD, Love Comes Again...

Fellow guests were the singer-songwriters, Rebecca Hollweg, and Jay Fisher... who both duetted with Kate...
Great to hear them and their music...
We were all backed by Naadia Sheriff (piano), Sophie Alloway (drums) & Andy Hamill (bass):- the bassist would usually be Jonty Fisher, but owing to bad planning, he was booked on the wrong plane home from Italy by someone else... splendidly Andy, who is also Rebecca's husband stepped into the breach & was excellent.

We sang our track from the album with Kate - Cab Calloway's Everybody eats... as well as Hit the Road, Jack - lovely to sing with Kate, and of course we were splendidly accompanied by Naadia, Sophie & Andy.
We also gave our a cappella 'cats duet' of Man Tran/Ink Spots tracks... Well, well, well  &  That Cat is High, as well as The Lambeth Walk - which the people gamely tried to join in with... of course we still berated them!
Backwards was better...

Golden Triangle tour

Marshchapel, Lincolnshire, Ilkley, Yorkshire and Bucharest, Romania... yes we have trod the same well-travelled path as others before us:- such a natural triumvirate.

Three very different evenings...
Firstly in the Cathedral of the Marshes in Marshchapel... a beautiful church in which to sing and a delightful crowd of jolly, happy people to be entertained... joys... Thank you, to Paul and his charming wife, Ros for looking after us so well... (marvellous cottage pie)...
An excellent Festival run by keen and conscientious people.
Thank you to Voces8 for suggesting us and giving our concert a plug!

Then back to the Ilkley Playhouse, Yorkshire... where we were last June; wonderful to be back, but of course, sad to be reminded of the sad early death of my old friend, Walter Swan, who invited us for these two shows...
...but after that sting of a reminder, the show did indeed go on, and we had a very fine time with a keen Yorkshire crowd, only a few of whom were old friends from London!
They even were happy with our rendition of a song by local hero, Jake Thackray:- Sister Josephine.
Thank you to Joy for looking after us too...with her lovely family.

Then, naturally, on to the capital of Romania to help celebrate 20 years of BMW in the country:- Automobile Bavaria.  A splendid celebration with many car people and local celebrities...
They tried to join in with the Lambeth Walk and understood our Romanian - hooray...

Then there was the unveiling (for Romania) of the new BMW i8 (an electronic car - sorry, Jeremy!)...

Excellent to see Romania for the third time this year... in glorious late summer sunshine.

Hooray.

Preparations for Kate Dimbleby CD launch on Sunday evening and then Canada... terrific!

Bridewell #3 & #4 and a lovely party

Two more performances at the bijou Bridewell Theatre on Friday and Saturday afternoon were splendid fun!
...forgot to mention on the last blog the tremendous contribution of the squeaky floorboard (sited between Mike & I on stage) which filled many pieces - both serious and comedy! - with a frisson of excitement.
Enthusiastic responses from the people to squeaks and music alike.
Long may our relationship with the St. Bride Foundation continue...

Then a quick jaunt up to Warwick Avenue for a private party at Clifton Nurseries - a fine venue & now available for Weddings!
Joined by wonderful pianist Chris Hatt, we celebrated Penny Levinson's birthday with her friends and family in fine style... singing many of her favourite songs... Let's Do It, Night & Day, The Way You Look Tonight, Mad Dogs & Englishmen, Tea for Two, As Time Goes By, A Fine Romance, & Honeysuckle Rose... as well as renditions of Cricket Tea Towel, Strangers in the Night and (altogether now) The Lambeth Walk...
Delightful to be invited to her celebrations...

A busy and enjoyable day...

Bridewell Theatre #1 & #2

First two Bridewell Theatre shows for this September... marvellous.
Still tonight and Saturday afternoon to come....

We enjoyed going Over the Top! for our first two nights in the splendid Bridewell Theatre off Fleet Street... As we are Artists in Residence at the Bridewell Institute, we have performed here many times...

Still a joy - lovely audiences have enjoyed all our nonsense with great aplomb...

Thanks to Mikey and all at the Bridewell for their tremendous support throughout the year.