Beautiful Basel

Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome...

 

 

So to Basel on the magnificent Rhine, where we sang for a group of doctors!

The President this year, remembered us from a Cambridge dinner we sang at a few years ago and looked us up... how marvellous people can be!

 

One of the guest speakers was the amazing eminent heart surgeon, Sir Magdi Yacoub... he arrived late because of transport problems and walked in on our singing Caravan including our sand dance... he must have been a little confused... but he and all the other medical people had a splendid time!

Weep O Mine Eyes & Strangers in the Night were equally well appreciated...

A serious and fun evening!



 

Thank you to Herr Uwe Fritz for looking after us so well.

 

Three more photos

 

Despite being a highly cultured place, even here in erudite Switzerland; this is what happens to bookshops... someone called Butler has filled this one full of tat...

 

 

We were performing in the docks area... in a fascinating part of Basel which just across the river from France and a few hundred metres from Germany... (there is a spot - we sadly did not have time to see it - where you can stand on all three countries at the same time!)

...but there was some charming graffiti:

...and on a quick walk into Basel itself, there was a reminder of home for Sarah-Ann... all those lovely flying roads:- just like Birmingham...

 

California

To Ventura, CA on the west coast of the good ol' U.S. of A....

Steve and his wife, Martene (& Chloé) are very much expecting a new member of the family - right now-ish & so we were accompanied on our American travels, once more, by the splendid high tenor, Chris O'Gorman.....

Excellent to have him with us again.

We went to the Ventura Music Festival:

...and it was indeed sunny and lovely (perhaps a bit windy... but no complaints!); the weather had been bad before we arrived... we brought the sun.

...but there was a fine sunset over the beach car park!

All people who looked after us were splendid, Nuvi Mehta, the Festival Director was coolness itself, & Rose drove us about & did everything we needed... with help from Tom too!

The internet (& Rose) led us to two very fine restaurants in the city, the Aloha Steakhouse & The Lure Fish restaurant (thank you, Sarah for finding this great place!)

The concert was a delight, in a local church - thanks to Mark & Geoff for doing the sound.

Good to see California again... & sing to a laid-back CA audience... their contributions to Chanson d'amour and The Lion Sleeps Tonight certainly had laid-back connotation!

Sarah, Rose & Chris outside the church... great blue sky!

The great crowd were just as happy listening to our music from the golden era of English Church Music, as the Beach Boys and Randy Newman... and they laughed in all the right places!

We had a day to await our flight back home, and so we did some filming... more of this very soon, we hope...

Here is a break between takes!

...as you can perhaps see, it had turned a wee bit cooler... Chris and I gamely soldiered on in shorts!

We flew back via New York & so were able to take in the view...

Now we're home in the UK - awaiting more joys to come...

Busy and interesting for the back muscles, but a short trip to California can be wonderful!

St George's Day glory & Swiss beauty

For St George's Day, We share a lovely meal with the Spectacle-makers Livery Company, in Haberdasher's Hall in the City of London.
Marvellous.
As Sarah-Ann pointed out, it all sounds quite Terry Pratchett (RIP)

For those who wish to know more - look at Livery Companies

It was a wonderful spread... fine flowers too!

Clearly we followed our brief and sang many songs on the two most important subjects for the evening:
Eyes
&
Drinking!!

Eyes:  Weep O Mine Eyes, Jeepers Creepers

Drinking:  Brindisi, Beer-drinking Britons, The Anacreontic Song (we did the last two on the TV last year!)

Both:  Drink to me Only With Thine Eyes !

I put my lenses in for the evening... perhaps I should have kept my glasses!

Then off to CH:
...the beautiful view just by our hotel/restaurant.... at Pfäffikon, Switzerland

An a cappella gig as part of the a/c festival, which we shared with three other groups...

The first two prize-winners in the Fest...

A group of young people - Get Loud - a mixed group full of youthful joy...

...then Vocabular - slightly older all-male group; lovely mix of pop and classical...

...ending with the madcap The Glue - who were splendidly fun!

Inbetween these Swiss groups we were the British element... and everyone was in a fine mood... a grand night for singing indeed...

Lots of lovely harmony during The Lion Sleeps Tonight... & of course we introduced them to the Laws of Cricket (as you do)...

A lovely evening... & good to see our old friend, Silvan!

...and now we prepare ourselves for California...

Ventura Music Festival at Ventura Beach CA... 8PM on Friday May 1st...

See you there (don't forget your sunnies)!

An evening of indulgence!

To Spencer House on Green Park, a magnificent 18th-century Palace for an evening hosted by Credit Agricole...

Here's the room in which they dined, and we performed:

Amidst a sea of wonderful paintings and sculptures, we sang for the bank and their guests - the London editors of the French media - after their having watched the Rugby at Twickenham...
Delightfully everyone stayed in a good mood & we only crowed a little bit about the wonderful 55-35 scoreline!  ...and only made one comment about then French side missing someone akin to Jonny Wilkinson - gloriously his name fitting in the space of  a lyric from the song Harley Davidson!
Surely you all remember that Brigitte Bardot hit... No??

We were singing songs in honour of the outgoing boss Jean Paul Chifflet... two of his loves being his vines & his Harley!  So we sang a folk-song, Le Vigneron & the bike song!

Everyone at Spencer House was efficiency and politeness itself; a splendid time was had by all.

Fantastic Belgian times...

Excellent three concerts in Belgium at the end of last week... following our CARA award nomination for Best Classical Album last week!

Firstly Hold That Tiger! at Opwijk, where we were last at Christmas 2011.
Lots of vocal groups were paid tribute to, and a great time was had by all...
Splendid singing form the crowd in The Lion Sleeps Tonight.

Excellent view from my hotel window (tho' I did have to lean out a bit!)

More great Lion singing the next morning at St Bavo school in Gent (or Ghent, if you like).... a huge crowd sang along in both that and the flag-waving land of Hope & Glory, as we gave them a shortened version of Best of British (well, they did have to go to some lessons as well that day).
The most enthusiastic joiners-in we have ever had, but there were 500-ish of them and they are full of youthful energy!
Steve marshalled the Flemish speaking with aplomb, of course.

Then it was off to Geel for a full Best of British show... and glorious it was.

.... indeed, another beautiful Belgian city:

For both the B.O.B. shows we were joined by pianist Paul Plummer - lovely to see him again, and great he was free for us amidst his travelling musician life!

Three wonderful concerts with Sarah-Ann... great times are ahead!

It was raining, so we went to The Arc...

Lovely evening at Skinny Bananas Piano bar at The Arc in Caterham.

Thanks to all who looked after us... especially Nicky, Chris & Beth, but all were very friendly and helpful.

Many old friends (mostly mine as I am a South London boy) and new came to see us here, and despite the terrible weather created a delightful atmosphere...
Excellent joining in in The Lion Sleeps Tonight, and there was full use of audience space, especially from Sarah-Ann Cromwell!

So the Arc's mini a cappella fest... just us and the Canadians Countermeasure was a great success... Hope this small corner of the SE enjoyed its vocal music!

Off to more rehearsal now... and a Belgian tour later in the month...

Countermeasure & TLQ at The Arc

Two a cappella concerts for you (if you are prepared to come to the very south of London!)...
...at The Arc in Caterham in its Skinny Bananas piano bar... come & see:

The wonderful Canadian group Countermeasure, who we met last year... are on Friday 30th January...
...and we follow on Friday 13th February...
Don't miss The Arc's mini a cappella festival!

PS: You can also catch Countermeasure at Oxford (29th) and the London a cappella Festival (31st) - which of course has other joys!!