Singing in Canada

At the Gilbert Scott with Emily O'Hara, John Baker and Simon Marsh

And now I’m in the Sunday Times, and a goodly few paragraphs of me at that! Terribly gratifying. But this month’s vintage-style gigs are almost all in private venues, so all these wonderful new people will be clamouring to hear the Parlour Band and they won’t be let in! All I can say to that is

WE’RE FOR HIRE!

And we’re jolly good, we are. We look good and sound good, and can operate in a duo (me and a piano), a trio (me and a piano plus a clarinet or violin) or me PLUS trio (The Lovely Parlour Trio: guitar/banjo, piano, specialist percussion), or Ragtime Parlour four (not requiring piano: banjo, clarinet, percussion, sousaphone) Or the full-on Lovely Parlour Band (violin, clarinet, percussion, banjo, bass, piano).
We can work with or without a PA. And nobody else sounds anything like us.

Our Lovely Day was also featured in the rather sweet magazine “Yours”. It was on their “Don’t Miss” page under “Must Listen”. They paraphrased what Sir Michael Parkinson said about the disc. He said a music-box of vintage treasures. They said a musical box of vintage treasures. Well, Jenny Agutter was on the front cover of the magazine. That ain’t any bad thing at all.

We’ve also been reviewed by the-rocker in Zeitgeist.
I particularly love his memories of his grandmother.

And again, the CD is available on Amazon, and now on Spotify.

I had a day in a studio just off Oxford Street talking to a series of radio stations that were so obscure they didn’t have websites, though the gents who took the time to interview me were all extremely knowledgeable.

Then broadcasting legend Desmond Carrington opened his complimentary copy and decided to play “A Nice Cup of Tea” on his show The Music Goes Round on the 18th of November. Then two days ago he played “I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls”. You can hear it HERE, at exactly 16 minutes in.

Classic FM has yet to play any of it.

I’m very excited that the Lovely Parlour Trio and I are going to play live on BBC Radio London, the Breakfast Show with JoAnne Good and Simon Lederman on Saturday the 17th of December, as the last time I was there, talking of my experiences in Nursing Homes, they said to come back soon! And they also operate out of one of the very few studios still in possession of an upright piano. We believe that such respect for heritage ought to be rewarded. I might not sit on top of it, as all footage of the Lovely Parlour Band would indicate…Do see our clips on YouTube if you’re interested…

Please remember that if these updates are unecessary, or if, for any reason, you’d rather seek out information than be sought out, you can unsubscribe! I will not be in any way hurt.

But many thanks for your interest, and please spread the word about the album. We had a budget to produce it, pay for the research, the arrangements, the fine musicians, the wonderful studio and the booklet and photography, but we don’t have any for advertising. We need a very, very strong grapevine.

Just a few things…
I’ve been writing a lot of blather about this and that at www.thecanadiannightingale.blogspot.com and if you like vintage cars, do have a look. I was lucky enough to be at Goodwood for four whole days.

But most importantly, there is a sort of taster for the album available online on Amazon, my website and iTunes on the 23rd of October. It’s going to be called “A Nice Cup of Tea” and the artwork (though digital only, you can print one out) was created by none other than Nick Ball, one of the arrangers, and the fellow who plays not only the spoons and the glockenspiel, but also the kazoo solo. Along with Matt Redman (who plays ukulele on the track), he also arranged it. It is the song you always knew but never heard a recording of. Aren’t you lucky? Now you’ll have the recording. It’s the sort of ditty you want to whistle, and with that in mind, there is even a whistling chorus in it.

Also available – and like this one, online only – will be We’ll Gather Lilacs, in an almost chamber-ensemble arrangement (all of these by Matt and Nick); the Honeysuckle and the Bee from 1901 with a lovely ragtime feel complete with banjo; and Let Him Go, Let Him Tarry, a spirited Irish singalong which was featured in the classic film “The Way to the Stars”. So that’s four tracks, available on the 23rd of October.

Two performances will celebrate it: one on the 23rd itself, at the Clerkenwell Vintage Fair near the tea-shop, and one on the 3rd of November at a special evening devoted to poetry readings…poems about tea! In a Notting Hill tea-shop. Details on the website when you click on the “gigs” link.

AAAAND most importantly, you can HAVE a track for free. It’s my most-requested number, the Honeysuckle and the Bee. If you go to my blog, there is a widget to the left of the text and all you do is click, and follow the instructions. I want this to go around the world and for people like Stephen Fry to notice it. So forward it to as many people as you can, and maybe it’ll end up there!

Lastly, there was a nice feature at THE VINTAGE GUIDE TO LONDON recently, which, if you’re not a regular reader of said e-zine, you may have missed.

Available 23.10.11 – Pre Order now available. Click here to order now


Revivals and longing for things past are everywhere, from Downton Abbey to knitting circles, vintage clothes, home baking, even sweet-shops; nostalgia for things from the past is flourishing around Britain.

Patricia Hammond has always loved all things old, particularly people and particularly songs.

By night, Patricia buries herself deep into the musty hovels of Soho and East London to perform with speakeasy-style retro bands. By day she sings in hospitals, hospices, care homes and at tea parties for disability groups. Always she sings her beloved songs from the 1840’s through to the 1950’s, accompanied by her Lovely Parlour Band, presenting the music in the most authentic way.

Mezzo Soprano Patricia has been working with Music in Hospitals, Magic Me and Lost Chord for over a decade, trying out hundreds of songs in front of those who knew them first. The effect of these songs can be nothing short of miraculous, like the time a man in Wales suddenly started singing along to ‘Yours,’ having not spoken a word for six years. Or the lady stroke victim who opened her eyes for the first time and formed her lips to the words ‘Always’.

Then there’s a whole other crowd who’ve never heard these songs before, denizens of the retro clubs that are springing up everywhere. As a burlesque dancer recently said to Patricia, “You’re like an old record without the scratches”, a compliment indeed.

Patricia’s new 4-track EP entitled ‘‘A Nice Cup of Tea” will be released on October 23rd 2011. Signalling a glorious renaissance of songs which have probably been playing in the background all your life: ‘A Nice Cup Of Tea’, ‘Let Him Go, Let Him Tarry’, ‘The Honeysuckle And The Bee’ and ‘We’ll Gather Lilacs’. These songs haven’t been recorded for years but they’ve stayed alive in the national memory simply because they’re too good to die away, they’re just waiting to burst into life again.

Classically trained and a renowned oratorio soloist, Patricia is brilliantly impossible to categorise. She has sung at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall and Royal Festival Hall under Ivan Fischer and Sir Simon Rattle, performed in a drag act, and in 2002 released an album of French Salon Songs.
She loves vintage clothes, once describing herself as dressing ‘like a cast-off Edwardian royal mistress’ and vintage music. She adores Handel, Vaughan Williams and ragtime, new works and old songs, but most of all she loves singing to an audience.

Wherever you are and whatever you’re doing, put the kettle on, put Patricia Hammond’s ‘Nice Cup Of Tea’ EP through your speakers and enjoy a little nostalgia.

“Care homes for the elderly are a notoriously tough gig, and entertainers who do the circuit can be met with anything from heartbreaking, helpless passivity to heckling and walk-outs. But every so often, the singer Patricia Hammond reveals, a miracle makes it all worthwhile.” – Daily Telegraph

PATRICIA HAMMOND

NICE CUP OF TEA (EP)

Track List:

1. A Nice Cup Of Tea – this song will be remembered as a jingle for a 1970s tea advert but was a lovely little number from the 1930s made famous by Binnie Hale. Patricia found the sheet music at Oxfam. The arrangement involves spoons, glockenspiel, a ukulele, a kazoo and a whistling chorus.

2. Let Him Go, Let Him Tarry – an Irish folk-song, sung by the actress Jean Simmons in the classic film “The Way to the Stars”, one of the greatest British War films ever made. This version has a spontaneous barberhop-quartet singalong.

3. The Honeysuckle and the Bee – The hit song from a 1901 show at the Vaudeville Theatre entitled Bluebell in Fairyland. One of Patricia’s most-requested numbers.

4. We’ll Gather Lilacs – Ivor Novello wrote this for his show Perchance To Dream in 1945, and here it’s given an intimate, chamber arrangement to reflect the hope in its lyrics.

Our Lovely Day features about thirty different instruments, though never all at once, and these new arrangements by Matt Redman take what he and Nick arranged for the album and make them work with this particular ensemble, all of whom feature on the CD. We can now tour Our Lovely Day!

In the end it didn’t rain, and what was more, our music drew people in. In fact, the crowd stretched all the way to the Thames. People of all ages including a school outing came and sat down. I could see the astonished faces of some elderly couples as they heard songs their grandparents used to sing coming forth from this essentially rock-and-roll bandstand. I looked out occasionally for Boris Johnson’s tousled blond head poking out of a window in City Hall. I think he’d have loved us. We performed “Always”, “Did You Ever See A Dream Walking”, “Yours”, “Button Up Your Overcoat”, “That Lovely Weekend” and “Come to the Fair”, and we are ready for the tour circuit!!