Patricia Hammond

New Patricia Hammond EP – A Nice Cup Of Tea

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.

Lovely PR man Doug has set up another blog for me, more “hipster” in feel (well, I do have hips…can’t argue with that…) and I feel I must somehow share this information! For those who are in any way interested (oh it all feels so solipsistic! I try to talk about other people in it) here tis: http://thecanadiannightingale.blogspot.com
I do apologise for the size of the print and the fact it is white-on-black. Perhaps this is to do with the hipster element too.
Also I apologise for the way that these emails say, clinically, at the bottom, “you received this email because you asked for it.”
Oh while I’m recommending blogs, take a look at the adorable Noir Girl’s blog! I’m not just saying this because we had a really fun conversation which she’s painstakingly transcribed, but because she’s got some wonderfully enjoyable features (“read with me!” “The Huzzah Squad” and has a lovely sense of joy about things Noir, and things, for want of a better word, retro.) http://caseykoester.wordpress.com/

Yesterday saw the live debut of “Our Lovely Day”. It was unheralded because it looked unlikely to happen. The venue was in the “Scoop” which is a sunken stage next to London’s City Hall and it is surrounded by stone steps that are supposed to be seats. If it rains, bands aren’t allowed to perform, and it looked very likely to rain yesterday. But Andrea Kmecova (piano), Orpheus Papafillippou (violin), Nick Ball (percussion, spoons), John Baker (double bass) and Matt Redman (guitar, mandolin, banjo, melodica, glockenspiel on this occasion) all came out and stood by, dressed in their best Parlour Exhibition Band finery. Orpheus had a top-hat, Matt had a Fedora and large pinstripes, John wore a mourning-coat with tails, Nick was 1930s with a bowler hat, Andrea in black velvet with silk flowers. I wore a creation from my favourite boutique, Nataya.

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!!

When I listed the concert in the Notting Hill Mayfest (Monday the 23rd) I said it was in St. John’s, but it’s in St. Peter’s! Only around the corner (Kensington Park Road, opposite Stanley Gardens), but an entirely different church. I am now, by the way, a massive fan of Ragtime.

A world premiere where they filmed All Creatures Great and Small! (Sorry, but that bit of trivia does excite me) Composer Michael Brough has been commissioned to set three texts by local poets and I’m the lucky one to sing them, with Lucy Downer on the clarinet. They’re imaginative and express the mood of the terrain amazingly. Think of the last couple of pages of Britten’s Peter Grimes. That atmospheric. It’s to be on the 1st of June, in Arkengarthdale, north Yorkshire. St. Mary’s Church at 5pm.
More information HERE.

“Our Lovely Day” is now completed! All 18 tracks have been recorded, and now we’re just waiting for a release date, and a swank location for a showcase. As soon as I know, I will post details on this site.

Songs on this CD, in no particular order, include Button Up your Overcoat (you belong to me); Yours; That Lovely Weekend; Can’t Help Singing; A Nice Cup of Tea in the Morning; Did You Ever See a Dream Walking; Smiling Through; Always; the Honeysuckle and the Bee; We’ll Gather Lilacs; My Own; Drink to me Only; Love’s Old Sweet Song; I’ll See You In My Dreams; and of course, Our Lovely Day.

A glorious compilation of nostalgic songs: evergreens that are still enjoyed by young and old, Our Lovely Day brings to life the sounds of a cherished era.

Despite the continuing popularity of such numbers as Smilin’ Through and Let Him Go Let Him Tarry, many of these gems haven’t been recorded in several decades. Others, such as Love’s Old Sweet Song and We’ll Gather Lilacs, are almost standards. “It’s a distillation of my favourites and the favourites of the many people I’ve sung to,” says Patricia. “It’s wonderful when these two things go together!”

A mixture of songs from Patricia’s childhood, her ongoing sheet music collection, and audience requests, this CD presents 13 specially-commissioned arrangements, using two exciting young talents, Matt Redman and Nick Ball, who also provide 16 of the 31 instruments used on the album. Drink To Me Only and I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls use a simple harp accompaniment, three songs are for piano and voice, and the rest range from a small early jazz ensemble including spoons, banjo and violin, to a lavish assortment of orchestral sounds.

Bach’s B Minor Mass, performed at St. Anne’s Lutheran Church on Gresham Street, London. I’ll be singing the alto solos, in company with three outstanding soloists. Tickets £15.

Bach’s St. John Passion at the Eton College Chapel! At 19:30, tickets £18 and £16.

On Saturday the 2nd of April, I’ll be doing Bach’s B Minor Mass again, with Eclectic Voices, this time at the Actors’ Church in Covent Garden: St. Paul’s. Tickets are £15.