I know this is rather last-minute but if you have a desire to be near the Thames at Hampton Court, this Friday, day after tomorrow that is, the 11th of August, Matt and I will be performing Old English Ditties at Garrick’s utterly charming Temple to Shakespeare, at 19:30pm.
It is truly the most magical venue. Built by the legendary Shakespearian actor David Garrick to entertain his guests with intimate readings, its acoustics and its architecture are inimate, and GORGEOUS. There will be food and wine available in the interval, and the ducks and geese can be heard throughout! We will do such lovely things as “The Miller of Dee”, “Oh Dear What Can the Matter Be” and also some sea shanties, and MAYBE some French ditties too while we’re at it. Tuneful and charming, and altogether lovely.
Here is one of the songs, performed at St. Thomas’s Hospital earlier this year:
On 26th of July, Matt and I were thrilled to perform at the 50th anniversary of the dedication of the German Military Cemetery in Cannock Chase. Over 5,000 war dead are buried here, in Stafford. It is one of the most stunning cemeteries I’ve seen. Well worth a visit. It has a dip in the middle of the long rolling plot of land, and on one slope are the First World War dead, and the other are the Second. Prisoners of War, sailors who drowned, and many shot down from the sky are laid to rest here, and every year teenagers from Germany and from Staffordshire stay at a nearby camp and tend the graves. The cooks at their camp are German Army chefs who come over and give of their services for free. The teens invited us to eat with them and we had some sausages in a white sauce with potatoes, which were VERY tasty, then we went and gave an impromptu concert for them in a nearby tent. NO acoustic in tents! None! But they were so attentive it worked. I said that Matt could play any style and to our astonishment, three of the young people asked him to play AC/DC! Like, retro! They also enjoyed our 1910s songs, I hasten to add. They particularly liked “Stay Down Here Where You Belong” of Irving Berlin.
The next day it rained but we performed the German prisoner-of-war song “Möwe du fliegst in die Heimat”, which means “Seagull, you fly to my homeland”. We needed to do an English version so that we could sing for both nations, but there’s no way to make the word “Seagull” sound poetic in English…they steal chips, they get into bins, they terrorize children. So I made it “bluebird” and the translation must have worked, because a few people assumed it was an English song, even though we did the German version as well! We then performed “Auf Wiedersehn” in the original German and then “Auf Wiedersehn Sweetheart” as was made famous by Dame Vera Lynn. At the high cross in the centre of the cemetery we were requested to do “Something modern and hopeful” so it was the Scorpions’ “Wind of Change”. Unamplified, the wind made our whistling bits inaudible, though I could see that most of the audience was whistling with us! I have video footage of this event and will post it in time…DO subscribe to the YouTube channel if interested! Which is HERE
On the 10th of September we will be closing an evening of quirky acts at the Spice of Life nightclub…I believe Matt and I will be on at 9:30pm, that is 2130hrs. It’s £4 to get in. We’ll be doing our best Edwardian pop music! When I have a link I’ll edit this post and add it! But if you’d like to get it in the diary it’s at 6 Moor Street, W1D 5NA, which is in Soho, just off Shaftesbury Avenue. Nice and central!
I’ll be playing the autoharp and Matt will be playing whatever he can physically manage to bring. Probably a bit like at this gig we did in Ealing a couple of weeks ago…but I’ll wear less of an “Ealing” Edwardian dress, more of a “Soho” one.
Maybe see you there!
Oh, nearly forgot! We will be performing medical songs and exotic songs at Mosquito Day at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine from 4 to 6pm on the 18th of August! Details: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-tale-of-control-campaigns-and-cunning-tickets-36059665430
Introducing the Versatility Serenaders!
I can’t tell you how excited I am about this. The 1910s were a fascinating and rich time of cultural flux, chock-full of many different musical trends, and finally, here’s a band that tries to incorporate them all! Well, I can go on about it, but I’ll give a digest of our gig in July, right here:
Normally we wouldn’t be using microphones, but this engagement was in a place with zero acoustic, and a lot of liquored-up young hooligans, though bless em, I haven’t a word to say against someone who chooses to drink cocktails at a place that presents 1910s pop songs.
For more on this marvellous band, I refer you to its founder’s website. Click HERE.
In other news, I’m doing a CD of Early Music! With these fine fellows here:
There are many tremendously worthy CDs of Renaissance music that seek to illustrate a historical point, or fill out a previously-unheard corner of music, but we’re just making something that is fun, has contrasting songs, and sounds good. To sell at gigs! Quite a few Campion pieces, because I love Campion. Almost everything will be Elizabethan. Lute, various wooden flutes and a very interesting-looking guitar (a replica of one that sits in a museum) will feature.
I’ll supply details of this as it comes, but we shall (touch wood) be recording on the 27th of this month.
I have to note here for anyone wanting to come to the gig at Stoke Newington on the 20th (two days’ time). That gig is cancelled. It appears that the venue wanted some (a fairly large amount of) money in case not enough people came! We didn’t know that! So it is cancelled.
But you can see us on YouTube!
I’ll be on BBC Four TV this Friday, making a wax cylinder! It was a real test for me; I’d grown up listening to cylinders and 78s in my parents’ collection, and always thought that if a modern singer did one, modern stylistic tics would give the game away despite the lo-fi sound. In the end, it was quite spooky, the nearest thing to time-travel I’m likely to experience.
Here’s a CLIP.
In any case, watch the series! 9pm, and naturally on iPlayer. Neil Brand is a tremendously engaging host. And a truly funny, very nice man, too. 
In the meantime, I’m sure my mum will want me to remind people that I also do a mean Petite Messe Solennelle, and a very good Mozart Requiem, but I’d like to say that I don’t just do 1910s music. Heck, I can do 1940s. Here is evidence. Matt is wearing a genuine Demob suit, too.
Also something I wish to prove in my next album (after the WW1 album which has finally been mixed, and will be released early March!), which is that there was a different style to microphone crooning, a halfway-house of smooth, yet unamplified, singing. Very prevalent in hotel lobbies, even nightclubs. I’ve now spoken to enough 90-year-olds who used to sing in such places to know that microphones were by no means taken for granted!
Aaaaand, if anyone is in the Vancouver area, I’ll be doing a concert of 1940s and 1950s songs, unamplified, and in some nice frocks! Very appropriately, as it will be in the frock-tastic Museum of Vancouver!
The Victorian Galleries of the National Portrait Gallery resounded to a sing-off of “Pack Up Your Troubles” and “Tipperary”. I really relished the back-drop of busts:
(If you want to see detail, click on the image)
Jolly fun. We performed German trenches songs to pin-dropping silence and attentive faces, and then everyone clapped in time to the saucy French march of the chorus to “Madelon”. Mr. Redman was his usual dapper self. This was, for him, the third of four gigs that day. For me it was only the third of three.
My goodness it was hot.
We have several interesting things coming up: A re-enactment at the Salisbury Hotel on Green Lanes of the first peace demonstration on August the 5th, 1914, the day after War was declared. And an Edwardian ‘late’ at the Horniman museum, and of course Buxton, Branscombe and Deal festivals. Just hit the ol’ “Gigs” link at the top of this page!
In the meantime, if you’re interested in the Victorian and Edwardian phenomenon in ribbons, lace and chiffon that was the Gaiety Girl, do buy the current copy of the Chap magazine! I’ve written another article for that esteemed – or infamous – organ.
I’ve been singing what might be called “Downton-era duets” with soprano Sarah Dacey, arranger and fixer and all-round clever gal and member of the Juice vocal ensemble. 
We had a lot of fun with a couple of Edwardian-era duet books, and then got together with pianist Charles Economou in a 12th century church in Perivale, dressing up, taking photos, and recording to see what we sounded like. I think we sound all right! Do have a listen! And below, a change of clothing.
It’s been a while since I updated my ‘forthcoming gigs’ list because I have been sitting down and writing. More on that if I sell the result! A few months will tell, but I’ve done what amounts to a book. It is, (no surprise here), about singing.
On another Downton note, two musicians I work regularly with, Nicholas Ball and Jon Butterfield, will be featured in the jazz-club scene in the current series of that wildly-popular television programme.
And another project is taking my time: a CD of World War I songs, out next year!
In the meantime, if you like Sarah’s voice, and would like an unforgettable, fascinating evening, do attend her ensemble’s tenth anniversary bash. It will be unlike any you’ve ever experienced. Just don’t expect it to sound anything like what you hear here!
