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 now have a Vimeo channel!
From this time henceforth, any footage I have will be uploaded to Vimeo, to this channel.
http://vimeo.com/channels/patriciahammond
So if you like, subscribe, or bookmark! I love Vimeo. They even have a tip-jar system. Unlike greedy YouTube who say that you can ‘monetise’, which means that they sell advertising space and you only get paid pennies after thousands of people have actually CLICKED on said ads and bought something! When was the last time you bought anything through a YouTube ad? Precisely.
Any tips I get I shall share with Mr Matt Redman, above, who worked SO hard on the arrangements of these pieces.
So many people are asking me if I can do concerts with just one other person, rather than the full band, and so Matt and I have formed a duo. Matt can play the piano, but often places have no piano either, so he brings along his banjo, mandolin or guitar. Or all three. This photo shows Matt with a banjoline and also a guitar from 1908, which he borrows. One day we’re hoping that someone donates one of these artefacts to Matt, who will do so much more with it than hang it on a wall, which is where most harp-guitars end up!
We will be performing in a concert in Southport on June the 11th (look at the Gigs link for more information!) and we will also be providing authentic Edwardian music at Havering’s Heritage Day on Easter Sunday (Had to say no to a Bach Cantata to do this one!)
But as you can see from the picture here, we are not averse to providing music from the 1950s if there is demand for such a thing. This picture is from the Russian Revels event at Pushkin House in Bloomsbury. It was entitled “The Spies Came in from the Cold”.
If you’re in the City of London this Tuesday, do come round to St Edmund’s on Lombard Street. Matt and I will be trying out songs from our forthcoming album. It is unplugged, and rather minimal, just the two of us. But it is free. 
St Edmund in the City’s “house style” is to have the musicians play on and off (or constantly if they feel like it) from 12:30 until 14:00, and people can come and go, or just sit for the duration, or get up and look at the building, or what-have-you. In any case, we shall be playing many songs, mostly from the First World War. (This picture shows us at a vintage fair doing the 30s thing. If you think that looks dapper, wait till you see Matt’s 1910s clothes)
And the latest Chap magazine is on the shelves, and in it is another article by me, on Whispering Jack Smith this time. It is criminal how little is written about Jack. I’ve long been annoyed at the contradictory accounts in Jazz Encyclopedias, spurious conclusions by YouTube commentators, and the same quotes showing up again and again on the internet. It’s lovely to go to a library and open old books and feel your pulse quicken as you piece things together, then go to another library, and then another. Also, the last time I went into the British Library I was looking at 1920s Vogues and felt terribly shallow. This time I felt as if I was using the building properly.
More about the Chap magazine HERE
More about St Edmunds HERE
(Both open in new windows)
I guess my entire life has led up to this Centenary. All those hours listening to the hundreds of unfiled 78rpm records outside my bedroom as a child, the sheet music collecting since the age of nine, then discovering all the marvellous, keen-as-mustard musicians in London who are equally passionate about bringing this music to vivid life…well! It’s here. 2014. And I have a heck of a collection of set-lists. Here’s a picture from my first full-blown centenary gig, of many.
In July, with Albert Ball’s Flying Aces – headed up by the amazing dynamo (and arranger for Our Lovely Day) Nicholas David Ball – I’ll be appearing at the Branscombe Festival (more anon), in truly august company. Other performers at this small but oh-so-select festival include Sumi Jo, I Fagiolini and the Royal Marines! ABFA, as you may remember, is a band of First World War Flying Aces who happen to play exceedingly good ragtime.
(Alas, my feathers aren’t visible in the above shot.)
Matt and Zac played banjo, accordion, clarinet, guitar, mandolin, piano, piano duet, saxophone, and also did backing vocals. There were no two numbers using the same combination. 
We are, emphatically, for HIRE. Book soon. We’ll be appearing in the Buxton Festival, at Grange Park Opera, the aforementioned Branscombe, and Swaledale.
We have pacifist songs, we have laments from poppy fields, we have German songs on the inevitability of death in battle. We have rip-snorting recruiting marches, we have hilarious singalongs, and we have tributes to Red Cross Nurses in French and English. Instrumental numbers include all things 1910s including tangos, chorinhos, and of course, ragtime. And some Elgar.
(Zac on the piano, Matt on the banjo, though it was the other way round for the Red Pepper Rag.)
