The Tour begins...

Stonehenge through the windscreen

Friday 23rd September: Ilminster Arts Centre

I was particularly looking forward to our trip to Ilminster Arts Centre - I had been told great things about the venue, and I knew the journey there would take us past Stonehenge and through the lovely West Country.  The only downer was that it was a Friday, and traffic all around the country can be a nightmare!  So a few accidents, jams and rubber-necking drivers later, we glided into a peaceful Ilminster.  Thank goodness we had left London early - we arrived about 3 hours before the gig was due to start, but I would much rather have spent those 3 hours in Ilminster than on the M25.

What a lovely venue!  It's had its share of money troubles in the past, but things have improved over the last year, and we arrived with the Somerset Arts Week in full swing, showcasing the diverse range of arts that the centre presents.  We were greeted by Tony - the promoter and our host for the night - and we spent a relaxed our setting up the stage and wandering around town, picking up the local newspaper with a great big feature on tonight's gig.

The Meeting House Arts Centre has an interesting history - an 18th century Unitarian chapel, which was converted to a school in the early 1900s, then sat derelict for a few decades before it was taken over by the local council and converted into an Arts Centre.  It is currently up for being awarded £6000 for development, which it would very much benefit from.  If you would care to vote for the Arts Centre, please click here.  It's quite a long process, but very much worth it.

Sound-checking at the Meeting House.

The gig was great and we were properly looked-after - a superb supper before the show, and a lovely setting with a beautiful grand piano.  The band played great and, for the first gig of the tour, there were only a couple of hitches (how can someone forget the words to My Favourite Things?!)  It will only get better!

Playing with the dogs in the morning.

Our hosts - Tony and Christine - have a beautiful farmhouse in Ilminster, with enough beds to fit a travelling quartet.  It's an amazing house - it could be a museum, what with all the artefacts and brick-a-brack decorating the area.  The bathroom is full of original tins of nivea and other such ointments and the house comes complete with two old-style flush toilets.  Somehow, after having been in their amazing house for less than an hour, I had managed to break the chain pull off one of them!  You can't take me anywhere.

Rick enjoys the fruit machines.

Saturday 24th September: St Mary's Church, Aylesbury


We set off at a reasonable hour to head to our next destination: Aylesbury.  It wasn't an easy journey, as it is effectively a return to London and then back out again into Buckinghamshire, so it was a little frustrating doing the route that would have taken us home.  We forewent an expensive trip to Stonehenge for a delightful pub lunch in Berkshire, and arrived in Aylesbury 5 hours early.  How to entertain a group of travelling jazz musicians who are broke?!  Rick spent £10 and won six at the 'Cashino' and we won our money back on the quiz machine in a local pub.  Apart from that, it was a beautiful day weather-wise and we managed to make one cup of tea last over an hour.

Our quiz winnings.  Don't we look thrilled!

Our concert that evening was at St Mary's Church - a lovely picturesque building with delightful grounds and streets lining the church yard.  St Mary's is a popular venue for their classical concerts, but this was their first gamble at staging a jazz gig.  A gamble it was, for there was a disappointing 14 people there (15 by the end - my Dad had arrived half way through the second set.)  I hope they will persist with promoting jazz, as it would be dreadful if my gig were to be the first and last!  So if you're local to Aylesbury, keep an eye on what's going on at St Mary's Church.

Some tour amendments...

Three gigs have been cancelled on my tour.  They are:

Sat 29 | GOSPORT Alverbank House Hotel | 8pm

Mon 31 | TEIGNMOUTH Clifford Arms, Shaldon | 8:30pm

Mon 14 | LEEDS Sela Bar | 9pm

These are because of problems at the venue.  If you're planning on coming to any of my gigs, then please book ahead!  This will really help with keeping live music (and my career) live!

A Sunday evening in Hereford

I went to Hereford on Sunday for a gig at the Black Lion - an old pub (apparently it’s haunted along with quite a few other buildings in Hereford, including Sainsbury’s!?!), but a newish venue for jazz.  The Dave Price trio host a monthly jazz night and had invited me to be a special guest on this occasion.  The journey was tedious - a 4-hour stopping train from London, but at least I didn’t have to change, and it gave me some time to get Wikipedia working on my phone to prepare the spiel about my chosen dedicated artist (each month the group focuses on a different jazz great and deliver a tribute gig, so I chose to perform the songs of Shirley Horn, one of my favourite vocalists and a true jazz singer.)

Solar halo with a sun dog
to the left

With so much travelling to do as a touring singer, I prefer to travel by train - time to work, sleep or read, plus more chance to look out of the window!  Today I managed to capture a solar halo on camera (the picture’s a little dodgy because it’s taken through the train window).  
I have only seen one of these before - they’re very common but you generally can’t see them because the sun’s bright light overpowers it.  A slightly overcast day and dark sunglasses help.  To the left you can see a sun-dog, which is like a small vertical rainbow in the cloud.  
I remember once being on a train from Hitchin (my home town) to London and seeing a very bright sun dog, and calling my mum who I knew was home-tutoring a young autistic boy at the time.  I told them to look out of the window to see the sun dog and the boy said, “I don’t know about a sun dog, but I can see a sun crocodile!”

Anyway, I digress.... back to the music.  The only trouble with doing a Shirley Horn tribute is that she was most famous for singing ballads at ultra-slow tempos, and I didn’t want to fill a set - or even half a set - with slow numbers.  Fortunately, Horn recorded quite a few live albums and she, too, clearly didn’t want to fill a set with ballads so I had plenty of choice of swinging tunes.   I found it incredibly interesting to find out a bit of recording history of this amazing singer, and I enjoyed the research part as much as the singing part.  Now I have a tribute to Shirley Horn set all ready.  (Click here if you want to book me for it!)

Being a Sunday, the gig didn’t finish too late so I was heading back to my overnight stop by 10pm.  Then an early bus journey in the morning to catch the train home.

On paper, having to take a bus for over an hour to the nearest town with a decent rail connection to London seems like a ball-ache.  But in reality, it’s a great way to see the country.  I had stayed over night with family just outside Monmouth, and took the local bus to Newport in the morning.  Local buses are great - they rumble through sleepy villages and along crooked B-roads (sometimes ones that have since been replaced by trunk roads), supplying public transport to the corners of the country that are too small to have a train station.

Monmouthshire is a particularly lovely part of this island, and I enjoyed snaking through picturesque little villages, passing the odd tractor and a great many country pubs, with the Black Mountains a backdrop.  We meandered through a lovely selection of interesting places: Mitchel Troy, Raglar, Usk with its Castle ruins, and its bus stop in Twyn square, Coldharbour on the crest of a hill, the old city wall of Caerleon... It was so much better than bombing my way down the A40 in a car for one.  A great start to a Monday!

Through the Monmouthshire
countryside

Pontypool Jazz Festival

The photographer clearly had an eye for Tom!

The Pontypool Jazz Festival - formerly “Jazz in the Park,” - focuses on Welsh musicians to perform each year.  (It used to be in the park until one year the rains were so bad that the Afon Llwyd burst its banks and flooded the marquees!  Now it’s in various rooms in the Pontypool Active Living Centre)  Being a Hughes, you would be right in thinking that my family originate from Wales - my Granddad from Llanelli and my Grandma from Blaengwynfy.  Despite being London-based, I managed to get my band booked.  Unfortunately I wasn’t able to sing my only Welsh song - Sosban Fach - as I had had a couple of bad experiences in the past...

Firstly, when I sang it in South Wales the last time, I was booed (mockingly) for my choice of song because it’s the Llanelli Scarlet’s Rugby Union team song, and I was in Swansea where the Ospreys reign supreme!  Can’t sing it in South Wales then.

Secondly, I had a gig in North Wales in May but when I entered the venue and was greeted in Welsh by the landlady, I realised that my attempt at this language needed far more practise and therefore would have to be left in the folder!  Can’t sing it North Wales then.  Oh dear.

Darren and Tom waiting
for dinner... Rick at the
back of the queue feeling
forlorn!

So my all-English set at Pontypool began, and went very well.  The festival seemed to be well-organised apart from a couple of hitches (we had to work hard to get the sound guy to pinch a monitor from another stage as ours didn’t have one, and a bar-lady tried to charge me one pound for a jug of water for the band!)  We were on stage in the dance studio - a rather small space on the third floor of the Leisure Centre - which wasn’t ideal only because we were competing with a (much) louder band blasting it out on the floor below us, and we weren’t in a thoroughfare which would have encouraged more listeners.  What a shame that that river burst its banks a few years back (apparently it only happens about once every 50 years) to put an end to the outdoor festival.  

3 Welsh-cheese pizza

It’s also a shame that Pontypool was so far away because jazz festivals are usually great places to wander around and listen to other bands.  But, because we had a long journey back (mine involved a night bus and ended up being about 4.5 hours), we had to head back soon after we’d finished playing.  But we still had a chance to hang out a bit - I wanted to sample the “3 Welsh-cheese Pizza” (I must have mumbled when I ordered it because the waiter nearly brought me 3 of them!) - so we got to chill out a bit which is one of the delights of being on tour.  Rick clearly had other moods on his mind judging by his posing in these pictures... But great fun was had by all, and looking forward to the next tour date which is Friday 23rd September in Ilminster.

August News Round-up

Our bikes on Harwich sea front

August was a month for rain and riots.

I was able to escape for a few days, following my brave sister 150 miles up the coast of Essex and Norfolk, while she contemplated the next two months on her bike travelling round the rest of the coast.  I joined her for days 3 and 4, before sensibly getting on the train back to London.

Anna is cycling around the coast of Great Britain, partly for a holiday and partly to highlight environmental issues by having a low-carbon trip.  

Boat number 1

I joined her on a hazy morning in Harwich and we took 3 boats on our way to Lowestoft.  I even swam in the sea!  It was amazing, but painful after 60 miles of cycling.  The second day took us through very, very heavy rain up to North Norfolk... at one point my shoes were so full of water I had to take them off and resort to my waterproof flipflops, believe it or not!  I was very happy to have fish and chips in Cromer (where I had actually kissed the town sign when we got there) and get the train back to London.

Boat number 2

There are quite a few days when I wish I were still with Anna cycling round this amazing island we live on.  Nothing to do but cycle all day - brilliant!

Anna dressed up in her
waterproof gear

Anna has been writing a great blog: www.eatsleepcycle-anna.blogspot.com

and tweeting interesting finds: www.twitter.com/eatsleepcycle

and uploading many photos to facebook: www.facebook.com/eatsleepcycleanna

Boat number 3

Follow her!  It'll brighten your day!

Fish and chips by the sea-side!

Multi-coloured umbrellas
in Cromer

Top Ten Vocal Harmony Groups

In no particular order, here's the countdown, followed more info below.

1.  The Swingle Singers
2.  Take 6
3.  London Vocal Project
4.  Lambert, Hendrix and Ross
5.  The Boxettes
6.  New York Voices
7.  BLINQ quartet
8.  Manhatten Transfer
9.  Voxtet
10. Sector7

1. The Swingle Singers
I first heard The Swingle Singers performing on Songs of Praise (whilst channel hopping) a few years ago, where they performed a remarkably accomplished version of Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho.  It was outstanding, down to the movements and facial expressions of these terrificly talented singers.  I've yet to see them live, but am sure a great big treat awaits whenever I get the chance.



2. Take 6
Videos of Take 6 went flying round facebook a few years ago when my friends first discovered you could 'share' the amazing things you spotted on YouTube.  I'm amazed at how they do a lot a capella, covering all manor of vocal ranges, and even emulating instruments (bass/trumpet) to add variety.  Some of it gets a bit cheesy for me, reminding me of Boyz II Men or other 'boy bands' that sprung up in the 90s.


3.  London Vocal Project
It was at an LVP gig where I was first inspired to create my own vocal group Sector7 (which you'll notice has also made it onto this list!)  I remember watching Jess Berry performing with her quartet, with the LVP singing harmonies behind her and I thought, this is a sound that I'm inspired by and could make work as a smaller group.  The LVP, directed by the genius that is Pete Churchill, has just got back from a tour of France, and can be heard performing live in London several times over the next few months.  Here's their website: www.londonvocalproject.com

4. Lambert, Hendrix and Ross

I don't need to say much about these three vocal acrobats who brought the art of vocalise to the forefront of the jazz movement and explored thrilling and impressive vocal harmony.  And they love to scat!

5. The Boxettes

The Boxettes are a London-based a capella girl group, featuring the female world beatbox champion Bellatrix.  Impressive in harmonies, groove and style, this group is a force to be reckoned with.

6. New York Voices
A foursome of singers, plus rhythm section, this group is the closest in kind to my own Sector7.  They have been going for 20 years, and have won a Grammy, so it'd be great to follow somewhere in their footsteps!  Here's their website: www.newyorkvoices.com


7. BLINQ quartet
The Brit Jazz Fest (a 2-week August festival at Ronnie Scott's) was the setting for the debut of vocal group BLINQ quartet - a combination of some of the UK's top voices: Brendan Reilly (B), Liane Carroll (L), Ian Shaw (I), Natalie Williams (N) and I expect the Q stands for Quartet.  The band also featured Gwilym Simcock on piano, I guess sharing the piano duties with Ian and Liane.  I was unfortunate to miss out on a ticket, so am very much hoping to see them live soon.


8. Manhattan Transfer
Probably my first experience of singing vocal harmony work (apart from being in a chamber choir) was at the North Herts Youth Jazz Orchestra, run by Chris Pyne.  This was a band overrun with flautists (I think there were 6 of us), who all fancied themselves as singers (bringing your flute to rehearsal could have been a condition to singing with the band).  So Chris jumped at the opportunity to bring some vocal harmony charts to the band, including the impossibly fast and difficult 'Four Brothers.'  Watch the video above to see the Manhattan Transfer singing it in style.



9. Voxtet
Clive Dunstall's Voxtet is the closest thing to a vocal big band that you'll come across - with 6 girls, 2 boys and a 7-piece band behind them.  The line-up is superb, with singers including the ex-NYJO vocalist and my teen singing idol Jacqui Hicks, along with my first NYJO vocal coach Emer MacPartland.

10. Sector7
My own band makes it into the top 10 again!  A perk of writing this blog myself.
Sector7 has been described by Ian Shaw as "Possibly the most exciting thing to happen to the London vocal jazz scene" (he said this before he created his own group, Blinq quartet!)
In our 10-month existence, we've released an EP, gigged at some of London's top venues and accumulated an impressive of forthcoming shows.
The video above is a sample of our EP.  You can find us on facebook: www.facebook.com/sector7jazz, and follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/sector7jazz
For all your other Sector7 needs, please visit the new website: www.sector7.org.uk