December
Played piano for tracks on Hugh
Padgham’s next solo CD. Always a pleasure.
Did a couple of gigs for Ultimate
Earth Wind & Fire – such great songs to play, though I always seem to end
up right in front of the trumpets…
Worked with Lemar again, this time
adding strings to a new song for his Greatest Hits CD for a 2010 release. He
came down to the session and yet again brought a great spirit to the session.
Had another performance of my
piece ‘Song of the Holly’, again at St Martin in the Fields with the Locrian
Ensemble and Southend Boys & Girls Choir. I conducted it this time and it
was a great pleasure to do so in front of all those wonderful musicians and
singers. Had some good reaction on the night too, so at some stage a recording will
happen…!
November
Added strings to a track for
Westlife being produced again by Steve Booker. Steve Price at Angel. Nice.
Performed as part of a product launch
for a new Sony Ericcson phone – The Bays/Heritage string section were the
backing group with collaborations with Ms Dynamite, Tom Middleton, Bushwacker,
and Goldie among others. We had to re-arrange Vivaldi’s Four Seasons on the day
to suit the tracks that the various Djs/Producers had put together… Very little
time to get it all done but Sibelius to the rescue!
October
Wrote arrangements for strings and
vocals for 2 songs on Tomoyasu Hoteil’s new CD. He wasn’t able to come over
from Tokyo for the session so I produced it and then uploaded the files
afterwards. Technology’s great when it all works. I got to meet up with him a
couple of weeks afterwards when he was in London for mastering.
September
Performed at the WOMAD live from
the Tower of London with The Bays and The Heritage Orchestra – another case of
backstage pacing up & down for John Metcalfe & me. The day it’s easy
then there’s something wrong!
Added strings to a song for
Alexandra Burke being produced by Steve Booker. She really has a spectacular
voice and it’s always great working with Steve and Jon Kelly.
August
Arranged 10 songs for Hayley
Westenra’s Christmas CD. Got to work at British Grove for the first time which
was a great experience, especially as I had their lovely Steinway all to myself
in the live room… We recorded piano, bass, guitar and drums/percussion there
and then added string quartet, harp and orchestral percussion afterwards.
Hayley was great to work with and we created some lovely versions of songs that
don’t just sound like a last-minute afterthought as some Christmas records can
sometimes do…
Conducted Millennia Strings at the
Incognito 30th Anniversary Concert at the IndigO2. It was great fun
going back to those charts again that started way back in 1996! Bluey is an amazing
presence to be around and it was an absolute pleasure being on stage next to
him as ever. The band’s not too bad either…
Wrote 2 arrangements for strings,
brass, harp & percussion for The Killers. They were performing on ‘Live at
Abbey Road’ which is a very cool show on Channel 4.
July
Wrote a piece for Trumpet and
Piano that I’ll play with my son Ben – needs a bit of practicing too!
Got to record 3 arrangements for
the next Jamiroquai record which was great as ever. Very cool tracks and a
record to look forward to…
June
Wrote a string arrangement for
Newton Faulkner’s next CD release – produced by Mike Spencer and we recorded at
Phoenix with James Collins and the London Studio Orchestra.
Performed in Istanbul with
Serpentine Fire – those songs get better and better!
Conducted a session at Abbey Road
for Chris Rea on a lovely song called ‘Valentino’. Engineered by Jon Kelly who
always does a great job.
May
Wrote a string arrangement and
directed a choir session for Just Jack’s song “The Day I Died”. This guy is a
lyrical genius. Really hope the album, due out soon, gets the success it
deserves.
Sadly attended the closing night
of Spring Awakening at the Novello Theatre. Despite fantastic reviews and
amazing reaction from everyone who saw it, it was only able to run for 10 weeks
in the West End. I know there are many out there who would have loved to have
seen it so only hope that they get the chance again one day.
April
Wrote a brass arrangement for Gary
Go’s soon-to-be released CD. Recorded it at my studio with Tom Rees-Roberts and
Ben Hale on trumpets, Fayyaz Virji on Trombone and Phil Todd on Saxes. Look
forward to hearing the finished CD that features a few tracks with string
charts from a while ago!
Conducted the Duke quartet on a
Radio 1 ‘Live Lounge’ session with Just Jack performing his song ‘Embers’ that
I did the arrangement for last year. He’s a great live performer and has a
great band too.
March
Added strings to two songs for
Sony signing Paloma Faith. She has an amazing voice and some great material.
Hopefully we’ll all be hearing about her soon…
Spring Awakening opened at the
Novello Theatre – congratulations to all involved and fingers crossed it can
have a long and successful run there.
Recorded two pieces of mine for a solo
CD to be released sometime this year… In Abbey Road Studio 1 with the talented
Jonathan Allen and London Studio Orchestra. It’s been 17 years since the last
one so I think it’s about time I did another!
February
Just heard the news that Spring
Awakening is to transfer to the Novello Theatre for an official opening on
March 26th! Congratulations to all involved and that makes it my
West End debut too!
Wrote a string and harp
arrangement for Cee Lo (Gnarls Barkley) on a song being produced by Simon Franglen.
He was in LA, I was in the UK and the orchestra was in Prague! Luckily we were
both able to listen in and make comments via a web stream from the studio that
works extremely well. It’s a bit strange being so disembodied from the session
but sometimes it’s the only way to get it done…
Helped out at performances of West
Side Story for my kids’ school. We had the band in the recording studio
watching the performance via a video and audio link and the performers had a
mix of what we were doing fed down to them on stage. Quite a technical
challenge at times but everyone performed fantastically and it really was a
constant joy to play that score…
Went to the opening of Spring
Awakening at the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith. The cast is really great and
it’s amazing to see that most of them are making their professional debuts in
the show!! It’s a fantastic band too, superbly led by Nigel Lilley.
January
Wrote 3 arrangements for string
octet with Indonesian singer Dira. Bluey and Matt Cooper are producing her album.
We recorded up at Angel with Steve Price & Mat Bartram.
Added brass, woodwind and strings
to 5 songs for American singer songwriter Holly Brook myspace She is a huge talent and
just finishing her second album. Duncan Sheik is producing and they have
already recorded together on Duncan’s forthcoming CD “Whisper House”, so we’d
already worked together in a roundabout way…
Spring Awakening closed on Broadway
on 18th January. Whilst it is very sad and a big loss to musical
theatre there it had done nearly 900 performances which is still fantastic when
you think how un-‘coach party’ it is. The London production link starts previews on Friday 23rd
so fingers crossed for an equally similar success at the Lyric, Hammersmith.