UK tour booked

photos courtesy of Derek Ball, Greg Gottlieb, Melissa Western


Our show is booked to perform on the UK National Rural Touring circuit with producers Live and Local in the Derbyshire and Warwickshire regions, home to Shakespeare, stunning countryside and lots of unspsupecting villages upon whom we shall unleash a night of glorious entertainment.

This show is a tribute to some of the greatest female singers of the 20th century and is a great excuse for me to indulge in story-telling, wig-wearing, costume donning and, most importantly, singing the bejesus out of some classic songs. A few of the shows are already sold out - how crazy to think that we can be sold out in a town where nobody knows us!

Travelling with a 16 month old

Friday 3 February

Three days before flying from Brisbane to London we decide to move out of our apartment and rent it - possibly not the most appropriate way to prepare for a month long tour! The Gods of packing pass a weary smile and we haul our last load at 6pm on Thurdsay night before arising at 5am Friday for an 8 hour flight. At Gold Coast airport I wait for the baby change room and am surprised to see a single man exit. When I enter the plume of cigarette smoke in the baby room it becomes much clearer - ew, who does that? After changing Ella while holding my breath and envisaging that terrible Youtube of a chubby baby smoking a cigarette, I confront the sneaky smoker. Denies it, then ignores me. Smoke detectors. Always a wise investment in an airport. Bikini clad meter maids or protecting babies from nicotine poisoning - it's your choice Gold Coast!
Toys, ipad, food and the combined powers of Tnee, Greg and I amuse Ella on the 8 hour flight. She seems quite at home!

Severe weather warning: snow is imminent!

Saturday 4 February

We disembark at Gatwick airport after a marathon 14 hour flight. Even though we had a glorious 12 hour stopover at a lush hotel in KL, we are all flattened by the huge journey. Tnee starts complaining about the cold ... and we're not even outside yet! The car hire lady alerts us to an imminent severe weather warning. It's 4.30pm and at 6pm it's meant to start snowing. This would be okay except that we need to 1. navigate our way to the next suburb to collect a baby seat and high chair, 2. get to a friends house a collect a portacot, 3. get to my Uncle's house in Essex BEFORE it starts to snow. Luckily the angel hire car lady gives us a free upgrade to a divine Peugot 708 wagon, my navigation skills are Jedi-like and the snow doesn't actually arrive until 9pm, one hour after we've eaten dinner in a cosy home and are ready to retire.

I wake up at 5am and the vision outside is like a picture postcard. About 15cm of fresh snow. Stunning.

Snow-mobile

Tuesday 7 February

It's been a couple of days of enjoying the snow and adjusting our body clocks. Time to scrape off the snow and get going to the West Midlands for our first show. The drive through snow-covered hillsides from Essex to Coleshill (just outside Birmingham) is dreamy. Even though the snow is apparently a headache for a lot of people, we can't get over how pristine everything looks when covered in a soft white layer of fluffy snow! After a pitstop to drop off gear and Ella with my cousin we race to the train station to collect Greg and motor straight to our first venue: Harvington Village Hall.

First snow for Tnee and Ella

Sunday 5 February














The vision of snow in this area is so beautiful. We three head off for a walk to the pretty Rayleigh High Street. Small children are hooting as they get slid along in sleighs, snowballs are hitting their targets and the local school playground has transformed into a winter wonderland.

Even with a bit of jet lag, Ella is fascinated by the snow and I am back in my six year old Manchester skin (before we emingrated to Australia) relishing the playtime.

Harvington

Tuesday 7 February - Harvington

Time to get this show on the road. Our first performance day runs like this: leave Essex a little tired following 2am Ella wake up (still coping with jet lag), car fully packed, drive two hours to Coleshill where wonderful cousin Nadine is waiting for our arrival, meet Nadine, drive to Nadine's friend's house to meet nice people who we've never met before, take over their house and leave our baby with essentially random people she has never met before, drop off Ella and luggage "bye bye honey, have fun with all these new people", feel slightly like a bad, mean mother, get over it, drive to Birmingham International train station to collect Greg, double bass and luggage, drive a further hour to Harvington Village Hall, meet lovely Harvington villagers, set up show, do a quick survey of the show, wonder if we have done enough to prepare, become slightly nervous, begin show, breathe sigh of relief when all goes well, send text to Christa (the never before met house host) to see if our child is surviving, breathe sigh of relief to hear she is delightful and having a wonderful time with her new friends, have a little hooray when things go brilliantly in second half of show, finish show, get back in car, attempt to navigate back to house we left from, get it totally wrong and go to different but very similarly named street in village 25 minutes away from actual house, curse rubbish i-phone map, become hysterical after passing the stroke of midnight and still not home (must not turn into pumpkin, must not turn into pumpkin), finally, miraculously arrive back at house, try unsuccessfully to enter home with keys, wonder how long frost bite takes to set in (it is below 0 degrees), continue to pass keys around to see if anyone can make it happen, meet Christa for the first time in her dressing gown and slippers as she kindly lets us in the door, apologise for waking her up, taking over her house, leaving our child with her, being hysterical. Lovely Christa smiles a kind smile and says we can help ourselves to anything. Bless.

All in all a massive day, but what an unexpected success! The show went hugely better than any of us could have imagined. The rawness of our states after all the travel and logistics somehow managed to put us in a place where we were totally ready for anything. The audience were a dream and we had great lighting from resident techie Chris. Could be just beginners luck but it seems that this show is a perfect fit for these audiences ... let's see what happens tomorrow.

Holloway

Thursday 9 February - Holloway

A winding drive through stunning, snow-covered countryside brought us to the magical setting of the Florence Nightingale Memorial Hall in Hollway, Derbyshire for our second performance.

Again, the hospitality was amazing and the second show, despite our strong belief in "second night blues" was just as electric as the first.

Even on a snowy Thursday night we were treated to a warm audience who seemed to relish the show and really got into the spirit of the great divas.

Maxstoke

Friday 10 February - Maxstoke

 

Oh my goodness me. What a wild, crazy, amazing show we had tonight. The Maxstoke audience were just on fire and they really lit us up! This would have to be the smallest stage in the history of stages and the hall was packed to capacity (and then some), we were almost sitting on the front table which is handy when it comes to audience participation of course. Greg, Tnee and I agree that magic really happened at this performance.

One of my fondest memories of the tour happened tonight when an older gentleman, immaculately dressed ina red sweater and tweed hat took my hand and slowly explained to me what the night had been like for him. "There is a special box that we all keep near us" he said, "a memory box that we carefully place moments into". I could feel myself tearing up! "In times of need, I open up that box to relive the joy and happiness of those moments". His warm hand and kind face were melting me, "my dear, you've just given me a wonderful thing to put in my memory box". Oh no - way, way, way too sweet.

The audience gave us a spontaneous standing ovation at the end of the show and among the sea of bodies I caught a glimpse of an elderly gent in a bow tie, almost crying with joy. Kevin, our bar-tender, venue manager extradorinaire told us he had experienced not one but three moments of "aiwa" (some kind of word for magic ... I could have this spelled incorrectly!) where the hairs on the back of neck stood up and would not sit down. Priceless night.


Oh Maxstoke, we will be back - it's a must.

Eathorpe

Saturday 11 February-  Eathorpe

We were treated to a stunning afternoon and an equally gorgeous venue at Eathorpe. The community boasts a beautifully fitted out venue whichh suited the show very well. The acoustics were great and the stage was the perfect height and a generous size. The backdrop of idyllic countryside through the massive glass windows behind us was breathtaking.   

Our presenter promised "the best refreshments of the tour" with her husband's famous home-made soup. The promise was made good. Not only was there home-made soup, but home-made pate and home-made bread. It was an exceptional meal!

The Saturday night audience were out for a good time and with another sold out crowd who wanted to stick around and talk to us and each other for ages it made for a very social night! Lots of positive comments about the range of singers and the range of styles in the show. A suggestion to include Australian singer Helen Reddy with "I am Woman" which we may well consider.

Clent

Sunday 12 February - Clent

Our final show for the tour is for the community of Clent. The Village Hall has just had a refurbishment and halfway through our sound check we realise that we are feeling a little bit high from the smell of fresh paint radiating towards us from the warm heaters dotted around the room. It makes for quite a hysterical rehearsal and we prepare for an "anything goes" kind of show. As it turns out the Sunday night crowd in Clent is ready for entertainment and that's just what they get!  It's a cracker of a final show and we pack up with a slight sadness that this is the end of our whirlwind tour.

We've been so well looked after by many people on the tour and we hope we will meet these communities again.

Thank you one and all!

Shakespeare country

Wednesday 15 February



Since we're just up the road from the Bard's hometown we decide to pay him a visit. Lunch is taken at a beautiful old, old pub in the tiny village of Henley-in-Arden. Were it not for the cars and mobile phone ads, you could easily feel as though you'd slipped into a back-to-the-future ride and landed five hundred years earlier. The high street is dotted with thatched roofs and tudor frontages and cobble stones underfoot make for happy challenges to pram navigation. After filling our bellies with beer and beans we drive a few more miles to Stratford-Upon-Avon where we circle round the bustling streets, revered theatres and picture-perfect surrounds. This is only partly choice as we seem to be caught on a road direction sign that keeps us going in circles over the river, around the river, down the road and over the river, down the road ... Finally we stop at the beautiful Holy Trinity Church (burial grounds of Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway) where Ella delights in running wild around the grounds. Tnee and I face the parent's dilemna "Is it wrong to let my child dance on a gravestone"? I am sure William would be okay with a little graveside jig.

Family and friends

Aint no way we could do what we do without the amazing support of familyand friends.
Thank you. Thank YOU. THANK yoU!
Greg. Nadine, Alice and Lucie. Rip and Christa. Marilyn, Pete and Chris. Russell and Terrie. Pauline, Ash, Antonia, and Jonathan. Angelia, Adrian and Dexter. Dugald and Julie. Karen, Giles, Callum, Theo and Ewan.