About Me
April 2008
Another good start to the year. The teaching is going great, we've just had a new intake at college so all the staff (that includes me) will have to perform for them at Freshers' Night this week - should be fun. The singing has gone well so far this year - and I'm thrilled that Leona Lewis has now topped the American charts as well as the UK! Even if I only did her backing vocals on the X Factor it was obvious to all of us that she was something special and it's good to see things working out for her. A couple of nice singing jobs have have already come in this year - in particular a trip to Dubai later this month, that'll be fun - and my own course of study (I'm doing a Masters) is going well too. If only it would just warm up a bit here - I need some summer sun!
Just found some YouTube footage of the Prince's Trust gig. Have a look, you'll only ever see my back - typical!
December 2007
It's Christmas Eve and things are just about ready for tomorrow. It's going to be a quiet day at home as the end of this year has been manic. The X Factor series went well again and involved even more work than in previous years; good luck to Leon, he's already got the Christmas number 1 so he's off to a great start. RyanDan have plans to release a few new singles and have released 'O Holy Night'' for Christmas with High' as the double A side.
I have had a great few months singing, including the usual 'White Christmas' shows at the Royal Albert Hall and The Birmingham Symphony Hall. I've also been out on tour with The RAF Massed bands, a great group of musicians and a real privilege to be out front singing for them.
Have a great Christmas and 2008!
September 2007
Another summer seems to have come and gone, though this has to be the worst one for years, no sunbathing this year. It's been a good year for work with backing vocals on a few nice TV series (Grease is the Word and Britain's Got Talent). I've also done backing vocals on the debut album for a new duo called RyanDan - identical twin brothers with amazing voices. I'm really proud of the way the album has turned out, it's not in the shops yet but the material I've heard so far has been fantastic. I'll try and get a couple of pictures into the gallery as we sang for their UK press launch and I managed to get a couple of photos. Summer started well with an invitation from The Cameron Mackintosh organisation to sing at West End Live, a concert that celebrates the West End through a weekend of concerts in the centre of London, primarily in Leicester square; there are a couple of pictures in my photo gallery section. I've also done a couple of concerts for BBC radio 2 since my last post. The first was a gala evening to celebrate Barbara Windsor's 70th birthday. She was absolutely lovely and was so happy with the material that we sang for her. The second evening was to celebrate the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber and also went really well. It was a great mixture soloists, some from the pop world and others who would only really be known to an audience that knows their musical theatre stars. I've just finished a weekend singing for Michael Ball again and once again he has had his audience in the palm of his hand. Our first concert was in Faenol, Wales, and the sun finally shone; which made my weekend stay in the seaside resort of Llandudno much nicer. The second concert was Prom number 58 in this year's Prom season at The Royal Albert Hall and a real break in tradition to have a whole evening dedicated to the world on Musical Theatre. Michael has announced that he is going to play the mother character in The West End production of Hairspray, I can't wait!
I spent a week of this summer teaching a residential singing course at my old university, Bath Spa University. What an amazing experience, on so many levels. I had 8 wonderful students (who I pushed really, really hard) who worked towards a number of different learning outcomes, most importantly an a cappella recital at the student concert. For such a diverse group this was a really big ask and it went really well. The comments I've had from other members of staff and from the management team have been so encouraging. Roll on next year - I'll try and get a picture of us all in the gallery but for now here is the evidence that I'm not all smiles if things don't go my way in rehearsals!
