Craig Barbour Award 2012

Since blogging has taken a somewhat ~~minor~~ major backseat I thought I’d start it all off again by talking about The Craig Barbour Award for Composition which was produced by Michael Peavoy Productions on Sunday 13th May at the Soho Theatre.”

“Craig Barbour was a well-loved singing teacher at RADA before he lost his life in February 2009. His passion for Musical Theatre and his students was unrivalled and his knowledge of repertoire was astonishing. His students have graced some of the finest stages in the country and his memory will live on through their incredible work”

These words, taken from The Soho Theatre’s website were echoed by host of the evening, West End Leg-end Shona White, who kept the concert ticking over nicely (a few album plugs here and there lightened the mood.) There was something very special about what the evening had in store for us all in terms of starting a new (and indeed continuing a well established) legacy for Craig and Mike Peavoy.

I was majorly impressed with Mike and his team – from being introduced to the project, being picked to be in the final and the running of the awards itself, was fantastic: no job too big or too small. This isn’t even mentioning the work that had gone into producing three (3!) new workshop performances of new works by Dougal Irvine, Conor Mitchell and Craig Adams straight after the awards.

And so to the award itself. A most handsome bass clef on a white plinth (love that word) rested on the grand piano for the evening until it was raised by

No, not a typo but you’ve got to read this to find out! Ha!

The finalists were Dougal Irvine, Tim Sutton, Eamonn O’Dyer, Gwyneth Herbert, Craig Adams, Monika Sik Holm, Christopher Hamilton, Pippa Cleary and Jake Brunger, Harry Blake and me and Amy.

It would be unfair to single any song out, so I’m going to.

Both Simple (performed with heartbreaking innocence by Jeremy Legat) and Having a Baby (comedy accent and brilliant timing from Katie Bernstein) were excellent and truly gave Dougal a platform to show have versatile a writer he is.

Eamonn O’Dyer was a new name to me and I Could Promise You (Verity Quade providing a beautiful vocal to this song supported by Pippa Duffy and Lydia Jenkins) was just stunning. The narrative of the song was clear and simple; don’t make promises you can’t keep. O’Dyer is certainly a writer I will be following closely in the future.

As competitions go – and this had a trophy, £1000 and a ‘Night With’ at the Soho Theatre – this was a competition and I had researched the other writers. Sometimes as a new writer you can feel the market saturation you have willingly thrown yourself into … and then feel totally alone as though no one can or wants to hear you. So this was a perfect opportunity to find out who was out there.

I had the pleasure of appearing with and alongside Pippa Cleary and Jake Brunger at Simon Grieff‘s ‘Easter with the Composers’ in April and was blown away even then. They have recently been commissioned to write The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 and 3/4′s and My Most Love was an extract from this. But in the truest sense. Both me and Amy thought we were watching the production and its performers didn’t disappoint (Leon Kay, Adam Barlow, Daniel Cane, Naomi Petersen, Katie Birtill, Jake Brunger and Lydia Jenkins).

And the winner?

Harry Blake. What a breath of fresh air. This guy clearly played from a classical training background but had subtle hints of the Sondheim magic of weaving melodies into complex piano accompaniment. The Truth Is … made us all laugh and the simple joy of placing a macabre theme into a jazzy setting (lost my theasaurus) was genius. Traditional Moral Values has to be heard to be believed. It has something for everyone (to get comically offended by) and really didn’t play it safe. It was a gamble that paid off and the judges made the right call in crowning Harry.

My penultimate word is a vote of thanks to our judges Mark Shenton, Kerry Ellis, Steve Marmion, Dee Cannon and Andy Barnes and Wendy Barnes from Perfect Pitch. Thank you for supporting us as we try and make our original voices heard in a cacophony of producer-heavy-celebrity-casting world we are slipping into. Your faith in us is a source of hope.

Finally, thank you to Mike Peavoy. A vision, a drive and a passion to match that of Simon Grieff, Perfect Pitch and MMD. He is well placed to cause his #Revolution and we are honoured to have been able to play our part in it all.

This was fun – we should do it again sometime.

Chris x

Apr 21 2011

London Recordings – April 2011

The Sun is shining and I am sat at home after four amazing days recording some of the West Ends best for my debut album – it was simply incredible.

I always knew that, as the date of recording approached, that we were embarking on an epic journey but I didn’t expect to be that blown away.

Our base camp for the week was The Joint Studios in London, about 5 minutes from Kings Cross/St.Pancras. Resting on the side of an innocuous cobbled street, the studios proved to be ideal; both for location and therefore easy to get to four our singers, but also because the rooms were professionally kitted out for any eventuality. I would recommend them without hesitation : www.thejoint.org.uk.

SUNDAY 17th APRIL

Our first singer on Sunday was Kieran Brown (cover Raoul in Love Never Dies). Kieran has sung with me before at Freedom bar and for Gigging for It and, despite feeling unwell, came in and recorded his song in just a few takes. Kieran’s voice is many, many things: powerful, tentative and so generous to the melodies and subject matter. There was a palpable air of anticipation with everyone in the room – and we had a room full!

Amy and our producer Nathan (unbelievably talented and one of the linch pins of this project) were busying themselves with recording equipment whilst Paul and Amy from Stage Left Podcast sat in the other corner documenting every step for a series of staggered video/podcasts to be released nearer the release date.

We had quite a tight turn around, and, with not everything we wanted recorded, we arranged for Kieran to pop back into the studio for half an hour on Tuesday.

Liam Tamne (Hairspray/Hair/Departure Lounge and soon to be Enjolras in Les Miserables) walked through the door next. I have to state the obvious here, but when someone sings a song you have written and then adds so many dimensions to it, the feelings and emotions are indescribable. I am so lucky that every single singer we had did exactly this. Anyway, with our first recording done, we felt like old pro’s(!) and so approached this song with excitement, fed mainly from Liam who bounced in and threw everything into the song. We spent a lot of the time rehearsing with the piano and trying out different riffs and exploring melodic ideas to get the best out of the music and Liam. And the best of Liam is astonishing – he just opens his mouth and sings with such effortless technique and an eternally youthful sound. I know I’m going to be saying this a lot in this post but – wow. I cannot wait for you to hear what we eventually recorded.

MONDAY 18th APRIL

Monday morning saw a 10am start at the studios and arriving right on time for a rehearsal was Richard Meek (Austentatious/Rocky Horror UK Tour). I have known Richard for about four years after meeting him during my stint as Benjamin on the UK Tour of Joseph and knew what a celebrated performer he was. Since then he has appeared more than once (as well as internationally) as Brad Majors and cover Frank N Furter in Rocky as well as in West End reviews (alongside Simon Lipkin who we recorded in December). Richard has such a beautiful and haunting voice that is so effortless. The song he is singing has a large amount of conversational tone to it before smashing into a huge chorus which Richard took in his stride – it was as though it was his song, completely owning it and adding a few cheeky riffs in when the mood took!

TUESDAY 19th APRIL

Another gloriously sunny day in London saw us get up rather late (we weren’t in the studio ’till 2:30pm!) – although Nathan had been up some time arranging a gospel chorus section for one of the songs after a flash of inspiration the day before.

Stage Left Podcast had been running a competition on Twitter to see who could correctly guess the singers for the weeks recording. After a series of three clues on each, the names were revealed and they won tickets to a show! We couldn’t, however, keep a lid on our next performer due to his legion of lovely and dedicated fans. Mark Evans (Fiyero in Wicked) stunned us all with a recording that we could use in the first take!

Mark’s approach to the song (a rocky duet) was so professional and after a chat about what the song required and where its place was in the concept musical we hit record. Amazing. Mark acted every line and brought such passion to the lines. It’s so hard to record one half of a duet without the other voice but his tone was incredible and really showed off what a pitch-perfect singer he is. The session lasted 45 minutes, if that, and you were just in awe of how easily he hit the higher notes with a smile on his face! We record the mystery other half in May and you will NOT want to miss that … editing their duet will be mind blowing!

Kieran arrived at 4pm and we got straight down to recording and … well, he made someone (shhh) cry. Such a stunning rendition of the song and that was only the rehearsal. Kieran’s voice, when hitting the big notes, is the kind that physically stops you breathing – it is all consuming and completely supports the emotion of the song. And yet when it is needed, Kieran sings with a gentle simplicity that breaks your heart. Needless to say, his voice was much better and we have no need for anything he recorded on Sunday – and that was pretty damn good!

WEDNESDAY 19th APRIL

Our last day in London :’(

After a wee argument with the hotel staff (bloody cleaners took our Debenhams towels to wash – did they not know the difference?!?!) we were at the studios for our last four hour block. I guess we were all feeling a bit down, even if we had not particularly mentioned it. But that all changed when our next singer breezed in! Siobhan Dillon (Grease and now Vivian in Legally Blonde) was so lovely and funny but immediately wanted to get down to work and boy did we! Siobhan is the final piece to our other duet (with Simon) and so this completion of vocals was a long time coming – and we weren’t let down. Her voice was both powerful and delicate as she sang with control and a wonderful belt in the final section. Siobhan instantly became the perfect piece in our duet; fitting in beautifully and adding subtle nuances that will really make it a stand-out track.

Lauren Samuels (Grease, Last Five Years) was our final singer here in London and we spent most of the time laughing. Such a sweet and talented person with so much to offer the song. Co-written especially for Lauren by myself and Midlands composer Chris Smith, the lyrics and melody flowed as though they had been written by someone else. Lauren’s range in this song is staggering (as you’ll soon hear) and this only added to what can be safely described as a power house performance. As with all the other performers, Lauren talked through the song making sure she understood the subtle changes and themes within the song. An amazing singer and one to keep your eye on (she’ll be green one day ;D )

And that was/is that!

Now the great work begins, we still have a couple more people to record (names released sooooon!) and the whole album to produce, orchestrate, record and master … ;D You can keep an eye on twitter with @chrispassey and @stageleftpod who will be pumping out some awesome videos and podcasts soon.

None of this can happen without three things:

You – thank you so much, from the bottom of my heart for following and believing. We’re not there yet but you are all making sure I don’t stop.

Nathan – the most amazing support and ears of a God, we could not have done this without you and still can’t - even through OfSTED and shitty things you are making this dream a reality. Thank you

And to my Amy – Thank you is not enough for getting me back on the road I started on and making sure I don’t forget the destination. For being the actual reason I’m doing this, for the inspiration behind the music and now, more than ever, a truly gifted lyricist. I love you x

Keep following peeps; it can only get better!

As Ever,

Chris x

Feb 21 2011

Kinky Kabaret, Song Writing & Sting

Hello! Firstly, I have to talk about Kinky Kabaret on 17th Jan at Freedom Bar, Soho. As my first London gig, it couldn’t have gone better. The performers were incredible both in their performances and in how they approached a really rather random writer from the Midlands and agreed to learn his songs in one week with a small rehearsal.

Zoe Rainey was a complete delight. Now appearing as Nessa Rose in Wicked, she sang ‘Lifeline’ with such depth of emotion. We spent most of our rehearsal time combing through the lyrics to make sure she understood the character and finely tuned each turn in the melody. A truly beautiful performer who I was just blown away by.

Kieran Brown was up next to sing ‘If They Only Knew’. I had seen Kieran on YouTube and was like ‘Amy, get me that guy for the album’ … and as you know by now, exactly that happened. We spoke loads over email and text and I managed to meet with him a few minutes before rehearsing which, like Zoe, was an intricate exploration of this already complicated song. Kieran grasped the character immediately and I have to say just got it.

What was even more amazing is that Kieran then asked if he could sing the song at GIGGING FOR IT! Presents: Lessons In Love on February 13th in London. I immediately said yes and am still flattered that he even asked! Now cast as Cover Raoul in Love Never Dies, I can honestly say I am very proud of him and his achievement and cannot wait to see him in the show.

I sang a brand new song called ‘In My Arms’ which was written for Liam Tamne and whilst I found the top notes a struggle (I’m a baritone, NOT Bruno Mars who likes to write songs too high for HIM!) I really enjoyed the opportunity to showcase a new song.

Finally the amazing Chloe Hart sang ‘Worthy’. A tricky one because Chloe took her bow in Les Mis and ran to Freedom with literally minutes to spare to rehearse once in near silence because the doors were opening! Not only this but any public who were aware of the song knew it in its original form performed by Kellie Humphrey. A TOUGH act to follow not least for Kellie’s moving vocals and dedicated approach and delivery of the song which made her, and many others, cry.

Chloe did, however, whip my most popular song into a frenzy with crazy controlled belts and subtle changes in the melody which make having your songs sung all worth while. The crowd went absolutely wild …. (more videos will be posted soon!) And a wonderful review from Chris @ M Magazine can be found here :http://chris.m-isfor.co.uk/

The trip to London saw us leave home at 3.30pm and arrive home at 4.30am with work in but a few short hours. However, having Amy, Shaun, Sarah and Rachel travel with me (as well as few welcome friendly faces from the past and present) made it such a special event. Maybe more soon to come!

And so now …..

Head down; keep writing. That’s all I’ve been doing for the past month and with very little progress. And I couldn’t understand why. How can I have written songs that make people cry and take them on a journey to a completely different place and yet when I need to I can’t find anything. Perhaps that’s part of the problem. I sat for hours looking over old lyrics and chord patterns and trying to create songs from bits of others like some kind of Dr. Frankenstein of music.

I was with my producer the other night pouring over ten takes of one of the songs to create a cohesive vocal performance for two of the completed tracks and then we began orchestration. Which was a disaster. I was approaching everything from the wrong angle hoping that everything in my head (a fooking BRILLIANT place to be most of the time) would come out onto paper or into Logic Pro and all would be done. Nope.

And that’s when I saw Sting: Live in Berlin on ITV3+1 at about 1:30am. WOW. He just sang and spoke about how his songs were stories. And THAT’S when it hit me.

All of my unfinished songs were stories that I had neglected and needed to get comfortable with again. And after a boost from my new amazing fanpage on twitter (who knew?) and Amy and fellow amazing composer Tim Prottey Jones (buys his new musical theatre album here :http://www.amazon.co.uk/More-every-line-music-Prottey-Jones/dp/B004CE9WOU) I began work on ‘Sin That I’m In’.

And that’s all you’re getting about that song!

On Sunday, we’re having a delayed Valentines as Amy has been away working and going to see Bobby Cronin at the New Players Theatre with Mark Evans, Leanne Jones, Liam Tamne and so many other amazing people as well as a surprise from my girl and a podcast interview with Stage Left Podcasts …. always working but always loving it!

As ever, I couldn’t do any of this without you so thank you – it means everything to me.

As Ever,

Chris

Jan 8 2011

Brand New Year – London Debut!

Well, what a way to start 2011!

Not only have we secured more amazing talent to record the album (more info to follow soon!), I have my first London gig on Monday 17th January at Freedom Bar, Soho.

Chloe Hart (Hairspray, Les Miserables), Zoe Rainey (Hairspray, Wicked) and Kieran Brown (Les Miserables, Over The Threshold) will be singing some of the most requested songs whilst I will be performing a brand new song from the album. I’ll be blogging about the gig as soon as I can and there will be pictures and videos aplenty I’m sure!

Photography by Bo Davies - Poster Design by Amy Carroll

This is a massive step for me: from humble piano musings seven years ago to top West End performers agreeing to sing my music – it has been, and continues to be, an incredible journey. I am so amazingly grateful to the kindness of these performers (another post I feel) and also to Amy who is running the whole shebang (see pic! ^)

I am so unbelievably excited and cannot thank you all enough for supporting me through this, particularly to those who were involved at the very beginning at Big World’s ‘Lyric Exchange’.

Wish me luck!