The 4Tunes Hit The Right Note On New Tour - Q&A With Michael Conway and Owain Williams

The 4Tunes, who are mesmerising audiences with their breath-taking voices and stunning harmonies in their first UK tour, will be appearing at the Blake Theatre, Monmouth on March 4th followed by The Grand Pavilion, Porthcawl on March 12th.

The Porthcawl concert will be a return to home turf for two of the quartet, lead singer Michael Conway and Owain Williams. They were brought up in the town and trained and performed at The Grand Pavilion in their youth before going on to appear in a host of top West End shows. Andy Howells recently  put questions to the pair.

How did The 4 Tunes come together?
OWAIN: We were all working in the West End in different shows in 2013 and had always wanted to sing together.   We got together for a friend’s wedding and loved it so much we did a few gigs in London, which went down really well.  As with all the performers in the West End, you never know when your next job is coming from, and in October 2013 we were all not in shows so did a cruise on the Aurora.  The 4Tunes were born and we have never looked back

You all have immense singing experience how different is performing songs from shows as opposed to performing in a show?
MICHAEL: It is great to sing with a live band on the ships and do ‘our own thing’.  We can sing songs from shows we had never been in and also our favourite songs from composers we would never normally get the chance to sing. So when we decided to do the tour, we all came up with favourites and classics, and as we say every night “there’s a song for everybody” on the tour.  Being in a show is great but it can get boring and sometimes you want to just sing what you feel, so in the tour we chop and change to suit the day!  The sound man never likes us doing that!

You are both from Wales originally, how important is it to you to be back on home ground performing these songs?
MICHAEL: It is great to travel around the country and later in the year we will be in Newcastle where Dominic is from, so he will have all his family with him.   I  was born in Port Talbot and have sung as a child many times at the grand Pavilion in Porthcawl, so it will be an emotional time and honoured to be back.  Owain is from Carmarthen and works in Cardiff on a TV show and knows how special it will be to sing in his home country, and maybe even do a song in Welsh!

What can people expect from your forthcoming shows?
OWAIN: Well it is 2 x 45 minute sets, both different and features a song for everybody.  So we will do numbers from shows we have performed in like Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera and Jersey Boys, the classic Sinatra/Buble songs and modern day classics from Queen.  The first half tends to be more ballad like and second have songs to get you on your feet and dance and sing along, as long as you are in tune!

Is there a particular song you enjoy performing?
OWAIN: We love singing Bohemian Rhapsody, as not even Queen sang it live as it’s too difficult.  It always brings the house down and we are left exhausted after a 7 minute assault course on our vocals.   We also all have a solo which we change to suit the mood, which is an indulgence and love to make each one personal to maybe somebody in the audience.

What has been your best live experience?
MICHAEL: We have too many AMAZING experiences but Michael played the lead in Jersey Boys in the West End and to take the bows singing Frankie Valli was life-changing.  Owain sang for the Prince of Wales in Wales and also at The Phantom of the Opera’s 25th anniversary at the O2 in London.   Jimmy sang with Brian May and Queen whilst in We Will Rock You but seeing the many fans who have supported us over the years come out and see us on tour is just amazing!   We always stay behind to chat and to have pictures taken too, so bring your cameras!

Where can people find out more about you and your shows?
OWAIN: Well we have our new Twitter page and our website which is www.the4tunes.com   

• A version of this Q&A with Andy Howells appeared in The South Wales Argus entertainment supplement The Guide on February 26, 2016. 

Laughter Lines: Rob Beckett

After a sell out autumn tour, the star of BBC's Live At The Apollo, Mock The Week and Channel 4's 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown, Rob Beckett is back on the road this spring touring the UK with his brand new show Mouth Of The South and he's taking on the big issues like Kit Kats and flatbread!

Rob burst onto the comedy circuit only five years ago but within his first year he had won four new act competitions including Amused Moose Laugh Off, Outside The Box New Act of the Year, Leicester Square Theatre New Act of the Year  and Reading Comedy Festival New Act of the Year, as well as being nominated for the prestigious Adelaide Fringe Best Newcomer Award.

After quickly establishing himself on the circuit, Rob’s cheeky chappy persona saw him winning fans by starring on numerous TV shows including Sunday Night At The Palladium, Would I Lie To You and The Jonathan Ross Show. Andy Howells recently put questions to the stand-up performer.

What made you decide you wanted to become a comedian?
I was terrible at all my other jobs and I saw an open mic Comic who was rubbish and I thought I can't be as bad as that. So I gave it a go.

Who are your comedy heroes?
Billy Connolly, Peter Kay, Alan Davies and Richard Pryor.

Who makes you laugh? 
My mate Birch when he has a cold. He wears about 4 jumpers and rubs Vaseline all over his nose.

What can we expect from your Mouth Of The South show? 
Loads of silly fun. I’ll chat with the audience and make you laugh.

Whats the funniest thing that has happened to you at a gig?
An audience member admitted to pooing in a pint glass and putting it into the middle of the dance floor at a nightclub. That made me laugh.

Beyond the forthcoming tour what can we expect from you in 2016?
I will be doing loads of panel show stuff and I got a few more pilots that will hopefully get commissioned and i’ll be doing more radio shows and podcasts.

Where can fans find out more about you?
They can follow me on Twitter @robbeckettcomic or my website

Rob will be performing at Porthcawl’s Grand Pavilion on 11th February (01656 815 995, www.grandpavilion.co.uk ) and Monmouth’s Savoy Theatre on Friday 12th February (01600 772 467, www.monmouth-savoy.co.uk)

Airrion Love Back On Tour With The Stylistics

With instantly recognisable hits such as Stop, Look, Listen to your Heart, You Are Everything and Betcha By Golly Wow, The Stylistics are one of the most iconic groups in soul history. The group still feature two of the original members (Herbert Murrell and Airrion Love) and is fronted by the brilliant Harold 'Eban' Brown, former singer with Wilbur Hart's Delfonics.

The Philadelphia group recorded a remarkable 10 straight top-ten hits during the early 1970s and will being their iconic sound to Porethcawl's Grand Pavillion on November 26. Andy Howells recently put questions to founder member Airrion Love.

The Stylistics came together in 1968 from two Philadelphia Groups The Percussions and The Monarchs. Did you come from musical backgrounds originally and what made you want to become singers?
As a child I was always singing, but other than The Glee Club and All City Choir in Junior High School, that was my only background.

When did you actually realise you’d become successful?
I still can't believe it! In my neighborhood coming up a lot of people knew me because of the music, but I lived there all my life so I was one of the lucky ones. There were a few recording artist from Philadelphia at that time.

You cracked the UK chart in 1972 with Betcha By Golly Wow. How important was it to you break into the UK?
Our management thought is was very important to break into the UK market, in fact our first mini tour we came over for free. The first city we came to in the UK was London. We were schedule to do a lot of promotions and we showcased at a club called Gulliver's.

Two of your hits Stone In Love With You and You Make Me Feel Brand New went on to  really define your sound. Did you have any idea how unique they were when you recorded them and do you still enjoy performing them?
Well, working with Tom Bell at the time, he always produced great songs. And yes when I heard You Make Me Feel Brand New for the first time it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I knew then it was a great song.

The Stylistics were a mainstay of the UK charts as well as the US and gained a UK Number One in 1975 with Can’t Give you Anything But My Love. What was the story behind that song and what did it mean to you to get a number one with it?
We had mixed feelings in the beginning. Tom Bell had stopped producing us after a disagreement with the record company and Hugo and Luigi the record company President and Vice President started producing us. We didn't feel the material was as strong as before and in fact we lost a few fans here in the States because of the change of sound. That album was the first one for Hugo and Luigi so they did a big TV promotion. It did go Gold Stateside, but after that, records sales went down here at home. But overseas it took off not only in the UK but Japan also. From then on it seem the material were written for our overseas market only but we opened two new markets.

You are still touring and performing and have retained a few original members from your 1968 line-up how do you all get on after all these years?
Well like a bad marriage, things start heading downhill, so did our relationship with our lead singer Russell Thompkins. Its been almost 20 years since he left and there's no communication with him at all.

What can fans expect from your forthcoming Wales show?
We've been coming to the UK for quite a few years, and we come to know what our fans expect from us. So we try to give them as much Stylistics Music and we can. We're not going to feature any other music but our own, so they can expect to have a lot of memories flooding though their minds. They might even find themselves falling in love all over again.
This is a funny story, but a woman wrote to our web site that she came to see one of our show with her ex-husband and ex-mother-in-law. After seeing the show which brought back so many memories she felt like she wanted to remarry her ex-husband again.

Out of all the years of The Stylistics success which would you describe as your best moment?
There's one that stands out in my mind, was performing South Africa to 65,000 people.

• A version of this Q&A by Andy Howells appeared in The South Wales Argus entertainment supplement The Guide in November, 2015.
• Visit The Stylistics Official Website

Julian Lloyd Webber Embarks On Unique Concert Tour - Interview

Julian Lloyd Webber, one of the world’s finest and most influential classical musicians has announced a special series of concerts. For the first time, Julian will take his audience on a historical and musical journey by presenting a unique insight into his extraordinary life, with music performed by himself, his wife and fellow cellist Jiaxin Lloyd Webber, together with pianist Pam Chowhan.

As a member of arguably the most influential musical dynasty of modern times, Julian will recount stories and anecdotes of touring, recording sessions, concerts and TV shows to link with a new presentation of rare video footage of him talking and performing. “We'll be showing lots of video clips of me working with people like Stéphane Grappelli, Cleo Laine, Yehudu Menuhin but also composers like Joaquin Rodrigo,” says Julian, “ interspersed with all this, my wife will be playing pieces that have been very important in my career. I’ll be reading from my book Travels With My Cello and at different points doing a question and answer from the audience.”

Julian is keen that the show will be a very interactive experience for the whole family and will be inviting a member of the audience to get a unique Cello master class on stage. “What I thought of originally was doing an encore with my wife. As we are travelling by car all the time, we literally cant get an extra cello in,” Julian laughs before continuing, “if some young cellist wants to come I’ll play an encore on their instrument and they can have a few minutes on stage and maybe I can give a few little tips. I want the evening to be totally appropriate for children like an introduction to classical music, a celebration!”

Julian’s passion for music education will spill over into the show and he hopes his lifelong musical experiences will serve as an inspiration to younger members of the audience.  “ I just never knew anything else,” he says as he recalls growing up in the Lloyd Webber home. “ I took it for granted, there was all kinds of music going on, musicians dropping into our flat. My father was a composer and organist while my mother taught young children the piano and Andrew would be composing his latest tunes. Music sort of grew out of it for me, there was no particular pressure to do it and I found the cello. There'd never been a string player in the family and that’s one of the reasons why I’m so passionate about music education. Had I not been in that kind of background I don't know if I'd have discovered music or not, it’s just that it was always there.”

The show will see works performed from Faure's Elegy, Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Music of the Night, Rachmaninov's Cello Sonata through to composers William Lloyd Webber, Frank Bridge, JS Bach and Philip Glass, “There’s almost too much going on, I think it could overrun a bit!” says Julian when discussing the show which also features a comedy clip of him appearing on TV with the legendary Kenny Everett.

Looking back over a career which spans some five decades, does Julian have any favourite moments? “There are so many things,” he responds, “I loved working with Yehudi Menuhin. I thought he was a great man and a great musician that was just a wonderful experience. More recently I've really enjoyed working with my wife, we've made two CD's and I'm really glad we've been able to do that because it’s something to look back on. We've got a young daughter who’s three and a half and she'll be able to say: "That’s Mummy and Daddy!"”

• An Evening with Julian Lloyd Webber will take place at The Grand Pavillion, Porthcawl on April 9. Visit grandpavilion.co.uk or call box office on 01656 815995 for ticket details.
• A version of this interview by Andy Howells appeared in The South Wales Argus entertainment supplement The Guide on February 27, 2015.