Meet The Cast Of Centrestage Cymru's White Christmas

A film musical classic celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. White Christmas premiered to the world on October 14, 1954 and has been part of the Christmas season ever since. The title song, originally sung by Bing Crosby and written by Irving Berlin was first featured in the 1942 film musical Holiday Inn.

60 years on from the original film premiere of White Christmas, Centrestage Cymru bring the classic musical which was made famous by the wonderful cast of Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen to the stage of Newport's Dolman Theatre this week.

The musical’s dazzling score features well known standards including Blue Skies, I Love a Piano, How Deep Is the Ocean and the all time favourite, White Christmas. Full of laughter, joy, nostalgia, song and dance this Newport stage premier has to be the best opening to the Christmas season possible for all the family. 

We put questions to several cast members about their ideal White Christmas!

Who are you playing in White Christmas?
Becci Jarvis:  I am playing Judy Haynes
Jordan Archer:  Phil Davies
Sharon Higgins: Betty Haynes
Matthew Bryant: I’m Bob Wallace (Bing Crosby)
Hannah Roper: I’m playing Rhoda
Elissa Taylor: Rita

What are you looking forward to most about the role?
Jordan: Working alongside the incredible 'ledge' Matt Bryant
Sharon: I love performing alongside the other principles and cast members.
Hannah: That she is so ditzy, bubbly and giggly, I’m having a lot of fun playing her.
Elisa: Dressing up in a box

Whats your favourite song in White Christmas and why?
Becci: I love a Piano! It's a big tap number which is my favourite style of dance
Matt: Count your Blessings – It’s just a lovely song
Hannah: Either Blue Skies or Finale cause I love the dances
Elisa: Snow because we are singing about snow, but really there is no snow.

Whats your Christmas wish for this year?
Becci: To pass University
Jordan: World Peace
Sharon: Health and happiness for my family and friends.
Matt: Happiness for my family and friends.
Hannah: A White Christmas!

• Centrestage Cymru's production of White Christmas plays The Dolman Theatre, Newport until October 25. Tickets now available from www.dolmantheatre.co.uk
• Visit Centrestage Cymru's website to find out about further shows and read further Q&A's with the cast.
• A version of this Q&A appeared in The South Wales Argus entertainment supplement The Guide on October 17, 2014.

King King Step From The Shadows - Alan Nimmo Interview

Visitors to John Mayall's 80th anniversary concert at St David's Hall this week are in for a treat. Not only will fans be treat to music from John's new album "A Special Life" but they will also get to see an opening set from Scottish bluesbreakers King King.

"Obviously the crowd will be there to see John Mayall," says Alan Nimmo of the band, " But I hope we get a good chance to impress with our short but sweet show. We're doing about 40 minutes. There’s an energy to the show and to the performance."

"Its natural, it’s real and every part of it is meant. I'm doing this because, I love doing it and not because I want to get anything else from the business it’s who I am what I am hopefully that passions going to come through."

Alan who plays guitar and sings vocals has already been a popular draw on the touring circuit for many years as a member of The Nimmo Brothers, with whom he met King King bassist Lindsay Coulson.

"Lindsay played with the band for four years and we stayed in touch after that," says Alan, “We had some idea in mind to do something together. We ended up just visiting each other all the time. I was in Glasgow, he was in Lincoln. We thought we'd go out and have a beer and pay for it by putting a gig on for our mates, then we thought why don't we do this properly because we had the same visual ideas how we would like to progress. We always agreed on what the way forward for us was best and wanted to give it a try. That’s probably just over five years ago now."

The band which also consist of Wayne Proctor and Bob Fridzema have picked up several accolades along the way including 2014  British Blues Awards, not least ‘Best Band’ (for a third consecutive year) and ‘ Best Album’ for 2013’s ‘Standing In The Shadows’. They have recently completed work on their third album due for release early next year.

Alan and the band are looking forward to playing alongside John Mayall at next week’s Cardiff show," I've been a John Mayall fan for as long as I can remember," says Alan, " Obviously the Beano album is one I grew up listening to and that’s how I got into Peter Green as well."

King King themselves are set apart from most contemporaries by their on-stage appearance. Scottish through and through, Alan will be seen proudly wearing his kilt on stage, "Hopefully they won’t get too scared by looking at some large barbarian in a kilt," he laughs, "I'm just hoping they going to be pleasantly surprised  hopefully there will be some people who know who we are. We want to gain some new fans, we want to show the audience that there’s quality music they might not have seen yet.

• A version of this interview by Andy Howells appeared in The South Wales Argus Entertainment supplement The Guide on October 17, 2014.
• Visit King King's official website.

Meet The Band: The Marmozets

The Marmozets story is of how two sets of siblings battled together to fully deserve their reputation as one of Britain’s brightest new hopes. Already being tipped for the top, the band’s growing reputation was underlined by their recent closing night headline set on the Glastonbury BBC Introducing stage. This week the band released their long-awaited debut album ‘The Weird and Wonderful Marmozets’.

Produced by former Hundred Reasons guitarist Larry Hibbitt, the album emphasises Marmozets’ growing skill in developing a broad range of styles, including the punk rock assault of ‘Cover Up’, and ‘Born Young And Free’, the brooding dynamic contrasts which feature on ‘Captivate You’, the visceral aggression of ‘Why Do You Hate Me?’ and the soaring progressive epic ‘Cry’. In essence the album captures the riotous energy of their live show with complex melodies, compelling vocals and massive riffs.

The latest single to be taken from the album is ‘Born Young and Free’ which showcases their fiery spirited attitude.

Comprising of Becca MacIntyre (vocals), her siblings Sam (guitar) and Josh (drums), as well as the Bottomley brothers Jack and Will (on guitar and bass respectively), Marmozets have a relentless work ethic which has seen them dedicate their entire lives (albeit very young lives!) to the band. Music college wasn’t an option and there was never a Plan B. Their future could only be Marmozets.

Prior to their recent Cardiff date, guitarist Jack Bottomley recently answered questions poised by Andy Howells: 

You originally came together in 2007. Has your journey to the release of your debut album been a long one for you?
Well I guess it does feel like it's been a long time looking back on it. But we take every day as it comes. We've always known it takes years to get anywhere in music, usually anyway, but it's all been about timing for us, climbing the ladder etc. can't wait for it to be out!

When did you decide you wanted to form a band?
The second I saw The White Stripes play in Blackpool. It was my first show and it blew my mind. Me and my brother started jamming in our bedroom. He was probably about 8 years old then haha.

Your band is made up of siblings is there much in the way of rivalry with each other when it comes to determining the bands sound?
Not at all, we all go for the same sound. We know what it sounds like when we get it. It's just getting it sometimes. We've only ever worked with each other so it's all we know.

What is your favourite track on the new album and why?
It's a tough one, I could say hit the wave because i play a guitar solo in it, which hasn't ever happened on Marmozets track before, but that'd be silly. Either that or weird and wonderful or vibe tech. It's so varied and mixed it's hard to pick a favourite for myself. I tend to like different ones when I'm in different moods or what ever. Depends on the vibes.

What was it like playing Glastonbury’s BBC Introducing Stage?
It was surreal! We were so excited to play. It's not everyday you get to headline a stage at Glasto' it was a crazy day.

What can fans expect from your forthcoming Cardiff Show?
Madness! We can't wait for this upcoming tour. It'll be a great night with great bands. Lonely the brave and allusondrugs are both awesome in their own unique way which will make this more than interesting!

Where can fans find out the latest news about you?
Marmozets.co.uk or weird.marmozets.co.uk for album stream.

• A version of this Q&A by Andy Howells originally featured in The South Wales Argus entertainment supplement The Guide on October 3, 2014.

Il Divo Rooted In Musical Theatre - David Miller Interview

Andy Howells chats to David Miller of Il Divo

"It’s been an amazing journey full of highs and lows," says David Miller of his decade with Il Divo, the world's first and most successful classical crossover group. 

The foursome have sold over 26 million albums worldwide, achieved over 50 number one records, received 160 gold and platinum sales awards in over 33 countries and staged four ground-breaking world tours. The international quartet comprises of tenor Urs Buhler of Switzerland, baritone Carlos Marin of Spain, pop artist Sébastien Izambard of France and tenor David from the United States. 

As Il Divo first came to fruition in 2003, their current world tour which comes to Cardiff this week marks a milestone for the four singers as they commemorate the success of over a decade together.  

"The beginning was a full on experiment," continues David, "four guys in a room and see what they can come up with. We all had to kind of get over ourselves and each other and push past barriers and commit ourselves to one single goal which is making one track a time literally something we can all be proud of." 

Il Divo’s last album, A Musical Affair, a homage to the world of musical theatre, was released in 2013, "We started thinking to ourselves that we needed to focus in on something," David tells me,” We realised looking back over our tours the most popular songs we had the most freedom on was the musical theatre songs as they connected with everyone. The way we arranged them had a very powerful impact and we started to get into creating an entire album of musical theatre." 

Realising Il Divo had something special, Broadway producer James Nederland invited the boys to premiere their latest tour at The Marquis Theatre in November 2013, "it was met with great success," says David, "We thought this was the kind of thing we can bring to the world and so that’s pretty much what we are doing." 

The show will be very different to other Il Divo shows as David explains, "It’s going to be a very technologically heavy. This is musical theatre so every song has a context. The choice we were faced with was we could make it another Il Divo show or we could try and create the environment track by track, song by song. We're trying to recreate an environment that will reflect a moment in the show where the song comes from." 

David thinks that a show based around musical theatre has helped Il Divo break down a few preconceived ideas people may have had about their music. "One of our big bonuses we found over the years was that people came to us and thought we would sing opera, which is not the case, we sing pop songs. We're just using our operatic backgrounds to emphasise certain moments across pop songs. 

The bonus we got back from the audience in the end was people were going out and saying "Wow! I never realised the operatic voice could be like that!" It’s true there are certain stereotypes out there. For us to break that down was a huge bonus for us. Both Carlos' and my musical beginnings were actually in musical theatre and that got us started singing."
David who was originally in training to be a NASA astronaut before deciding on a career in music will have a very personal moment when the group perform Some Enchanted Evening from Camelot. 

"That song was the song I used in my first audition to audition for the high school musical," he tells me, "it’s like a very personal moment for me. I feel like I've come absolutely full circle 20 years later. Musical Theatre is responsible for physically bringing me out of my shell in high school and creating this desire to want to use my voice. When I sang opera it was like, "This is what I want to do with the rest of my life."" 

Il Divo will be joined by Lea Salonga, the award winning singer and actress best known for her Tony & Olivier Award winning role in Miss Saigon perform at Cardiff Motorpoint Arena on October 19.

• Il Divo's Official Site
• A version of this interview by Andy Howells appeared in The South Wales Argus entertainment supplement The Guide on October 17, 2014.

Honest John Plain - Still One Of The Boys

Punk rock legend Honest John Plain plays The Dolls House in Abertillery this weekend. 

Honest John met Matt Dangerfield at Art College in Leeds and moved to London with him in 1971. Dangerfield, joined London SS with Casino Steel, Mick Jones (The Clash), Tony James (Generation X) and Brian James (The Damned) with Plain joining them on drums for one session.  As London SS disintegrated in 1975 Plain, Dangerfield and Steel formed The Boys.  

The Boys quickly built up a reputation as a white-hot live band and in January 1977 became the first punk band to sign an album deal when they signed away their recording lives to NEMS.  After signing for NEMS Plain sold The Boys equipment for £500 and put it on a horse, which came second!  This and other dodgy deals quickly earned him the nickname ‘Honest’.

Widely tipped to make it big The Boys with songs penned by Steel/Dangerfield & Plain and were highly respected by both the music press and their peers.  They quickly became known as ‘The Beatles of Punk’ but unfortunately through a series of poor marketing, bad decisions and appalling luck they never converted their potential to chart success. 

Following the demise of The Boys Plain joined the Dirty Strangers and recorded an album with Keith Richards and Ronnie Woods of the Rolling Stones.  After almost 40 years in the music business Plain’s musical career is looking extremely healthy with many young musicians citing him as a major influence.  The release the new Boys album with gigs aplenty with The Boys and The Landslide Ladies it is certain to enhance his growing reputation and increase his popularity even further. 

The Boys have just released “Punk Rock Menopause”, their first brand new album since 1981’s “Boys Only”.  Plain continues to tour extensively with The Boys with dates in Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, USA, Spain, France, UK, Canada, Italy, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Norway, Sweden, Italy, Germany & Japan in the past couple of years to be followed by numerous live dates planned for 2014 including China & USA.  

Honest John Plain recently answered questions from Andy Howells:

The Boys released Punk Rock menopause earlier this year can you tell us a bit about that?
It's the first brand new Boys album in almost 35 years. We had been discussing recording a new Boys album for a few years but all had our doubts over the venture. We finally agreed to take the plunge in 2010, although it took us another year or two to finally make it into the recording studio

It had been a long time since the release of the last album (1981) what was it like getting back in the studio together?
I was a little apprehensive at first and we initially agreed to record just four new songs and see how it went. However it quickly became apparent that the old creative magic was still there and we ended up recording a whole album, which we are all extremely pleased with.  Matt, Cas and I were the songwriters in The Boys, although I wrote separately from the prolific Steel/Dangerfield partnership. With the new album we agreed to write songs between the three of us and it appears to have worked very well. I think it's our best ever album and the response from critics and fans alike has been phenomenal.

You’ll be visiting Abertillery soon. What can we expect from your show if we haven’t caught Honest John live before?
I'm really looking forward to the Dolls House! I love South Wales, and have recorded quite a few albums at Rockfield. We'll be performing many of the songs I've written over the past 40 years or so including "First Time", "Terminal Love", "New Guitar In Town", "Where Have All The Good Girls Gone" and "Never Listen Rumours".

What has been your most memorable live performance?
It's very difficult to pick out just one show but if pushed I'd have to plump for The Boys show in the castle high above Ibiza in 1982. It ended up being The Boys last performance for 17 years.

What other projects are you working on at the moment?
I've just started recording a new album with Petter Baarli, of The Backstreet Girls and have been touring quite a bit with The Boys as well some solo stuff with my own band and solo acoustic shows. I recorded an album at Rockfield a while ago with the likes of Michael Monroe, Sami Yaffa, Glen Matlock, Casino Steel, Verden Allen, Martin Chambers, Darrell Bath & Robbie Rushton and hopefully that'll be out very soon. I seem to keep myself busy!

• Honest John Plain plays The Dolls House in Abertillery on Saturday, October 18.
• Honest John Plain's Facebook Page
• The Boys Official Website
• A version of this Q&A with Andy Howells appeared in The South Wales Argus supplement The Guide on October 17, 2014

On Stage: Eric and Little Ern, Newport Riverfront

Morecambe and Wise were the funniest comedy double act on television during the 1960s and 70s and even though their partnership ended when Eric Morecambe died of a heart attack in 1984 their popularity has endured.

Ian Ashpitel and Jonty Stephens stage presentation Eric and Little Ern (Newport Riverfront, October 8) is therefore most welcome. A tribute to Morecambe and Wise’s greatest comedy moments combined with dialogue of what Ernie might have said to Eric had he had the chance to see him one final time.

The opening scene, set in a private hospital room has an ailing Ernie visited by Eric (in Doctor Coat) and transformed back to Morecambe and Wise’s glory days. Classic scripts from the pens of Eddie Braben and Hills & Green were thrown into the mix including Grieg’s Piano Concerto and Eric’s throwaway comment when a police car siren wails past the hospital window, “He’s not going to sell a lot of Ice Creams going at that speed.”

Of course, it’s not just the dialogue that makes Eric and Little Ern brilliant, its Ian Ashpitel and Jonty Stephens delivery and portrayal as the duo. Everything is there from the face slapping to the adjusting of Eric’s glasses via Des O Connor jokes and dance routines.

Sunshine and laughter certainly came into the Riverfront Theatre as the pair kitted out in trademark suits performed famous Eric and Ernie routines in the second half of the show.

Let’s hope it’s not too long before this brilliant show returns to Wales, as Eric Morecambe might have said, “Keep going you fools!”

• A version of this review by Andy Howells was originally published within The South Wales Argus on October 10, 2014. 
• For more information on Eric and Little Ern visit the official website.

Bluesbreaker - John Mayall Interview

Andy Howells chats with legendary Blues musician John Mayall about his forthcoming Cardiff show.

As John Mayall embarks on his 80th decade, the Blues legend shows no signs of slowing down. He is about to embark on a yearlong world tour which sees him stop off at Cardiff’s St David’s Hall in October.

This all follows a career spanning over half a century which has seen him release some 60 albums while simultaneously contributing to the rock-blues scene more than any other musician in history. He recently released his first new studio album in 5 years, “A Special Life”, along with his band, Texan guitarist Rocky Athas, bassist Greg Rzab, alongside fellow Chicagoan Jay Davenport.

“The preparation for it was only a couple of weeks,” says John, “with the same band you just fall into things naturally. The actual recording of the tracks only took three days to do and a couple of more days to put vocals and bits and pieces on, it was all very quick. That’s the way we like to work.”

While the trend for many musicians is to spend, months or even years laboring over recording an album, John’s approach to recording the album was spontaneous. “It’s very important to catch the feeling before you start running it into the ground,” he continues, “it was pretty much all first takes, just like we play live.”

John’s place in music history goes back some five decades, when he put together the first of his bands, the Bluesbreakers in 1963.  “It was pretty easy because people were so thrilled with this new music in the clubs,” he recalls. “There were so many venues for people to play.  They called it the British blues boom because there were so many bands that started off at the same time.”

The Bluesbreakers, acted as a finishing school for the leading blues-rock musicians of the day including Peter Green, Mick Taylor and Eric Clapton who joined Fleetwood Mac, Rolling Stones and Cream respectively.

John recalls Clapton’s arrival in The Bluesbreakers as a very important move for them both. “Eric had left the Yardbirds because of the direction they were going in," he says, “He wanted to play blues, so it just coincided with me hearing him properly because his progress was quite rapid. It was perfect timing for me to hire him; it was just what he wanted and just what I wanted. “

The forthcoming tour sees John still shining limelight on new talent as Glasgow four piece, King King play support. The concerts will also hold some special treats for Blues fans old and new. “The set list changes every night,” says John, “it’s not always the same show but I try to make it a pretty good match of old and new stuff. I think there’s something for everyone.”

I ask John how after over 50 years of performing he still manages to make his music sound so fresh and exciting.  He responds philosophically and poetically, “The blues is an endless fountain of inspiration, with so many shades of expression of what’s going on around you, what’s happening with you, emotionally all these things are the source of it all.”

• Catch John Mayall at St David’s Hall, Cardiff on October 22.  Tickets available online at stdavidshallcardiff.co.uk or at the box office on 029 2087 8444.
• A version of this interview with John Mayall by Andy Howells appeared in The South Wales Argus entertainment supplement The Guide during August, 2014.
• Visit John Mayall's official website