‘Jack’ will stay with me for a very long time. Phil Dixon takes such risks with his musical phrasing, melody, micro-structures, tonality and gorgeous chord progressions. I can’t think of another contemporary composer writing in the way he does.
Genuine honour to play Phil’s music in this band full of my friends.
So great to have so many old friends come and watch it this week. Thank you.
And absolute props to @bristolmusicaltheatre for taking a punt on this show. Would’ve been very easy to just put on a show that audiences are already familiar with, but this was a calculated gamble that paid off in spades.
Brilliant day out watching Luton win the Vertu Trophy.
First Wembley game for my nephew. And the first ever Wembley final between two clubs with the same nickname. The Hatters of Luton v The Hatters of Stockport.
El Hatico
Loved playing in Worcester last night.
Last night of the tour in Doncaster tonight 😢
Early start in the morning for the long drive down the M1 to Wembley to watch the mighty Luton Town! 🎩
Off on tour over the Easter holidays with Nick and the False Alarms! I’ll also be playing 🎹 🎺 for Flo + The Escape Lane at the Glastonbury and London dates.
Glastonbury is sold out, but still tickets left for all other dates.
Off into Bristol for a double show day on ‘Six’ the musical. Don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much in a band as I have with this lot.
‘Six’ is famously about Henry III’s six wives so we’re aiming to have six keyboards in the pit by tomorrow’s shows.
🎹 = 🎸
Recovering from a beautiful long weekend gigging over in Germany with Flo + The Escape Lane trio alongside our friends Heron Island.
Over 2000km driven over 4 days, lovely gigs in Essel and Brilon-Wald playing our music to some of the friendliest people I know and consuming borderline offensive amounts of sausage and beer.
One of my favourite dishes of the weekend was North German breakfast delicacy ‘Mett Brötchen’ - raw minced pork on a crusty bread roll 😋
Huge thanks to our hosts for their gracious hospitality, Nick Parker for lending us his van for the weekend and my band mates for being such good company.
❤️ 🇩🇪
If you can afford a few spare quid this Christmas to support The Amber Trust I’d be very grateful. I’m playing this piece in a fundraising concert on 13th January in Bath to support their work with blind/partially sighted young musicians. You can donate at the link in the comments and your donation will get you a ticket to the concert.
Or you could just sponsor me to learn the rest of this monstrous piece by then…. 😬
#Piano #AmberTrust #Brahms #Help
The Amber Trust provide free music lessons for blind and partially sighted children across the UK. For the past seven years they’ve funded me to teach Josie the piano in Bath.
Unfortunately, they no longer have the funds to support new pupils applying for instrument tuition.
Josie has taken matters into her own hands and has organised a fundraising concert on 13th January so that other pupils can have the same opportunities that she has. Josie and her friends and family will all be playing, and it promises to be a wonderful evening of music. Rather terrifyingly I’m going to playing Brahms’ Rhapsodie in G minor on the Steinway 😬😬😬
You can make a donation at the link below which will also be your ticket for the night. You can also just make a donation if you’d really rather not sit through me butchering the Brahms…
Picture of me and Josie’s guide dog Flora to shamelessly get your attention.
Shattered after a week of 🎺 on Beauty and the Beast.
Alan Menken’s orchestration is exceptional and playing with this bunch all week has been a privilege. Massive thanks to Laurie for putting this band together and MDing so well.
Especially lovely to share the pit with former pupil of mine Naomi on ‘cello.
It’s been a good week, even if the amount of audience 1 and 3 clapping has been borderline obscene.
PS Delighted that my hat got so much love from my band mates
