Swing Into Christmas 2024 - Tour Announcement!
We may be writing this in the middle of the summer, but already preparations for our Christmas tour are in full swing - and today, we’re delighted to announce the final tour itinerary!
Sun 17 Nov ~ INVERNESS Eden Court
Mon 18 Nov ~ ABERDEEN Tivoli Theatre
Wed 20 Nov ~ DUMFRIES Easterbrook Hall
Thu 21 Nov ~ NEWCASTLE Cathedral
Fri 22 Nov ~ LEICESTER Empire Hall
Sat 23 Nov ~ CARDIFF Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama (2 shows)
Sun 24 Nov ~ EXETER Great Hall
Fri 29 Nov ~ CAMBRIDGE West Road Concert Hall
Sat 30 Nov ~ BIRMINGHAM Royal Birmingham Conservatoire
Sun 1 Dec ~ IPSWICH Corn Exchange
Mon 2 Dec ~ BATH The Forum
Tue 3 Dec ~ CHELTENHAM Town Hall
Wed 4 Dec ~ LIVERPOOL St. George’s Hall
Thu 5 Dec ~ GLASGOW Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Sat 7 Dec ~ EDINBURGH The Queen’s Hall (2 shows)
Mon 9 Dec ~ PERTH Concert Hall
Fri 13 Dec ~ SHEFFIELD Octagon Centre
Sat 14 Dec ~ YORK Central Hall
Sun 15 Dec ~ MANCHESTER The Stoller Hall (matinée/evening)
Tue 17 Dec ~ NOTTINGHAM Albert Hall
Wed 18 Dec ~ HUDDERSFIELD Lawrence Batley Theatre
Thu 19 Dec ~ HULL City Hall
Fri 20 Dec ~ OXFORD Olivier Hall
Sat 21 Dec ~ WORTHING Assembly Hall
Sun 22 Dec ~ SOUTHAMPTON Turner Sims (2 shows)
Sat 28 Dec ~ LONDON Cadogan Hall (2 shows)
In total, we’re heading to 26 locations across England, Scotland and Wales. We’ll be performing a grand total of 31 Swing Into Christmas shows, featuring our big band with strings. The Orchestra features no fewer than 27 instrumentalists and 3 vocalists – often a few more – and 4 backstage staff, and we absolutely love travelling around the country sharing the joy of live music at Christmas time.
New venues
We’re incredibly excited that our 2024 Christmas tour will feature no fewer than 10 new venues.
We’re particularly excited about the show at Newcastle Cathedral – the first EVER performance of our Orchestra in the north-east of England, on Thu 21 Nov. The Cathedral is a really beautiful setting and we think the concert there will be magical. Early sales very strong – if you’re based in the North, do book now to get the best views of the stage.
Newcastle Cathedral - hosting Swing Into Christmas on Thu 21 Nov 2024
Another new venue we’re incredibly excited about is Cardiff. We’ve tried very hard over the past few years to find venues in Wales, and we think we’ve struck gold with the concert hall at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. We performed there with our All-Stars band in 2023, and now we’re bringing our Orchestra there for two shows on Sat 23 Nov – and we can’t wait. It’s a small and intimate auditorium (just 400 seats) with impeccable acoustics, and all of the seats in the stalls and the circle have perfect views of the stage.
The Down for the Count All-Stars at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff in Nov 2023. We can't wait to return to the venue with our Orchestra for Swing Into Christmas on Sat 23 Nov 2024.
We really do love performing in concert halls, which are purpose-built for ensembles just like our Orchestra, so are itching with excitement about our first ever performance in Perth at the Perth Concert Hall on Mon 9 Dec. We’ve stayed overnight in Perth a couple of times on previous tours but have never actually performed there! It’s a beautiful setting on the banks of the River Tay, and the Concert Hall is a stunning setting to enjoy live music.
Perth Concert Hall, hosting Swing Into Christmas on Mon 9 Dec 2024
Another highlight of the tour will be our most southerly ever Christmas show in Exeter, which happens in Exeter’s Great Hall on Sun 24 Nov. We have a wonderful following in the south-west of the country and for years have been anxious to secure Christmas shows there – and now we’ve been able to organise one!
On that note, there are places in the country where we haven’t been able to organise a Christmas show this year – either due to venue availability, or the fact that there are only so many days in the year when you can do a Christmas show. We’re sorry if we’re not able to come to your location – but we’re already working on the 2025 Christmas tour schedule, and will try our hardest to fill in the gaps.
Other highlights
The other 16 venues on the tour are venues we’ve performed at on previous Christmas tours, and many of them are starting to feel like second homes.
Many of them are small and intimate spaces, and early sales are very strong. Some of the venues have fewer than 500 seats, including Cambridge (West Road Concert Hall), Liverpool (St. George’s Hall), Manchester (The Stoller Hall), Birmingham (Royal Birmingham Conservatoire) and Huddersfield (Lawrence Batley Theatre), whilst Aberdeen (The Tivoli Theatre) has just over 500 seats. If you want to join us at any of those venues, we really urge you to buy your tickets soon to avoid disappointment – many of them are already over 50% sold, and in Cambridge we have only a few tickets left.
Of course, there are larger venues too. The largest venue on the tour is Glasgow Royal Concert Hall and after the joyful reception we had there in 2023, we can’t wait to return this year. We also love Bath Forum, the second-largest venue on the tour – our show there is becoming part of the social calendar of Bath, and we also know that many of our fans make a few days of it and travel from miles away to see us in Bath, staying for a few days and enjoying the Christmas festivities in this beautiful setting.
Down for the Count performing at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
And finally, like most years, the tour finishes with two shows at London’s Cadogan Hall on Sat 28 Dec. We think it’s a lovely occasion for the family, between Christmas and New Year, and we’re already excited.
Cadogan Hall, London - hosting the finale of Swing Into Christmas 2024 on Sat 28 Dec
The Music
Now that the schedule is finalised we’re busy working on the musical orchestrations – we’ve got plenty of new tunes to introduce you to in 2024, which we’ll tell you about a little later.
We’ve also been busy updating some of our previous festive repertoire, including Mike’s Christmas Overture – he has been busy re-arranging it, to include even MORE Christmas songs in the 5-minute medley!
Of course, it’s not just Christmas songs – we’re careful to balance the set list with non-festive numbers as well. Many of the tour venues didn’t feature on the Songs From the Golden Age of Swing tour, so at those venues we’ll include some of the new repertoire we introduced on that tour – find out more about two of the new songs here, and check out a live recording of Luck Be a Lady below!
Tickets
Tickets for the tour are available now from the venue websites – you can see a full list on our live dates page.
About the author
Mike Paul-Smith is the musical director of Down for the Count. He formed the band in 2005 and since then has directed them for performances at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, Cadogan Hall London, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, The London Jazz Festival, Twinwood Festival, and at countless other theatre and jazz club shows.
