Tour Diary: Swing Into Christmas leg 1
As we’re about to embark on Leg 2 of our Swing Into Christmas tour, we’re getting all misty-eyed about the happy golden days of yore that made up Leg 1. (Yes, it was only last week, but we get sentimental around this time of year.)
We kicked things off in style with a rehearsal in Maida Vale, London. Well, some of us kicked things off in higher style by spending the night beforehand at Travelodge Kew Bridge. And when we say “in style”, we mean it: Christmas jumpers were encouraged, and we had some blinders among the orchestra!
After rehearsals, the core “crew” – the team members who load the vans and drive the minibuses as well as play trumpets and tickle the ivories – drove up to Warwick for the night, so as to break up the long journey between London and Inverness. All evidence, however, suggests that it may have been an excuse to sample the local pizzeria and the well-stocked bar that is Mike’s house. Conductor sticks, cocktail sticks, he waves them all.
The next day, the crew set off in our two vans, Jean-Claude and Ludwig, and our temporary member, the hired minibus VFB (possibly stands for Very Fast Bus, but this is unconfirmed).
It’s a long way between Warwick and Inverness, thankfully featuring a saving grace en route: Tebay Services. While some of us were excited to stock up on octopus and samphire, as is the rock-and-roll way, others tried to hold back from splurging their entire fees in advance on Kendal mint cake.
Finally, we arrived in Inverness, where we were warmed by a jovial curry dinner before enjoying some well-deserved sleep. The next morning, we frolicked around town, buying wool and whisky and treats, then headed to our venue. There, at the wonderful Eden Court, a Christmas market spread over all three floors and the attached manor house. During rehearsals, a bird flew around backstage, but we made sure it bought a ticket in time for the performance. Our first audience was a delight, and our first show a hit – the tour had officially begun!
Next up was Aberdeen, whose tall grey buildings looked even more chic in the snow. We’d spent the entire drive from Inverness marvelling at the beauty of Scotland, enough already. Well, we were about to be even more charmed by our Northern neighbours: not only is the Tivoli a gorgeous theatre, but it brought us another gorgeous audience – one of whom also gave us a recommendation for after-show drinks. The poor bartender, obviously unprepared for a 30-piece orchestra to swing by on a Monday night, took it all in her stride. A perfect end to a perfect day.
We woke refreshed (yes, really) for our day off in the city we try to work into every day off: Edinburgh. Here, we checked into our hotel and then went our separate ways: some of us for a hike to hang out with highland coos, others to check the unrestricted view from Arthur’s Seat, others to simply stroll up the Royal Mile to Edinburgh Castle or to sit in cafes eating baked goods.
After our lovely day off, we headed to Rabbie Burns country. Like our other stops, Dumfries was frosty but its audience was warm. Sadly, we didn’t experience much of the town itself, as the fine Easterbrook Hall is on the uni campus some distance from the centre. Our accommodation was even more remote, but there was thankfully somewhere to grab a hot drink and sausage roll for our early start.
Before we knew it, we were back in England, and arrived at the stunning venue of Newcastle Cathedral. It was our first-ever performance in the city, and boy, was it magical! Not only were we received warmly by the audience, but also by the stellar staff and volunteers, headed by Amy, who made sure everything went super smoothly. As there were no numbered seats in this different kind of venue, we printed off stickers to mark the chairs with. Unfortunately, we realised with mounting dread that not all stickers are created equal; some came off with ease, others stubbornly held on to the wood. The staff and volunteers pulled up their sleeves and pulled us out of our pickle, bringing a bucket of soap and water to remove the offending bits of paper.
After being relegated off-stage in Newcastle (an issue of space, not bad behaviour on his part), pianist Alex found himself back on stage in our next stop: Leicester, whose Empire Hall was as chilly as it was beautiful. If we were worried this might affect our audience, which included friends and family and familiar faces from our All-Stars show at the Little Theatre in October, we only had to see the high-kicking in the aisles to ‘New York, New York’ to rest assured they were having a good time.
Then came the earliest of early starts, for the biggest of big days: our two-show gig in Cardiff. Somehow, we still arrived at the RWCMD raring to go – possibly because violinist Jordan came bearing three bags of Welsh cakes. Despite the rugby match and football going on in the city, both performances were near sell-outs. The atmosphere at both was electric, especially when Marvin worked some Tom Jones into the ‘call and response’ section of ‘Little Liza Jane’. This venue is special to us for a number of reasons – not only does our orchestra contain multiple alumni of this fine establishment, but our conductor-arranger Mike was awarded the Fairbairn award for his excellent PhD presentation in the very same concert hall.
Our high spirits were rocked by a bit of drama with our accommodation, when for a moment it looked as though we might have nowhere to sleep. But our worries melted away when we ended up at a karaoke night in Newport. Yes, we did unleash our professional singers on the unsuspecting crowd. Marvin brought the Mambo no 5 up to 11, Ineza set fire to Adele’s rain, and Ineza, Lydia and Saara sashayed with Lady Marmalade.
Finally, we wrapped up Leg 1 on another university campus, this time all the way down in Exeter – a far cry from Dumfries! Though there was no snow here now, there were storms and travel disruptions to contend with. However, these weren’t as troublesome as the baffling layout of staircases at the venue, which made going to and from the backstage area very exciting. We ended on a high. Not only did our audiences (which we were proud to see included the Devon Youth Jazz Orchestra) enjoy the show, but our musicians agreed it was the best performance yet.
What a tour it’s been so far! If Leg 1 is anything to go by, we are in for a treat with Leg 2…
About the author
Polis Loizou-Denyer is Down for the Count's marketing and communications officer. Though it's a long time since he played an instrument himself, he likes to keep creative with his own writing, performing, theatre making, filmmaking and oral storytelling.
