Tour Diary: Swing Into Christmas leg 3
After the shenanigans of Leg 1 (lost hotel booking, anyone?) and Leg 2 (adverse weather conditions meaning singer Marvin’s Edinburgh appearance came during the encore of the matinée show), you will forgive us for being a little apprehensive as well as excited for Leg 3 of the Swing Into Christmas tour. But we held our chins high to start with a bang in Sheffield…
…where we then got slapped with a record five parking fines. We assume this was a misunderstanding by an over-eager traffic cop, but in the Travelodge bar after the show, conductor-arranger Mike was overheard threatening to fight till the very death over it. Noble types, swing musicians. Thankfully, the rest of our Sheffield visit wasn’t quite so traumatic. In fact, we welcomed back trumpeter-singer Max from his travels to Hawaii, which we are reliably informed is not as glamorous as performing in a Christmas swing show in Sheffield.
Next up was another Yorkshire stop: York, in fact. Not that we saw the city itself, as we found ourselves on an island in the middle of the uni campus. Lovely place to be, made us feel quite grand. Marvin, who hadn’t been able to perform at the Sheffield show, managed to make this one – even if his Santa hat didn’t. Like a true pro, he improvised by wearing an enormous bow usually reserved for the stage. Percussionist Jordan, who has earned a day dedicated to him after van trouble last Christmas tour, found himself in fresh van trouble. But all was well, because if there’s one thing a 30-piece orchestra is good for, it’s pushing a van down a road to get it going again.
In Manchester’s The Stoller Hall the next day, the drama appeared to have left us – though tensions ran high as we crossed the Yorkshire-Lancashire divide with trombonist Pearce, a Yorkshireman, in the minibus. He managed to restrain himself from painting all the roses white. Speaking of roses, things were coming up… uh, roses: we had not one but two near sellout gigs!
Not only that, but we had a very special reunion. Before stage manager Hannah joined the group, we were in the habit of losing our irons with a rate of attrition of at least one per tour. But in Manchester, we opened a backstage cupboard to find not one but two of these presumed-dead comrades staring back at us - giving us a quadrumvirate of Down for the Count irons for the rest of the tour.
Pictured: 3 of our 4 irons at The Stoller Hall, Manchester
We celebrated all through our day off in lovely Manchester, before heading southwards (well, middlewards) to Nottingham. This city has been good to us from the start, with a sellout first-ever performance there last Christmas. Now, we’re pleased to say that, although we’ve loved being at the beautiful Albert Hall, in December 2025 we’ll be taking the tour to the incredible Royal Concert Hall. Yes, that’s over two-thousand seats to fill! It’s a good job there was a fainting couch in Mike’s dressing room.
Nottingham was the point at which singer Lydia sadly left us for a few days, possibly to get some well-earned rest from singing It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas in a single breath over 20 times in one tour. Sadly, another crucial team member left us in Nottingham: rubber chicken, piano mascot and accompanist Gordon. His disappearance, however, felt suspicious. (We’ll let you fill in the ‘fowl play’ jokes.)
Onwards and upwards (literally) we went to Huddersfield, hometown of violinist Girl Jordan (as she called herself). We arrived at the lovely Lawrence Batley Theatre to find we’d been provided with a set and props – which were not to be messed with under any circumstances, because they were actually not for us but the Dick Whittington panto. However, the staff did encourage Mike to use a pretty wand from their merch stall instead of his less magical conductor stick. Huddersfield was another night of reunions: not only did singer Elise rejoin us, but we welcomed back YET ANOTHER iron presumed lost! Hannah was… let’s say emotional… at having a fifth iron to pack after the show now.
Pictured: a 5th iron, discovered backstage in Huddersfield. How many irons does it take for one Orchestra to iron a shirt?
Finally: imagine our surprise when, after reassuring pianist Alex that accompanist Gordon would return, we found a whole “brace of Gordi”!
Next on the list was Hull, a city we had never performed in before. And wow, it went so much better than we could have imagined! A good turnout, and possibly the warmest response of the whole tour! Elise unleashed bongo-driven beast Come Rain Or Come Shine, giving percussionist Boy Jordan the opportunity to unleash any lingering van frustrations. Marvin set aside Little Liza Jane for a Santa Mambo, which also got the crowd going. That was before Max’s rendition of Christmas in New Orleans got the whole string section going, out of their seats and into a conga line. As if these weren’t enough surprises for one evening, the show also saw the debut performance of band-within-a-band Tutti Flutti, which resulted in a flute-off at the mic stand between Lewis, Jonny, Luke and Kyran.
Our string section doing a conga around Hull City Hall
Oxford saw Manchester’s two near-sellouts and raised… another two near-sellouts. But this venue came with a big inflatable ball we could bounce around in rehearsals. And backstage during the show, if you were Marvin and Elise. Later, when she began her very Judy Garland Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Elise may have been surprised to find her mic suddenly stop working, but she didn’t let it stop her. With conductor-arranger Mike conducting-arranging on the spot, everyone delivered an unexpected, acoustic version of the song that went on to become the way it was performed for the rest of the tour. A beautiful moment in a tour already full of them.
Worthing may have been the penultimate show before Christmas, but it brought the sweetest of all treats: aside from another lovely crowd, this marked our very last group stay in a Travelodge for the tour!
The final Travelodge
We celebrated with a post-show hangout in Mike’s room, where Mike acted as bartender and perfected the the art of making a cocktail-bar-standard White Russian in a Travelodge mug.
Then came the giddiest of all shows: Southampton, another double-whammy. By this point, everyone was getting a little tied - so a few people were caught napping in some unusual spots.
When on tour, you'll grab a moment's kip in the strangest of places...
This time: two complete sellouts! From Travelodge linen to bongo hammers and conductor-wand fencing, it was anyone’s guess what was going to appear on stage next. Well, maybe you guessed it… No, not another iron, but rubber chicken Gordon! For his miraculous reappearance, he brought a little Gordito in tow. But he went further: during the climax of Christmas in New Orleans, the string section all produced a little Gordito to join the joyful noise.
Gordon and a Gordito, FOH
If you thought we’d settle down to mince pies for the rest of the year, think again. After Christmas, we were back at it with the final-final leg – another double-show day, this time in London’s Cadogan Hall, aka our second home. Playing to so many friends and family, the now 40-piece orchestra (!), including a harpist (!!), truly gave it their all. And we welcomed back a familiar face: no, not another iron but singer Callum, who sadly couldn’t join us for the rest of the tour because he was happily becoming a dad.
The two Cadogan Hall shows were rather special - starting off with a pre-show toast featuring Estonian liquor provided by singer Saara....
... and ending with our traditional "Survivor's Photo", the members of the Down for the Count team who made it through every single one of the 31 shows.
With 31 shows over 26 cities, covering thousands of miles and Travelodges across England, Scotland and Wales, this tour has been the biggest we’ve ever done. And we can only be proud and thankful to have shared it with so many wonderful audiences. And rubber chickens.
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.
