Katherine Jenkins

November 2014

WHILE the eyes of the world were focusing on the George Clooney/Amal Alamuddin wedding in Venice, Katherine Jenkins was also tying the knot, to New Yorker Andrew Levitas at Hampton Court Palace.
It was a private affair, with just 200 guests, and there were no photo sales to glossy magazines.
“It’s amazing, I’m incredibly happy, I love being a wife... it’s the best thing in the world,” says the 34-year-old mezzo soprano.
“It’s a very happy time.”
Give it 15 years and he’ll be driving you up the wall.
“Oh please,” she laughs. “I don’t want to hear that.”
She’s in the back of a car heading from York to... she’s not sure. It’s a promotional tour of the UK to push a new album, Home Sweet Home and the corresponding theatre tour that lands at the Royal Concert Hall on Valentine’s Day.

That date generated a few fan suggestions on Twitter that she should run a competition to win a romantic meal with her.
“I’m not sure what Andrew would say about that”, she laughs, of her new husband, who is also in the entertainment industry, as a film director, producer and actor.
She has said that he likes her music.
“Well, he’s got to, hasn’t he? He’d be in trouble if he didn’t.”
The couple have made their home in London, where Jenkins moved from Wales at the age of 18 to study at the Royal College of Music.
Will they move to New York in the future?
“No,” she says firmly.
“We’re staying in the UK. I feel really proud of where I come from, my sister’s just had a baby and all my family are here. It’s going to be nice to have family in New York to go and visit but I’m staying in the UK.”
Home Sweet Home, indeed - although the album is more about her return to her original record label, Decca, where her career started ten years ago.

“In some way it’s unbelievable that I’ve been lucky enough to make ten albums. Reaching that landmark made me look back. Along the way I tried to bring different genres of music into the classical sphere but I think the music I enjoyed the most, and suited me most, was the sort I was making on my first few albums.
“I’ve still got a desire to make classical music accessible and Decca really understand classical crossover.”
She adds: “I’ve gone full circle in a way. Musically I’ve come home.”
Songs on the new album, released on November 17, include World In Union, We Are The Champions, Barcelona (with Alfie Boe), Silent Night and How Great Thou Art.
“The songs were chosen for having a classical footing but they had to be anthemic and inspirational... will they make the hair on the back of your neck stand on end?” says Jenkins, who was teaching singing when she signed to Decca.
“They are songs that everybody will know. Even if you don’t know the composer you’ll know the tune.”

In terms of the songs she’ll sing on the tour, she took to Twitter to ask her fans for requests.
“Somebody said an AC/DC song. I was meaning the songs from my ten albums but that did make me laugh.”

When Jenkins started out, there were no other female classical crossover singers but many have since followed, including Nottinghamshire’s Lucy Kay, who came second on Britain’s Got Talent and Victoria Gray, who had a reasonable level of success with the group Amore.
What advice does she have for others who want to follow in her footsteps?
“Get as much experience as you can, join choirs, get involved in amateur productions of shows, enter competitions... because you have to be prepared for the opportunity when it comes.
“And work hard. I’m not scared of hard work and being tired and that kind of stuff. That’s what you’ve got to put into it.”
Jenkins, who music tastes range from Maria Callas and Judy Garland, to Beyonce, Rihanna, Sam Smith and Adele, will be spending her first Christmas as a married woman back in Wales.
“Family is very important to me and we’re very traditional at Christmas so I’ll be at home with mam. It will be my first as a wife but also my first as an aunty; my sister had a baby five months ago. I’m excited about that.”
Which begs the question...?
“Oh gosh! It’s something I really want, I’ve always said that but it’ll be when I can take a little bit of a break.”
Since her breakthrough ten years ago, Jenkins has sold eight million albums, won numerous awards, performed all over the world, been awarded an OBE and become a wife. How has she changed as a person in that time?
“Like anybody, I’m a bit more confident, I feel I’ve learned my job a lot more and I’m definitely more settled within myself.
“Yes, I live a very different lifestyle but I don’t think I’ve changed that much as a person.”

Tickets to see Katherine Jenkins at the Royal Concert Hall on Saturday, February 14 are £29.50- £55 from the box office, call 0115 989 5555 or go to trch.co.uk. Meet and greet packages are also available priced at £85 and £135.

Suzanne Vega

January 2014

WHEN I went to Le Guardia (made famous by the TV series Fame) I had the intention of being a dancer. I wanted to study ballet. And I quickly learned that was not going to be. After about a week my teachers let me know about my limitations.

So, I was demoted to the modern dance group. That was good, actually. I loved modern dance. I made friends with a group of musicians who played for the classes. I loved what they did. I started writing songs. That’s how I made the transition from dance to music.

By the age of 16 I had a bunch of songs and started to go down to the Village (Greenwich Village in New York, famous for its folk scene during the Sixties).

But this was around the mid-Seventies and the popularity of folk music had come and gone by then. Everyone in my school was crazy about David Bowie; he was like a God. But I was still into the Dylan era and everyone thought I’d missed the boat.

I kept at it, though, for the next eight years. It took me that long to be accepted and get a record deal.

When I got the deal and had some success I was told I was so young and that it had happened so quickly.

I haven’t been to Nottingham for ten years but I have been back to the UK since then for festivals and shows at the Barbican in London.

I was seen all over the city? In a pub having treacle pudding? How do you know all this stuff? I probably mentioned it during the show. I was really into the treacle pudding. And I went to a launderette? That happens from time to time. I wasn’t relaxing; I think it was because I needed to do my laundry.

It’s called the I Never Wear White Tour because I never do. At least I try not to. I’m far more comfortable wearing black. It’s the name of a song from the new album and that says it all. There’s no hidden meaning.

The album (Tales from the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles) is my first new material in seven years but it wasn’t difficult choosing the songs for it at all. I just used the songs that were finished. It was as simple as that. I never have extra material.

The album is a lot about spirituality. I am a Buddhist and I’ve always been interested in spiritual things – even more so these days.

As one gets older, more people start to pass on and you witness more births. You see more of life and wonder where it comes from and where it goes. So that’s sort of what I’ve been thinking about the last couple of years.

I’m rehearsing for the tour next week so we’ll talk about what songs we’ll be doing then but the focus will be the new material.

I’ll still do the songs that people like to hear, like Luka, Gypsy and Tom’s Diner (based on Tom’s Restaurant in New York). The last time I went there was probably the last time the BBC was in town and dragged me there to do some filming.

I don’t get anything for free there. I wish. They mention me in the menu but they’ve misspelt my name. So, it’s still as humbling an experience as ever as I hand over my few dollars for a lukewarm cup of coffee.


Suzanne Vega plays the Royal Concert Hall on Thursday, February 6. Tickets are £27 to £37.50 from the box office, call 0115 989 5555 or go to trch.co.uk.

Lawson: Joel Peat

March 2013

HIS grandmother will be there, in Rock City, along with the rest of his family, to see him in action. As long as they can find her somewhere to sit.
“She has this broad Glaswegian accent, I’ll finish a song and I’ll hear her shouting “JOEEEEL! It’s so off-putting,” he laughs.
“But she’ll be there. We’ll get her some ear plugs but she’ll love it.”
The show, on Wednesday, is part of guitar-pop band Lawson’s sold out UK tour.
And for their guitarist Joel Peat, it’ll be a yet another milestone.
“I grew up seeing bands at Rock City,” says the 22-year-old from Ravenshead.
“Funeral For A Friend, Fall Out Boy, Reel Big Fish, All American Rejects... it was all rock stuff because I was well into my pop punk when I was a teenager.
“I also saw Ted Nugent there. That was a bit random because he had a bow and arrow on stage. It was petrifying.”
He adds: “And we’ve played Nottingham quite a few times. We’ve played Rock City’s Basement, Stealth and the Rescue Rooms but I have never stood on that stage.
“And the first time that I do will be for a sold out show. I can’t wait.”
Joel joined Lawson, whose debut album Chapman Square reached No. 4 last year, in 2010.
Before that he was in bands in Ravenshead and Mansfield, where he moved aged 16.
After taking A-levels at Joseph Whittaker School, he moved to Guildford to study at The Academy of Contemporary Music, which he compares to the Jack Black film School of Rock.
“You played the guitar every day and learned about the music business. It was such a good environment for learning how to play in a band.”
It’s where he met Ryan Fletcher, Lawson’s bassist and the pair formed their first band together.
For three years he worked in various odd jobs, from shops to restaurants, while writing and rehearsing with the band at night.
They toured the UK in a van, including their first show in Nottingham at Rock City, as part of the Dot to Dot festival.
The break came through boy band The Wanted, whose manager saw their video, a cover of Bruno Mars’ Grenade, on YouTube.
Lawson’s frontman Andy Brown had been in a band with Max from The Wanted which helped.
They were offered the support slot on The Wanted’s UK tour, after which they were immediately signed to Polydor.
“We joined The Wanted again when they did the Arena tour last year, which opened in Nottingham. I remember during the afternoon standing on stage looking out at this empty arena that I’d seen so many gigs at. It was one of those moments...”
He’s had plenty more since, including a promotional jaunt in North America.
“It was eye-opening and over whelming,” says Joel of the ten-day visit earlier this year.
“We were initially going to put just one show on in New York, to see what it was like over there.
“We had no preconceptions about how we’d be received because we weren’t being played on the radio, hadn’t released anything there and there was no promotion.
“But we were getting a lot of messages on Twitter asking us go over.”
He adds: “But then the New York gig sold out.”
It was at the Bowery Ballroom, which he’d dreamed of playing since he was 15.
“I’d seen a video of John Mayer, who is my idol, playing there and I remember thinking ‘that venue is wicked, I’d love to play there one day’. And we ended up selling it out.”
A date was added in Los Angeles, which also sold out.
“It was funny because the crowd knew all the words to our songs and yet we had no music on sale there.
“We said to them ‘how did you get the album?’ and they all looked embarrassed,” he laughs, knowing the fans must have illegally downloaded their album.
“But if they’re liking the music and they want to come and see us because of that then I don’t care,” he adds.
“The fans all talk to each other all over the world and then you see them come to gigs and make friends. That’s quite amazing. We were totally overwhelmed by it all.”
After Los Angeles, they flew for a third gig in Toronto.
“That was phenomenal, as well. And we had dinner on the CN Tower, which was quite funny because Andy is petrified of heights. Watching him standing on the glass floor was hilarious.”
Along with the gigs Lawson appeared on network TV, including MTV, E! and Access Hollywood.
“We met Taylor Swift while we were there and she said she was a huge fan of the band. We’re huge fans of country music so it was a real Twilight Zone experience.”
Drifting back in to Notts dialect he adds: “I thought ’owd up, I’m gonna have to pinch meself here.
“She was saying that she’d seen all our videos on YouTube, that she loved Standing In The Dark and that should be our first single in the States.”
They recently signed to Mercury Records in the US and their first single will be released in the summer.
As soon as they returned to the UK, Lawson hit the road for their sell-out tour and so there’s been little time to return to Notts.
In April the band will be on a promotional tour of South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
“The album was reaching No. 3 on iTunes in places like Singapore and Malaysia.
“After that we’ll either fly to LA and do some more promo or come back home but I just want to keep at it.”
His last visit home was at Christmas.
“It was wicked. I love coming back,” he says.
“Every Christmas Eve we go to a pub in Ravenshead and all of my friends were there. It was a good laugh.”
For New Year he was in California, where his girlfriend lives.
Is she a model, an actress, a pop star?
“No, she’s not anything like that,” he laughs.
They met over a year ago in Los Angeles when Lawson were recording Chapman Square. He reckons the Notts accent helped.
“It’s the only reason I pulled her,” he laughs.
“No, I’m kidding. It’s funny because in the States a lot of people thought I was Australian, because it’s not a traditional London accent.”
Mum is a music teacher. Dad was a professional footballer, who played for Sheffield United but now works for Notts Police. And he has a younger sister who recently moved away from home to go to university.
“I try to take her to as many things as I can,” says Joel.
“She got to meet The Wanted and Jessie J, which she was buzzing about.
“They’re all really proud and want to be involved.”
Home is now just outside London.
He says: “We’re pretty flat out and I don’t get to go home much, which is a shame, but it’s a small price to pay for doing a job you love.”

Lawson’s show at Rock City on Wednesday is sold out.

Joe Bonamassa

March 2012

HE has memories of that first visit to Nottingham. Just a few. But it was in 2005 that Joe Bonamassa and his band made that short leap on to the small stage at the Running Horse pub in Alfreton Road.

Few outside blues circles had heard of him. Those that had, knew of a twentysomething New Yorker with a reputation for stunning guitar playing ability. So good that by the age of 12 he has joined blues legend BB King on stage.

“The stage was the size of  dining room table,” says the 34-year-old.

“We did it though. It was like 125 people and about 4000 degrees in there.”

Since then he’s steadily worked his way through Nottingham venues, on each visit increasing in size, from the Rescue Rooms to Rock City, the Royal Concert Hall and now the Capital FM Arena.

It’s unusual for a blues man to play arenas.

“Well, BB King plays them. And Clapton plays them. He’s kind of a blues guy.”

He adds: “But to describe my music as strictly the blues is a bit of a stretch. It’s a blues rock hybrid that crosses over with some different styles, you know.

“And that’s the beauty of being a solo artist. You can do anything you want. And my fans dig it. That’s all I care about.”

The original date for his debut at the Capital FM Arena was pulled at the last minute in October due to an illness.

“I had a like a virus infection that killed me,” he explains.

“I know there’s the old showbiz adage ‘the show must go on’ but there is a certain point where you go ‘I cannot take people’s money when I’m this poorly’.

“I think I know my fans well enough to know that they’d rather I reschedule and get a real show as opposed to watching me die a slow death up there.”

Bonamassa was playing the guitar at the age of four. His dad ran a guitar shop in New Hartford, New York and still deals in Gibson guitars.

The shop is the only place Bonamassa has worked.

“To define it as work would mean I would have had to have gotten paid for that. Which I didn’t. Dad would always use the barter system: ‘How about all this heat and light that I provide?’”

He adds: “I never had a regular job. That feels really strange to say.”

He’s from a long line of musicians. Both his dad and grandfather were guitarists.

“My great-grandfather had pretty good success as a trumpet player. They all made a living out of it. None of them travelled internationally but they had success locally.”

Inevitably it was the family record collection of blues, rock and folk, that would inspire him.

By the age of seven he had mastered Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn licks and was a professional guitarist from the age of 11.

When he opened a show for BB King a year later, the blues legend described him as “one of a kind”.

Bonamassa, whose hobbies outside of music include watching Formula 1 and collecting watches, is still gorging on classic music.

“The last great record I bought was John Hiatt’s. I thought that was great all the way through. And I like the Black Keys. I think their take on the blues thing is awesome. But that was the last stuff that really blew me away.

“But my iPod, which I have on shuffle all the time, has Free, old Clapton, The Meters, Robert Cray, Miles Davis... anything that moves me.”

It’s an hour before showtime when we catch up. He’s on stage at 8pm with no support and plays a two and hour and 20 minute set, with an interval.

“I get my game face on as soon as the intro music starts. We run Two Minutes To Midnight by Iron Maiden. That’s been my tradition for the past few years. And as soon as the guitar solo comes on, I shut off. It’s time to go to work. We can be talking about collective bargaining agreements before then and I’ll be unphased.”

EG teamed up with the Capital FM Arena to run a competition for one person to win tickets to see his show, meet him backstage and get one of his guitars signed by him.

“I think we need to define what my guitar means,” he says wryly.

“Sometimes people think they will be able to walk up to my rack of guitars and take any one of them. That isn’t necessarily true.

“I’ve a few Les Paul ‘59s in that rack and I’m sure they’d want to take those.”

The winner was to be drawn and notified today through Twitter. If you entered check out @EG_Nottingham and @CapitalFMArena to see if you’ve been drawn from the hundreds of entries.

He adds: “It may say Epiphone on it and it may come in a cardboard box but it’ll definitely be signed.”

The three Les Paul guitars are his favourites. But why is that? Gibson must have improved on their guitars since 1959.

“You would think,” he says.

“They have and they haven’t. There’s something magical about the ‘59. It’s like if you were a Ferrari fan and you were driving an old Spider. It may leak , it may splutter, it may cost you a million dollars in maintenance to keep it running but the sound of the engine and the smell of the oil... there’s nothing better.

“The guitars now are arguably easier to play and they’re more conducive to wear and tear... every now and then, I’ll be on stage with my ‘59 and the knob with fall off. But when it’ s dialled in there’s nothing better.”

Joe Bonamassa plays the Capital FM Arena on Monday April 2 starting at 8pm. Tickets are £30 to £50 from the venue, call 08444 124624 or go to www.capitalfmarena.com

WHAT THEY SAY

“Joe Bonamassa is the new messiah for guitar music lovers.”

The Sun

“Bonamassa's guitar playing and singing are still on a strong upward curve.  Forget derivative – this couldn't be anyone but Joe.”

Guitarist

“Bonamassa's precision guitar playing is

something of a revelation.”

Classic Rock

“In the beginning ‘God' aka Eric Clapton created British blues. Like some Les Paul-toting Jesus, Joe Bonamassa is continuing his hero's legacy.”– Total Guitar

Walking with Dinosaurs

July 2009

If you were around when a Tyrannosaurus Rex sauntered in to the Broadmarsh Centre last month, you ain’t seen nothing yet. That was a toddler. The fully-grown Tyrant Lizard in Walking with Dinosaurs: The Arena Spectacular stands at over 20 feet and weighs six tonnes.
But the largest of the 20 life-size animatronic dinosaurs in the show is Brachiosaurus, which stands at a whopping 36ft. From nose to tail it’s 56ft.
These two tend to be the stars of the 90-minute show that comes to the Trent FM Arena next week for eight performances.
It’s the condensed story of their 200 million years on earth, narrated from the arena floor by paleontologist Huxley.
But you’ll be only half-listening to him, more interested in the next beast to emerge through the floor-to-ceiling curtains.
Last September a select few UK journalists were flown to New York to see the show, go behind the scenes, meet the cast and crew and see how this £10m Australian production, six years in the making, actually works.
In 15 years of reporting on entertainment for the Post, it’s one of the most astonishing, jaw-dropping and unique shows I’ve seen.
“The reaction has been brilliant,” says director Alli Cross, who has been in charge of the UK tour that started in Glasgow last month.
“I tend to hang around as people are leaving to hear their comments, so we are abreast of what they really think, and it’s been really positive – from all ages.”
She adds: “There have been some improvements since you saw it. These dinosaurs are brand new and even more realistic in terms of the way they look and move.
“On top of that, what we know about dinosaurs is still evolving. Since the BBC series they’ve found out lots of things. For example, the Brachiasorus, the one with the very long neck, they thought walked with the neck horizontal – but now they’ve discovered it was more vertical.”
Which did cause problems in Glasgow...
“He was able to be upright but we had to be careful of the lighting rig. It was tricky for the voodoo operator.”
He or she stands out of sight, wearing a rig that has the same joints and range of movements as each dinosaur. The movements are transmitted by radio waves to make the hydraulic cylinders in the actual dinosaur replicate the action.
The term voodoo comes from the similarity of the rigs to the voodoo doll.
There are two voodoo operators for one dinosaur plus a driver underneath it, steering what is essentially a fancy go-kart.
Apart from the Liliensternus, Baby T-Rex and Utahraptors, which are all elaborate suits worn by muscular performers, this is how each of the beasts is able to walk, run, fight and roar.
On top of the original 15 dinosaurs from the US production, there are three new remote-controlled Platisaurus babies on the UK tour.
“They look quite cute – it’s the first ‘Ahhh’ factor in the show,” says Cross, who lived in Arnold as a child.
“I first went to school in Nottingham at High Street Infants School and then Church Drive Junior School. My first appearance on stage was at the Theatre Royal in The King And I with Peter Wyngarde (TV’s Jason King). I was about six.
“The family moved away when I was nine but I’ve been back to Nottingham with a number of shows as choreographer or director – shows like CBeebies, The Tweenies and Bob The Builder.
“This is the first time I’ve worked with such big machines.”
The dinosaurs are made from a combination of latex, spandex, steel and aluminium and weigh up to 1.5 tons – similar to an average family car.
There will be 26 trucks rolling into Nottingham next week, 10 of which are solely for the dinosaurs.
“We had a Torosaurus that caught fire on the opening night of the tour in Glasgow,” she says.
“Fortunately it was backstage. There’s a scene where two Torosaurus fight so the two voodoo operators and driver controlling the other one had to ad lib and parade around making a lot of noise to fill in.
“No-one noticed,” she laughs. “It was press night but none of the reviewers picked up on it.”
Walking with Dinosaurs: The Arena Spectacular came to life in Sydney in January, 2007.
Since then more than 2m people have seen it across Australia and the US.
After nearly 100 shows in the UK this summer, the tour will stomp across Europe until May next year.
“We start in Belgium, then play France, Holland, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, Estonia... and there are plans for it go in to Asia and Japan.
“There’s another tour still running in America that is booked up to 2011, so it’s doing really well.
“And there’s every chance it will be back in the UK at some point.
“We’re already being asked that, by people who are either on holiday when it’s in their city or who just can’t make it.”

New York City