Last Night of the Proms at Selby Abbey

BEAUTIFUL voices and sweet music will raise Selby Abbey roof when the district council chairman's Proms concert is held later this month.

Coun Ian Chilvers will welcome the Sherburn Sinfionetta and York Philharmonic Male Voice Choir to entertain the abbey audience on March 20 from 6.30pm.Ian (pictured) said: "Money will be raised for charity and the audience will be able to join in singing Rule Britannia and Jerusalem, among others."This is always a well-attended and exciting concert, and I encourage everyone to come along."

The chairman will hold a concert at the abbey on May 8 to raise funds for Help for Heroes

Last Night of the Proms goes global

The climax of this year’s event on 12 September will be broadcast to screens in 15 countries, including Japan, Australia, Germany and South Africa.
BBC Worldwide’s Music arm secured the international deals, which will feed the concert via

satellite in digital surround sound.

The finale, famous for flag-waving renditions of patriotic anthems Land of Hope and Glory and Rule, Britannia!, is already shown on large outdoor screens around the UK.

The 72nd Prom will be broadcast across BBC Two, BBC HD and BBC Radio 3.

At Night of the Proms The Daily Roxette meets Per

ARNHEM (Updated) -
On Friday the 13th of November, the Daily Roxette joined Roxette at the Gelredome in Arnhem for a wonderful night. During the first half of the Night of the Proms, a Swedish symphony called ‘Midsommarvaka’ magically changed into the first string arrangements of ‘Wish I Could Fly’. After the stunning synergy between Roxette and Il Novecento, the presenter of the evening promised more Roxette during the second half. In the intermission, The Daily Roxette had an exclusive interview with the Man himself.
First of all, welcome back in Holland Per! How does it feel to be back so soon after the concert in Amsterdam earlier this year?
It was a different story. But it was great, of course, coming here with Marie, Jonas and everything else - it’s cool, yeah. And we look forward to having these seven nights in a row in Rotterdam. I remember playing in Ahoy before. It’s a great crowd.
So what are your feelings about the Proms, since it’s such a bizarre thing on its own?
It is. Very much so. It’s impossible to understand, unless you see it for yourself. You have to actually be a part of it to understand it. It’s actually hard to describe to friends at home what we are actually doing - it’s fun, it’s great! It’s also a great step. I think it’s a very clever move of Marie, instead of doing a full tour or a full concert. She’s not ready to do those things. With Night of the Proms you share the responsibility with other artists, and you're just doing your four or five songs. And we're doing lots of shows, so she's getting back into the concert mode.
To the delight of many fans you have regularly been posting videos on roxette.se and youtube – will we see more of those?
Yeah. The only problem is you have to find new angles all the time. Because it's easy to tell Oskar to show ‘Listen to Your Heart’, but it looks the same every night. You have to find new angles and new funny stuff to do. But we're working on it. My plan is to do like three or four a day. Sometimes it becomes eight, sometimes it becomes nothing. I enjoyed them too myself. I love those on the ‘Gessle Over Europe’ dvd. It becomes a tour document for us as well - that's how we remember the tour, much more than the concerts themselves.

Will you continue making videos after the tour?
Well, only if there is anything to show. We have started working on a new record, that's the plan. I'm filming a lot of the recordings. But on the other hand, I can't publish them, because I don't want people to hear those songs. So it's like a dead end. But I think it's fun, it's a fun way of communicating and the Internet has made everything so much easier. From a fan's point of view I think it's just fantastic to be able to look what's going on in the studio, backstage or in the tour bus.
So how are those recordings going?
Well, we only just started, but I wrote a lot of songs this year after the tour with Roxette in mind. We have started on two songs, but we have like 13. We have a pretty good idea of what we want to do, which is the hardest thing. So far so good.
Will you continue recording during the tour?
In Rotterdam, yes. But then we will be travelling so much in Germany that we won't have the time. After that we are going to start late January. We're recording in Christopher's studio and then we're doing Marie's vocals in Stockholm.

Besides a new record, what do you see in the future for Roxette?
I wish I knew. I think time will tell. I think Marie will decide what she wants to do when this tour is over. It depends on how she feels and what the response is. Obviously the next step should be to ask if there is going to be a concert, but I don't know. Maybe she feels it's a bit too much.
Will we be seeing more of your other projects in the future?
After Night of the Proms I'm going to work on the Roxette album. And then - I don't know. I'm sure there will be another Gyllene Tider tour, and I'm sure there will be another Per Gessle tour in Europe, as well as another Per Gessle album. You know, I'm just writing. Like this summer: we knew that Night of the Proms was going to happen and then I told Marie "let's try to do an album". Then I started working on songs, that's how I work. After that album, who knows? Maybe if we think the time is right for Gyllene Tider to do something, and then I will start working on Gyllene Tider songs. Maybe a summer tour.
What about Party Crasher? Will there be a release in the States?
The problem that I have with the Party Crasher project is that I have a non-working record company. EMI is really not working anymore. Nowhere. A little bit in England, but in England I'm with Sony. Sony is much better in England. I’ve walked my head into a wall so many times regarding that album. It was the same with Son of a Plumber when that album came out. The response I was getting from the record company was nothing. So I have to find another way. You know, it's a contract thing as well. I have to sort all these business things out. But, of course, I'm very disappointed that there hasn't been a proper American release for Son of a Plumber or Party Crasher. On the other hand, both albums are quite timeless, so eventually something could happen. Maybe if a song from Party Crasher would be in a commercial, then the whole album could happen I think. I'm not really in charge of that, but you know me - my plan is always to dominate the world. It's a tough one, though. In the music industry you’re in between chairs, so to speak. It's really hard to know what's going on and how you're going to work. There's always an chance to do an American tour, like I did in Europe, but that costs so much money. Someone has to pay for it, someone has to pay guys like him (Per points at Oskar, the tour manager and tech guy who laughs out loud). But I'd love to do it. The Over Europe tour, the Party Crasher tour, was one of the most fun tours ever made for me. The same goes for the band. Those were great shows, and I love that album. That's why I released a live album. Normally, when you come back from a tour, you feel like: "Yeah, well, that was the tour." But in this case it actually gave some songs new life and it just is a great testament of my catalogue of songs. I just feel very comfortable.

You mentioned demos would be plentiful, “trust me” – any news regarding that?
About the demos? Well, I have a plan for the future but it also has a lot to do with the recording contracts. I thought about something like putting my demos on iTunes or whatever. Basically because I think that if you're interested in my music, it's interesting to listen to my demos. And there are so many of them. For up until the Son of a Plumber album, there are demos for basically every song I have written. Of course some of them have been released, I did this Bad Hair Day thing and some Christmas things as well. But there are so many songs, I don't really know what to do with them, so the idea is likely to make some sort of an archive. Like I said, I have to sort out all this with the record company. I do know there's a big interest. I've been doing this for over 30 years now. When you are my age and you have this - I have written more than 1000 songs in my life - I think it's great to be able to have an archive, one that if you're interested you can listen to it. It's the same with the reason why I wanted Sven Lindström to do that book: because it's been a long career. If you wait too long, people are going to forget. Maybe you will even forget it yourself, or the ones you're working with. It's fun to do it when you're still around and you have the motivation to do it.
The intermission was over and it was time to get back downstairs. Thanks for the interview Per! During the second half of the show Roxette played Their second set: ‘The Look’, ‘Must Have Been Love’ (with a fabulous acoustic intro), ‘Joyride’ and finally ‘Listen To Your Heart’. Marie sounded great and really seemed to enjoy the show.
After the show, Pelle, Clarence and Chris appeared outside on the red carpet to meet a handful of fans who were waiting there, eager to spot one of their idols. Per came outside to accept a particular gift by a fan – a homemade Roxette Monopoly - Roxopoly - game. Per and Chris assured the fans they would play the game – who knows if this’ll pop up in a video on roxette.se?
More pictures in higher quality coming soon!

Last Night of the Proms

SALTASH Wesley Methodist Church was bursting at the seams on Saturday, October 10, when the Camborne Youth Brass Band performed their annual Last Night of The Proms in aid of and organised by the Foundation.
The programme was suitably varied to delight the appreciative audience. The youngsters played marches and show stoppers.
Also the Saltash Guildhall audience will be humming to 'Music to Your Ears' on Saturday, November 21, when composer, broadcaster and musician Clive Jenkins and Douglas Clarkson, the outstanding musician of HM Royal Marine Band fame, will add to the enjoyment, playing clarinet and saxophone. Both musicians have a tremendous following of discerning music lovers.
The concert is in memory of the late Pip Miller, who was a well known and well-loved stalwart of Saltash.
The concert starts at 7pm and tickets are now available from Saltash shops Piglets and Saltash News or from Sue Hooper, who can be contacted on 01752 843073 or by email at suehcf@msn.com
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The Foundation, which was set up 10 years ago, supports young people in Saltash and Cornwall who study the performing arts.

Last Night Of The Proms, A fine night

Last Night of the Proms, fine classical music with a quirky British twist, will be held tomorrow in the Memorial Hall of Shrewsbury International School.

Now in its 4th great year, Mazar's Last Night of the Proms is based on a 115-year old event that is a national institution in the UK. The programme comprises ancient and modern classical music and choral work followed by a chance for the audience to join in the singing of rousing patriotic British songs such as Rule, Britannia! and Jerusalem.
The orchestra - which includes Shrewsbury's most talented musicians, gifted students from Harrow, Patana and the Regent's schools, as well as professional players - will be under the baton of John Moore, the renowned conductor and impresario from the UK. The singing will be led by the Shrewsbury Community Choir.

(He’s a Very Naughty Boy) Monty Python's Not the Messiah - first night

GETTY
And lo, it came to pass that Monty Python’s Flying Circus reached the age of forty years. And verily it was decided by the surviving members of the Python Team (his holiness John Cleese excepted) to give thanks and praise for this sacred moment by descending from their separate starry havens for one night only at the Royal Albert Hall. And their faithful followers did pay through the nose to join them in that joy, preparing themselves to be amazed. For it was decreed that for the first time in human history, an oratorio based on Life of Brian was to be delivered unto them.
Well, were the lucky few who packed the Albert Hall to the rafters last night amazed? Gratitude, I think, was the primary emotion on display. Gratitude that simmered gently at first, announcing itself in warm-hearted laughter and applause at the merest whiff of an appearance by a Python other than Eric Idle, whose show (written in collaboration with his Spamalot partner John Du Prez) this was - and who took to the stage alongside four highly trained opera singers, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus massed behind them.

That gratitude finally erupted in a tidal wave of affection as Always Look On The Bright Side of Life segued into a semi-surprise reprise of the Lumberjack Song. The audience, forming one barmy army of Python devotees - as if in parody of the Last Night of the Proms - waved fake candles in the air, sang and whistled along, and would hardly let Mssrs Idle, Palin, Gilliam and Jones out of their clutches.
There was little disguising the fact though, that between the start of the show - when we got a fantastic blast of that theme tune (The Liberty Bell) - and the hugely nostalgic finale, there was little to get genuinely worked up about. Or really laugh about. The film - released 30 years ago - is generally held to be comedy perfection. The oratorio swiftly disappointed in comparison: the larky grit of the swords-and-sandals Hollywood pastiche was here replaced by respectable sleekness.
A skeletal structure of the story remained but rather than fleshing it out in surprising ways, the songs - overly reliant on the supposed hilarity of repeated pomp and bombast - felt malnourished. It hardly helped that the part of Brian, the mistaken messiah immortalised by Graham Chapman, was played by well-groomed tenor William Ferguson. Or that Brian’s mum was no longer Terry Jones’ squarking harridan but plush mezzo soprano Rosalind Plowright. Overall, it never felt, well, naughty enough.
But who wants to be the party-pooper? The Pythons have earned their place in history. And they’ve earned the right to muck about with experiments like this. At least they’ve not become a tired self-tribute act, rehashing old material. The whole thing was being filmed - and I wouldn’t blame anyone for digging into their pockets to see what all the fuss wasn’t about. We can’t quite get enough of them, even now.

Last night of the Proms - music review, Royal Albert Hall

When Sir David Attenborough comes on stage brandishing a vintage floor polisher, backed by Goldie and Rory Bremner shooting rifles, it's hard to take too seriously the argument that the Last Night of the Proms is caught in a musty time trap.

The celebs were there to provide a helping hand to a bizarrely comic number called "A Grand, Grand Overture". And this legendary event, running since 1895, contained a fair few other surprises. American conductor David Robertson swung cheerfully from a scintillating cover of George Gershwin's Can't Take That Away From Me to some tremendously menacing classical-Brazilian fusion and everywhere in between.

The traditional closing anthems of Jerusalem, Rule Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory ripped the roof off with a frenzy of flag waving, kazoo blowing and beach ball bouncing from the crowd. There didn't seem to be soul in the place who needed to rely on the lyric sheet. Proof, if any were needed, that the "elitist" Proms have always been home to the nation's most popular music.