Mark Thompson 27th Sept 2021
Live performance has returned to BOKC, The club welcomed Mark Thompson and his Yamaha EL90 to our stage on 27th Sept 2021. Covid still with us, this first tentative concert brought a not unexpected low turnout but Mark produced an evening of quality music of broad appeal. The interval saw a ‘costume’ change to a lively almost orange suit which alone drew applause from the audience. Mark’s commentary between his music contained much to amuse the audience. and the evening concluded with his call to encore.
27th Sept was amidst the fuel crisis, hopefully Mark found fuel for his return home.
Some music from the first half
When you’re smiling, Love (Nat King Cole), Roll out the barrel, Wonderful tonight, Somewhere out there (American tail), the cross hand boogie, El Comanchero, Jurassic park theme, Home alone theme, Somewhere in my memory (home alone), Music for VE day, Alexander’s Rag time band, boogie woogie bugle boy, When the saints come marching in, Sleepy shores (André reeve)
Some music from the second half
Anything goes, lady & the tramp, Diamonds & Pearls, And the waltz goes on, Thinking out load (Ed Sheeran), Trish trash polka, Spanish dance (shostakovich), A medley 1950 -1970s – I will survive (Gaynor), My Girl, Living doll (Cliff) do wah diddy diddy (Manfred Mann), Here come my baby, The wonder of you (Elvis), Hit the Road Jack, Mac the knife, When you’re smiling, A Rock Roll medley – Dancing the night away,
Encore we’ll meet again.
Posted in Concert Review Tagged with: brentwood, Brentwood organ and keyboard, concert review, Live music, Mark Thompson, steve morl, wephoto
Concert review 23rd April 2018 Andrew Nix
Another good concert with our Artiste for the night Andrew Nix. The audience numbers for the evening were disappointing perhaps due to another event, Seacroft. It was also the first night for the club renewals for 2018 – 2019.
True to the character portrayed in descriptive comments about Andrew, he did have a true Yorkshire sense of humour very much in evidence throughout the evening. We enjoyed a ‘two for the price of one’ evening with Andrew as both keyboard musician and comedian. Some of the music we herd included. With sword and lance, a buddy holiday medley, a medley of traditional Irish songs, When Irish eyes are smiling, Fire Dance, and an Irish gig. Then there was you, a Sigmund Romberg Medley, Music Box Dancer, Pretty Face Polka, and the Lambeth Walk. After the interval we heard the Beer barrel polka, Roll out the barrel, Good Morning Good Morning, Somewhere over the rainbow, wedding of the painted doll, Impossible dream, A Beatles medley including Money cant by you love, Yesterday, Hey Jude, then Fly me to the Moon and finally a Dixieland medley. There were calls from the audience for even more and so on the spot of the moment Andrew produced a medley of snippets from many other well known tunes. In all a very good evening.
Andrew’s instrument was a Roland Atelier
Posted in Concert Review Tagged with: Andrew Nix, BOKC, brentwood, Brentwood organ and keyboard, concert, Live music, mountnessing
Concert Review 26th March 2018 – Dirkjan Ranzijn
Dirk, as he suggested we call him, arrived… He had just made the journey from Holland to perform for us. His character like the instrument he brought with him was much larger than life. We had an evening of great entertainment with a wacky sense of humour made all the more amusing because of the constant distorted translation from Dutch to English.
Dirk brought the audience into his performance and encouraged participation. We were rocking in our seats and some even found themselves jumping out of them at times or waving arms in the air to make the letters YMCA. The music we heard was a very accomplished performance and with the requested encore ran slightly overtime. Many rose to their feet at the end of the performance.
Amongst the music we listened to were; Beautiful noise, Lugarno (A piece composed by Dirk whilst in Switzerland) Bizet Carmen, Standing by, Valerie, Spirit of Norway, Willie Nelsons, “On the road again”. A medley from Grease, A rock and roll selection, because we believe, A Latin American selection, the Snow Waltz, Tequila sunrise, that will be the day, YMCA, Tulips from Amsterdam. Bless Em All, Unforgettable, and A medley from Les Miserables.
The encore was itself a medley of many other pieces.
Dirk’s instrument was a Bohm Sinfonia 480
Posted in Newsletters Tagged with: A concert - The Organist Entertains, A concert – The Organist Entertains, BOKC, brentwood, Brentwood organ and keyboard, Dirkjan Ranzijn, Live music, mountnessing, Ranzijn
Concert Review 27th Nov 2017 – Michael Sullivan
It was a cold November night perhaps that had an effect on the instrument Michael had with him to play? The adage, ‘Putting all your eggs in one basket’ never seemed more relevant. Perhaps we forget that’s what our artistes do when they sit in front of us with their ‘one’ instrument on which to entertain us for the evening. When things go wrong with the keyboard what do you do in front of that audience who expect to be entertained, but you as the performer are sat at the keyboard of a broken instrument? It was particularly the instruments foot pedals, these latched to the last note played and held the note. For Michael it must have been disastrous for his confidence and ability to entertain, it wasn’t really until the second half of the evening when Michael began to overcome problems with the instrument and his performance recovered.
A flavour of the pieces played included; Anything goes, Sleepy Shores, Liberty Bell, Puppet on a string, The Sound of Music, Buddy Holly pieces, Arrivederci Roma, A Gershwin selection, Tiger Rag, Maple leaf Rag, On the sunny side of the street, She wears red feathers, a TV medley including Cross Roads and Z Cars, and toward the evenings conclusion, MacArthur park.
Michael played a Yamaha Tyros 4 with 2 Yamaha MSR 250 powered speakers plus Ketron midi pedals linked to a Roland SC 33 sound module.
Posted in Concert Review Tagged with: A concert – The Organist Entertains, BOKC, brentwood, brentwood organ, Brentwood organ and keyboard, Live music, Mike Sullivan, mountnessing
It was a warm summer evening with a good number of attendees in the audience for our evening concert performed by Elizabeth Harrrison. She began by introducing herself as a farmer, a driver of big machines and goods vehicles. Elizabeth’s boyfriend, also a farmer but their two farms were she said, 26 miles apart. Elizabeth made an appeal to the audience, she was a collector of tractors, at one time she had 13 but presently only 8, she did however want to find a Massey Ferguson 35, 3 cylinder tractor, and appealed to anyone in the audience who may have one for sale. There was much amusement but no offers. Elizabeth hadn’t had much luck with a shopping trip either, out for vacuum cleaner bags she returned home with a dog instead. The dog, a black and white border collie needed a new home, its owners were emigrating.
So the music started for an audience already amused. Unusually for an artiste, she performed facing us; throughout the evening she punctuated her performance with facial expressions that were themselves quite entertaining. Elizabeth is an accomplished entertainer with a performance repertoire that included something for everyone. Amongst the music she played were; themes from west end shows, strangers in the night, Choo Choo Samba, Too Beautiful To Last, A 1960s Selection including Three Steps To Heaven, I Only Want To Be With You, Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow, Its A Heartache, Georgie Girl. Marches- Out Of The Blue, Dancing Dustman. Viennese Waltz Selection including Over The Waves, Ciribiribin, Chrysanthemum Waltz, Nights of Gladness. Classical – Prelude In Classic Style, and House of dreams. We were also led in a sing song that featured well known cockney and wartime favourites, My old mans a dustman, Ain’t she sweet, Run rabbit run, when your smiling and Bring me sunshine.
Elizabeth’s instrument was a Roland ATELIER Combo AT-350C with Pedal board and a “Tower Organ in a box” module.
Posted in Concert Review Tagged with: BOKC, bokc.BOKC, brentwood, brentwood organ, Brentwood organ and keyboard, Brentwood Organ Keyboard club, concert, Concert 26th June 2017, Elizabeth Harrison
Nicholas Martin B.E.M
Monday 22nd May 2017, the lighter evenings were with us, and no need for heating. Our Artiste for the evening, Nicholas Martin, had travelled down from Leicester together with his father and son, both of whom helped Nicholas stage the evenings performance. We were first introduced to a sense of humour that carried on throughout the evening, ‘A lorry’, said Nicholas, ‘shed its load of onions on the motorway, police advised motorists to use the hard shoulder, to cry on’ we were reminded that it was ten years since he had last performed for us, with a wry smile, he suggested some were still sat in the same seats, his good humoured jokes brought ‘groans of laughter’ throughout the evening, and so to his music.
The performance opened to Hey Look Me Over, Nicholas’s signature tune. His music varied in styles, such as ‘The Blackpool Style’ and the way it was performed, including ‘cascading or water falling keyboards’, which to my uneducated eye was full of impressive movement. There were many other formats. Music performed included classical, hymns, jazz, film, waltzes, and Susa marches and of naturally Blackpool tower music. With his instrument he emulated single organs to full orchestras. In places the music was delicate and silky smooth, elsewhere full on and commanding. An accomplished performance with music to suit everyone. The variety of the performance attracted much applause and Nicholas was recalled for an encore.
Very kindly Nicholas provided me with a list detailing many of pieces that he played during the evening.
1st Half:
Sig Tune: Hey Look Me Over
Marches: Vienna Forever / Stars & Stripes Forever / The Thunderer
Classical Waltzes: Love theme from Romeo & Juliet / The Ashokan Farewell / Oh Mia Babbino Cara
Contrasts: Skaters Waltz / Eleanora / Intermezzo from: Cavalleria Rusticana
“Les Miserables” Medley: Master of the House / Bring Him Home / Do You Hear the People Sing? / I Dreamed a Dream
Music from Nick’s Latest CD: Take Me Home, Country Roads / Music, Music, Music / Zip a Dee-Doo-Dah / No Matter What / Peanut Polka / I Vow to Thee My Country / Bluebell Polka / Clarinet Polka / 12th St. Rag
2nd Half:
Latin American Medley: Brazil / Cumana / Enjoy Yourself / Maria Elena / Till / Jealousy / Sway / The Girl from Ipanema / Tico-Tico
You Raise Me Up / Amazing Grace
Showtime Medley: Mamma Mia / Shall We Dance? / March of the Siamese Children/ I Won’t Send Roses / Gigi / Get Me to the Kirk on Time / I Could Have Danced All Night / All I Ask of You / Willkomen / Cabaret / This Nearly Was Mine / Happy Talk / Hello Dolly / Music of the Night / Be A Clown / No Business Like Showbusiness
Frank Sinatra Remembered: New York, New York / All the Way / Fly Me To the Moon / My Way
Decades of Melody: A Walk in the Black Forest / Lady of Spain / Mack the Knife / It’s a Sin to Tell a Lie / Always / All My Loving / Can’t Buy Me Love / Yesterday / Around the World / Fascination / For All We Know / Lullaby of Birdland / Georgia / Muskrat Ramble / Rosalie / Anything Goes / Getting Sentimental Over You / Sunny Side of the Street / When Somebody Thinks You’re Wonderful / Opus One / Pennsylvania 65000 / Little Brown Jug / In the Mood.
Tiger Rag / Widor’s Toccata
Some wondered why Nicholas had been awarded the BEM by the queen. The honour was in recognition for work done by Nicholas in forming the children’s autism charity, ‘Miracles to believe in’. The charity has a website at the following address. http://www.miraclestobelievein.moonfruit.com/ At the end of the concert provision was made to accept donations to it. I received the following written comment from Nicholas, “I was delighted we raised £55.12 for our “Miracles to believe in” charity at the close of the concert. Please put a thank you in your newsletter for me regarding that.”
Nicholas instrument, a Technics GA3 organ, With believed a Roland Fantom XR module for the Theatre Organ sounds
Posted in Concert Review Tagged with: BOKC, brentwood organ, Brentwood organ and keyboard, miaclestobelievein, miracles to believe, mountnessing, Nicholas Martin, Nicholas Martin B.E.M, Organ
