Saturday night was an exciting evening back with Rollacoaster playing for a wedding near Devizes. The marquee was situated in the grounds of a beautiful home, and it was very much a classy affair! The nine-piece band performed for almost 3 hours, and the dance floor was packed from the moment we kicked off until the end. We rattled through tunes by Stevie Wonder, Queen, Bon Jovi, The Killers, Pharrell Williams and many more, and the band were incredible!
After getting home late I was able to have a bit of a lay-in before hitting the road in the opposite direction to Hunstanton for a Bye Bye Baby show at the Princess Theatre. There weren’t many seats left, that’s for sure!
If you haven’t checked out the band, Bye Bye Baby is a Frankie Valli tribute show, telling the story of music of the man and the Four Seasons. Go to byebyebabylive.co.uk for more information and see when we’ll be at a theatre near you. We’re all over the country and 2017 is getting very busy!
The London musical theatre orchestra is a relatively new organisation designed to take famous works and extend them to orchestral playing. The integrity of the original works is kept, however where necessary additional parts are arranged to accommodate extra members of the orchestra not normally present in the show’s stage counterparts.
The most recent production, that I had the honour to perform, was the music of Wicked, as part of a 100 piece orchestra which included 40 voices!
The music was orchestrated for two guitars of which I was Guitar One. This particular part had the majority of the electric guitar parts and included passages requiring me to use an Ebow and Seek Wah sound amongst typical heavy distortions and shimmery cleans. There were a lot of interesting suspended chord voicings, searing lead lines and some delicate chord and arpeggio work. A real workout!
There are many ‘corners’ in the music of Wicked, involving lots of time signature changes and variations in feel. In order to navigate these we had a rehearsal in the afternoon and a full run-through with the choir in the evening. The sound was incredible, and it was a real buzz to play this music in such a setting.
It was a shame we couldn’t perform the music to an audience (due to rights issues), however I am hopeful that the opportunity will arise in the near future. The next show will be the Sound of Music, however I will be otherwise engaged elsewhere, so I will have two wait for the next one! Do check out the LMTO, as it’s a fantastic organisation!
Over the last couple of months I have been fortunate enough to play guitar on a number of shows in Hertfordshire and Oxfordshire. This has been instrumental in keeping my sight-reading in fairly nimble shape, and has been a lot of fun!
Annie was at the end of March, and I used the Variax Acoustic to cover the banjo and steel string sounds which seemed to suit the vibe of the show pretty well. There’s a lot of chord work in this show, with limited single notes lines – but they’re pretty exposed when you get them! – and there’s a real big band-style to some of the playing. That was the approach I took, and it was great to play alongside some less familiar brass instruments than I’m used to!
Hairspray took place at Wyllyotts Theatre in Potter’s Bar, and was a great play! I was covering both guitar parts, and the pad was organised in such a way that they ran concurrently rather than in separate books. This meant it was easy to compare both on the fly, and bring out what was most important at any given time.
This is a 60’s show, with smattering of tremolo and largely clean sounds, so I engaged my USA Deluxe Strat for this, and my Les Paul for the more jazzy-type numbers. It was definitely worth taking both as they complimented each other well and were perfect foils!
I’m currently prepping for Legally Blonde, which runs next week at the New Theatre in Oxford. It’s a beautiful theatre, and the company is fantastic so I have high expectations of the product we’ll all be able to put together! The music is very pop-based but with lots of variety with traditional Irish, rock, dub reggae and disco well represented too! There’s a lot of detail in the part and I’m really trying to bring everything out, and more, to make it as dynamic and interesting as possible. Come down and check it out!
Last week I played guiyar for the ‘Sticks and Stones’ production of ’13’ – a youth show about a Jewish lad moving from New York to a sleepy town, and the trials and tribulations of coming-of-age and making friends in a new place.
The music is very eclectic, covering a number of different genres including Death Metal, Reggae, Funk, and beautiful acoustic ballads.
Electric and acoustic guitars are required for this show, and quite fortunately there are not many rapid guitar changes as these are mainly done between numbers.
There are two guitar parts, and as on similar shows I had to compile both into one, reading from both pads and using a series of post-it notes to indicate what to read from which pad. It’s pretty rapid at times, but I relish the challenge to concentrate so much throughout a show. I also really enjoyed the diversity of the music and trying hard to play as authentically as possible with the tools at my disposal.
Most of the sonic variation was was modified via the selector switch on my electric guitar. The switching on the Ibanez RG3120 is really versatile, giving you power and delicacy with ease.
I did the show a few years back and really enjoyed it, and it’s nice to get my hands around it again with more experience under my belt. I look forward to doing it again too!
This week I’ve been playing on Avenue Q in Tring for the Berkhamsted Theatre Company. It’s been a real pleasure to be involved in the show, and a particular privilege because of the calibre of the performances. Reviews have compared this production to a similar if not better level than pro touring shows, so congrats to all involved.
Guitar-wise the part is very interesting. It’s pretty pacey throughout, so you need to be well prepared and have your wits about you, and it’s well written with lots of interesting voicings of chords to get your fingers around.
It also has a banjo and acoustic requirement alongside the electric guitar, and some of the changes can be a bit tight! To make life a bit easier I’ve used my Variax Acoustic to cover those bases, and my Ibanez RG3120 for the electric stuff. Very trusty!
Apparently the pro show will be touring next year, so be sure to get your tickets!
This is the puppet man himself – Nigel Plaskitt – with the cast. Nigel is the man who makes the puppets and is also the man behind the monkey from the PG Tips commercials amongst many other credits. Amazing!
I’ve just come to the end of a run of Sweet Charity at the Amey Theatre with the Abingdon Operatic Society. This is the second time I’ve done the show, and I had a real blast doing it.
The music is really interesting, and in many ways quite unlike any other show that I’ve done. The pad is quite unhelpful, really, since it has some directions for the guitarist (such as ‘no amp’ or ‘all on highs’) which aren’t straightforward to interpret! Having said that there are a variety of different styles (big band and tango are the highlights for me) that you have to cover, as well as interesting time signature changes.
A lot of the show is in 2, so quite rapid for much of it, and this requires a good knowledge of lots of chord shapes in each area of the neck.
I mainly used my Les Paul and Raimundo classical for the run, and these guitars did a great job to cover the disciplines required. Playing the Raimundo with a Tango feel was great fun, and sounded pretty raunchy to my ears!
The theatre appeared to be packed every night which was exciting to see, and all appeared to enjoy the production.
It’s now time for me to concentrate my energies into a completely different show, as next week I’ll be playing in Avenue Q at the Court Theatre in Tring. The writing and instrumentation is very different to Charity, so it’s going to be good fun and a good challenge.
I’m the sole guitarist for this production of Grease, so my part has changed slightly from the production I did earlier in the year. I exclusively used my USA Strat with a Seymour Duncan Little ’59 mini humbucker in the bridge position.
This is a great guitar. In fact all strats offer the options I’ve enjoyed on this show. The switching combination is sonically diverse and has offered real flexibility, sensitivity and power, whenever I’ve needed it.
I’ve made a great deal of use of the middle pickup; a key position which I feel is generally undervalued and under-used. It cuts beautifully but isn’t too bright, and is weighty enough to be used for choppy rhythm.
The out-of-phase positions offer some real delicacy in moments where I’m playing ballads, country-esque pieces, in the sensitive moments in tunes, or if I simply want an option to the neck pickup, which I’ve used in turn for a warmer alternative to the middle pickup.
Since this is a 50’s show, I’ve employed my Line6 Echo Park unit set to the Slap Back setting, along with another Line6 pedal – the Tap Tremolo – for a light tremolo in a couple of ‘dreamy’ and sustained parts of songs like ‘Beauty School Drop Out’.
The material is interesting to play too. Lots of high ‘chips’ with little chord voicings of triads and 7th chords, with one staccato strum per bar. Coupled with lots of arpeggio based parts there’s a lot of tight plectrum control and confident timing required.
We’ve used the broadway arrangement of Greased Lightning which is more interesting and challenging than the original version. I get to use the bridge humbucker here in conjunction with a Zvex Distortron distortion pedal. This is a great sound (although it is a liberty taken) and I get the chance to bust out a few chops in a solo here, too.
All of this goes through the Blues Junior, so I have a compact and versatile sound. I hope I get to do it again soon!
Just before Easter I was involved in a production of Jesus Christ Superstar at the Theatre Royal, Windsor. While I didn’t get to see the production itself, it sounded fantastic as the band were great musicians directed by a fantastic musical director. We were left largely to interpret the music how we saw fit, which gave me a lot of room to express myself and put my own stamp on this iconic musical.
I used my Paul Reed Smith Custom 24 Artist pack guitar for the majority of the run, along with my trusty Martin acoustic.
The music is consistent throughout the show, and there are no natural opportunities to change from electric to acoustic, therefore I had have my acoustic mounted in a playing position beside me so I could play it still wearing my electric. This system worked ok, although it wasn’t ideal! Still, I’d have rather have a true acoustic sound than compromise, so it was worth the stretch!
I had to use my POD as an amp sim to keep the volume down in the pit, and I thought it sounded lovely, and took the sound of my pedal board well.
I felt the run was brilliant – really consistent and a great show with fun music to dig into, be expressive and delicate in equal measure. I can’t wait to do it again!
