The Only Trio in the History of the Universe Ever To Be Accompanied By the Doctor (WHO) on Spoons

[jacey]

In a reply to brownnicky's reply to my reply to heleninwales' post about introverts and extroverts I ended up recalling an Artisan memory from the time we were asked to sing live on the Ned Sherrin Show, Loose Ends, live on Radio 4

It was fairly scary because we only had about three days notice and  they asked us to sing a specific song from our new CD that wasn't in our regular repertoire (then) and it was a tongue-twister. We could have guessed that they'd ask for that, I suppose because of the political slant to the show and that the song was called Left Right Right Left. It is - as far as I am aware - the only song with 'swingometer' in the lyrics.

That particular song had been a bastard to record. We'd rehearsed it and arranged it verse by verse but  because of the tongue twister element to it had never quite got around to singing it all the way through. In the studio we made a couple of false starts and then glared at each other and said, 'One take... Now!. Then we took a deep breath, sang it through without a fluff and nailed it in one. Until the BBC called and asked us to do it on Loose Ends that was the one and only time we'd done it sans cock-up. However when the BBC call, you don't say no. (And they're right, it's NOT for the money, believe me.)

But to add to the complications... when the BBC called we were in rehearsals for a full week for a play we were doing at the RSC (Swan) in Stratford with the Kaleidoscope Theatre Company - a company of Downs Syndrome actors, which meant we were away from home and had nothing with us except rehearsal clothes. We didn't even have the relevant song words... however...

On Friday afternoon we found a photocopy shop and enlarged the words form a copy of the album booklet. Then very early Saturday morning we drove from the Midlands to arrive in London early. By 8.00 a.m. we were sitting on a parking meter outside Broadcasting House, singing through the damn song. At nine we went in, as instructed, and were taken down into the depths to the studios (yes you can hear the underground trains - but we'd worked there before so we knew that). Everyone appearing on the show got to meet each other first, which meant we were introduced to Mark Radcliffe, Sister Wendy (the toothy art-critic nun) and Sylvester McCoy who was opening in a new play in the West End that week. Ned does not socialise before the show lest you ask him what he's going to spring on you. We did a sound check with the very accommodating and able studio engineers and then at two minutes to ten the great man arrived in the studio like a galleon in full sail and we were off, live.

So the live Radio4 broadcast was only the second time we'd ever sung 'Left Right Right Left' through from beginning to end without a fluff. Talk about living dangerously. Luckily the other song that we sang was one we'd been doing for years, 'Snakes and Ladders', and while we were singing it Ned pulled a pair of spoons out of his back pocket and gave them to Sylvester who, being Irish, played them magnificently.

And that's the story of how we appeared live on Radio4 accompanied by Doctor Who playing spoons.

I have to say that after the show  Ned Sherrin was not in any was stand-offish. We all went round the pub together, except - for some strange reason - the nun.

Unfortunately due to the rush of getting there from rehearsals we didn't have the opportunity to set up a recording, so we never got to hear it ourselves, however this is the song we had to relearn very fast: Left Right, Right Left

Comments

[charlieallery.livejournal.com]

Wow! That's quite a song to have to perform live let alone if you're out of practice. well done. :)

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Thanks. The daft thing is that once you've 'got' a song like that it's not difficult at all. You kind of absorb it and muscle memory takes over and puts your face into the right shape for the next word automatically.

[brownnicky.livejournal.com]

Cool! You must miss performance?

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Yes, in a way. I miss the actual buzz of performance itself - a mixture of singing and adrenaline - and I miss all the friends we made who are scattered all over the world, though I stay in torch with some by email. What I don't miss is the travelling. Thirty thousand miles a year in the UK and 31 tours to North America in ten years is a lot of miles and air miles. In North America the distances are huge and we'd sometimes end up doing daft things like driving from Cape Cod to Chicago for a gig. On that particular occasion we'd planned to take four days, but on discovering we made much better time than we expected on Day One we diverted up through Ontario and spent a couple of nights with friends in Toronto on the way. Only in North America would Toronto be 'on the way' from Cape Cod to Chicago!
:-)
Been there, done that, and am now loving life behind a keyboard.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I can imagine how scary that must have been! But excellent exposure for the group.

Of course that means that I might well have heard you sing. :) I often listened to Loose Ends because Radio 4 is our default station in the kitchen and it was on at around the time I'd be preparing the evening meal.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Even though it was a long time ago (in the good old days when Loose Ends was on Saturday mornings) it's amazing how many people tell us that their first introduction to Artisan was hearing us on Loose Ends. We did quite a bit of work for Radio2 in the mid to late 90s, but mostly Folk on Two and the associate specialist music programmes, all made at and broadcast from Pebble Mill on a Wednesday night (including our own Artisan in Concert and a short series of programmes that I presented) but Radio4 in general - and Loose Ends in particular - got to a number of people who would never listen to the specialist programmes. Our other main Radio4 appearance was 'Pick of the Week'- how cool is that! (And I once did Comparing Notes with Richard Baker, but despite being a huge egoboo it didn't do the trio much good as it was all talk and no music.)

[maeve-the-red.livejournal.com]

I keep forgetting what an amazing life you've already lived. And that's before the writing career (don't say 'What writing career?' - it's on it's way).

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

I do feel incredibly lucky to have been able to do what we've done over the last twenty years. It never earned us much money, but it was hugely interesting and varied. I should write a book... I mean one about the Artisan days... before a lot of the memories fade. Though it would be of extremely limited interest to most of the world, but my kids might like it eventually. I have some bits written down bun not in order. Maybe I should post them to LJ intermittently until they are all collected in my 'memories' - and then harvest them.