GOOD EVENING! And welcome to… THE GIG REVIEW!

Well, February has been and gone so you may think me the fool for carrying on, however that’s a chance I’m willing to take if it means I can tell you about all the hooting and honking I indulged in over the year’s second month.

And what a busy month is was overall, not so much professionally but certainly personally. I expended a considerable amount of energy moving house, for one thing – only half a mile down the road, but still hard work! And of course my sizeable instrument collection came with me, which was no small task to shift: 8 clarinets, 4 saxomophones, 2 ukuleles, 2 flutes, 1 piccolo, 1 bassoon, 1 oboe, 1 electric piano, 1 recorder and 1 otamatone. Oh, and 1 pair of spoons. Thankfully though all that shifting, organising and sorting is now largely complete. The instrument family is now nestled cosily at the end of my bed:
 

And I’ve even found a space to display my favourite CD:
 

But much as I’d love to wax lyrical about The Best of Graham Broughton, I would guess that’s not what you’re here for. So let’s move on, shall we, and talk about GIGS!
 

I started off the month in sombre fashion, performing at my 3rd funeral in the space of 6 weeks. For this I took my saxomophone and virtual backing band (i.e. laptop + speaker) all the way down to Lambeth, in the process reuniting myself with my favourite haunt of the National Express coach fleet. Ah, National Express, we’ve shared so many memories over the years… Remember all those times we travelled up from London to Scarborough together, and I’d while away the 7 hours writing lyrics for ‘It’s Not Really the Apocalypse‘? Or the time you drove me overnight from London to Dublin via Holyhead, and the ferry was delayed by 5 hours so we sat at the terminal together while I watched a documentary about Artie Shaw at 2 o’clock in the morning? Good times.

Funerals are an unusual type of gig for several reasons, but they are also surprisingly challenging considering how little music is usually required. For one thing, there is minimal room for error. In a more informal setting, any mishaps can be glossed over or laughed off by a forgiving audience, or they may even go unnoticed if the music is more of a background entertainment. But in a funeral there is nowhere for the musician to hide, and any major blooters are liable to spoil the mood of reflection and reverence. There is also the fact that you will often only play 2 or 3 pieces, which means there is no real opportunity to redeem yourself should any of them not go fully according to plan. There is also no chance to properly warm up, as you can’t exactly honk out some scales and arpeggios in the middle of a eulogy – you just have to go in ‘cold’ and hope for the best. And furthermore, timings for crematorium services in particular are usually very tight. If you’re lucky you’ll have 15 minutes to get in and set up before the ceremony begins, but it’s not unheard of for me to have to start playing the second I’ve hurriedly slapped a reed on the instrument.

For this particular booking, I’m happy to say I avoided these key pitfalls. The one thing I did struggle with a little was the volume on some of the backing tracks, which varied considerably from when I had checked them at home on headphones. I have since resolved this issue (see the end of this post to learn how), but at the time it did necessitate some ad hoc volume adjustments mid-song!
 

A more light-hearted time was had by all from 21st to 24th February, at Mid Cheshire Musical Theatre Company‘s performances of ‘Oliver!’ (the musical). I’m racking up productions of this ever-popular show, with this being my 3rd (and a 4th coming up very soon). It was also my 2nd time playing the flute/piccolo part for William David Brohn’s 2009 West End orchestration.
 

By the way, that 2009 London production starred none other than Jodie Prenger as Nancy. Jodie Prenger can also be seen here giving an impromptu performance on the spoons, accompanied by myself and the other members of The Jelly Roll Jazz Band:
 

Sorry Jodie, but you’re never going to live that one down!

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. Congratulations to everyone involved in this show, which was a really high-quality bit of theatre (as I could see from my viewpoint in front of the stage). I’m pleased to say it was rewarded with near-full houses for every performance, and a glowing review in ‘North West End’ that even mentions us musicians:

For my part, it was good to have another go at what is quite a difficult Reed 1 book, especially for someone who is not a first-study flautist. It requires me to contort my fingers in combinations and at speeds that don’t feel entirely natural, with the most terrifying moment by far being these few bars of the overture:
 

If you mess those up, everyone in the theatre will hear it! Not to mention dogs for miles around. Incidentally, if you want to hear those bars in context, along with a few other notable excerpts from the show, have a little look at this video of me tackling the part back in 2022:
 

I’ll admit to being more than slightly bleary-eyed on Sunday 25th February, when I travelled down to Macclesfield to play TRAD. JAZZ at 11am in their regular ‘treacle market’. After all, I’d done 2 performances of ‘Oliver!’ the previous day, and spent the rest of the week moving house by day and playing the musical by night.

But needs must, and so I made my way down there to assist by playing some clarionet with local band ‘Annie’s Saints and Sinners‘. I soon discovered the power of TRAD. JAZZ as a restorative tonic as well, with the combination of fun music, an appreciative crowd and a little bit of sunshine conspiring to make for a jolly occasion indeed.

Jolly, that is, until tragedy struck!

At one point during the set, the trombonist offered to do a solo version of ‘April Showers’. This struck me as an ideal chance to wander round and get some photos for this very blog. I therefore plonked my clari on its stand, assuming it would be fine without any pesky members of the public close enough to damage it, and went for a stroll.

The next thing I knew, I was photographing this:
 

 
To give you some context, that was a really good mouthpiece – a Walter Grabner K13*. I bought it for £150 when I was 17 years old, and it’s the only soprano clarinet mouthpiece I have used in the intervening 13 years. I’ve played on it throughout the UK, all the way from Inverness right down to Guernsey. I’ve played on it in Florence, in Malta and even in Hull. I’ve played on it in a West End musical, in Westminster Abbey and at the Bath & West Show. It’s been my constant companion throughout countless thousands of hours of playing. So call me sentimental, but it does make me a little sad to see it reach such a premature and undignified demise!

Admittedly it’s not the end of the world, and fortunately it held together well enough to make it through to the end of the Macclesfield gig. But for now at least, I’m afraid to say it’s back to the trusty old Vandoren B45 spot.
 
 
All of which brings me to the end of the February 2024 gig review! See you next month for more retrospective fun.

Gig of the Month
I can’t say I’ve ever been the biggest fan of ‘Oliver!’ (or the book it’s based on, for that matter), but I did really enjoy being a part of it this month. Good show. Good show indeed.

What We’ve Learned
Even if there seems to be nobody around, never leave your clarinet unattended without at least putting the mouthpiece cap on first! Also, if you must connect a laptop’s stereo headphone output to a speaker’s mono microphone input via a TRS jack cable, make sure you set the laptop to playback in mono first.