Liza Pulman and Joe Stilgoe  are a Couple of Swells at Chichester Festival Theatre - video Dailymotion

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Liza Pulman and Joe Stilgoe will get the New Year off to a flying start at Chichester Festival Theatre with A Couple of Swells on Saturday, January 6.

Transcript

00:00 Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. It's always

00:06 a great pleasure to speak to Joe Stilgoe up the road in Hove. Now Joe, you were coming,

00:11 as you so frequently do, to the Chichester Festival Theatre in January, January the 6th,

00:15 but this time as a duo, this time with Liza Pullman. Tell me about that combination. Why

00:20 does it work so well with you and Liza?

00:23 It works so well, Phil, because I don't have to organise 35 musicians. How many did I have

00:30 last time? No, I had about 70. That was too many.

00:33 So it's their simplicity then, is it?

00:36 No, I love all the different sort of variations and permutations of my life. But working with

00:45 Liza is joyous. It's very nimble, I always say. It's always very lovely with just the

00:50 piano. Liza provides her own instrument, which is an incredible voice, but I'm there at the

00:58 piano and that's all there is. It's just us. And it's sort of, I suppose, the test of every

01:03 performer is can you boil it down to just working with a piano or a guitar or a harp?

01:11 And we're really comfortable with that because she's from a cabaret background with fascinating

01:16 Aida. And I, you know, obviously that's my instrument. I'm happy to sit there all day.

01:22 It's sort of it's my protective blanket. And the audiences at Chichester will know me at

01:32 the piano as a thing. And with Liza, we get to really interrogate, is that the right word?

01:42 I suppose, excavate and explore not only the older songs we're doing, whether it be Irving

01:50 Berlin or Randy Newman or Tom Lehrer, or the new song I've written, or maybe new arrangements

01:58 of these things. And it's really something you can do with just two people on stage in

02:04 an audience is be very quick and spontaneous. So I love that.

02:09 You're saying what you've got in mind is something really fairly glamorous, isn't it? A throwback

02:13 to the 50s Hollywood.

02:14 Yeah, when we got together, we thought, well, what's our, you know, what would be our...

02:18 Well, the Couple of Swells, aren't you?

02:20 Couple of Swells. Yeah, from the Irving Berlin song. And though the picture of a couple of

02:26 swells is Fred Astaire and Judy Garland with their teeth blacked out and wearing shabby

02:34 white tie and tails, we are kind of, we're picturing ourselves in a sort of art deco,

02:40 beautiful villa in the south of France, sometime in the 40s or 50s. And Noel Coward's there

02:48 and Cole Porter and Grace Kelly's popped down for a gin sling. So that's kind of nice.

02:54 1200 people peering in from the audience.

02:57 Yes. And 1200 of my closest friends who haven't been allowed to bring in a rustling bag of

03:04 sweets. But it is one of those shows, and we did it at the West End last year, sorry,

03:13 earlier this year, and in tiny little venues. So from intimate venues to big venues, this

03:20 is the closest.

03:21 So this is the biggest one so far, is it?

03:22 This is, yeah, this is double. We played 600 at the Duchess in the West End, which felt

03:28 big, but to play the big one at Chichester will be lovely. And I've done it before, just

03:35 with a piano.

03:36 What are the hopes for 2024 for the duo? Where do you see it going?

03:42 Oh, well, we've had some lovely offers and invitations to play a few festivals, arts

03:48 festivals around the country, from Cheltenham to Buxton to Petworth. In fact, Petworth is

03:55 later in 24.

03:59 So the festival. Yeah.

04:02 And then we're doing some lovely other dates. We're doing the Cadogan Hall. We're doing

04:05 Bits and Bobs. We're releasing an album. Sorry, that's my personal phone.

04:12 And doing an album as well.

04:16 Yeah. So the album will be out springtime, I think. And we've recorded half of it. And

04:22 to keep the Sussex vibe, we're recording it with the brilliant Curtis Schwartz, who has

04:26 a studio in Ardingly. Amazing Steinway piano. Yeah, it's great. It's just the duo album.

04:35 It's really distilled and it'll sound lovely and be joyous.

04:38 Well, it sounds like it's going to be a lovely start to 2024. Really good to speak to you

04:43 again, Joe.

04:44 You too, Phil.

04:45 Look forward to chatting about the album when it comes out.

04:47 Yes, likewise.

04:48 Thank you ever so much. Good to speak to you.

04:50 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Liza Pulman and Joe Stilgoe are a Couple of Swells at Chichester Festival Theatre

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