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Christmas big band sounds in Worthing and Southampton
SussexWorld
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16/12/2024
One of the UK’s premiere swing orchestras is embarking on their most ambitious festive tour to date this Christmas.
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Music
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00:00
Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor for Sussex Newspapers. Lovely
00:06
to speak to Mike Paul-Smith, who is bringing the Down for the Count Orchestra to Worthing
00:10
this Christmas with a, well, a festive edition. You've got some lovely Christmas treats in
00:15
there, haven't you?
00:17
We have, yes, and we're really looking forward to heading to Worthing for Christmas. It's
00:22
our second year in a row doing our Christmas show in Worthing, and we are called the Down
00:27
for the Count Swing Orchestra. We're a 32-piece big band with strings, so we do sort of classic
00:33
big band music with a string section, so audiences will hear the music of people like Nat King
00:39
Cole, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, with loads of Christmas favourites
00:44
in there, also some non-Christmas tunes as well to break it up a little bit.
00:48
Why is that your kind of music? What makes you a swing and big band fan?
00:53
Oh, I've loved it since I was very young. I started playing in a big band at school
00:59
when I was 14, and just loved the energy that a big band has. It's really, it's all completely
01:06
live. It takes a lot of people to make it sound right, and you can't fake swing and
01:12
big band music. You can't do any electronic wizardry to make it sound better than it is.
01:19
There's no faking it. You've got to do it right, and you've got to do it properly, and
01:23
that's what we do.
01:24
And it sounds great. You've got a busy Christmas, and booking's coming up for the next year,
01:28
and the penny's just dropped. You told me that you started in 2005. Next year is 2025.
01:33
Next year's the 20th anniversary. Have you got big plans for that anniversary?
01:37
Yeah, our big anniversary. We haven't quite got as far as making any plans for celebrating
01:43
the anniversary, apart from just doing more of what we're doing at the moment, and looking
01:48
to get bigger venues around the place. But we might try and organise a big celebration
01:54
party as well. But one thing that we do have that's going to be very exciting is that we're
01:59
really hoping that in the summer, we're going to be recording a brand new album to celebrate
02:04
20 years of being together. So fingers crossed.
02:07
And when was the last album?
02:09
The last album was a few years ago now. It was recorded, let me try and get this right,
02:14
it was recorded in 2021. But it took us quite a long time to release it. I can't remember
02:23
whether it was 22 or 23 that we released it. So by the time we release another one, it
02:29
will have been two years, which is quite long for us.
02:31
And a new album is a perfect way to celebrate the anniversary, isn't it?
02:35
Yeah. Yeah, it is. And we're quite a different band than we were a few years ago. The orchestra
02:42
is getting bigger and bigger all the time, and getting better and better, to be frank,
02:47
as we spend more time playing together. Our understanding of the music and of each other's
02:54
playing evolves, and we're always getting more sort of sympathetic to each other's way
03:01
of playing. And so it's a different ensemble, and we're sort of chomping at the bit to get
03:06
it caught on record, actually. It's long overdue, so hopefully we'll make it happen.
03:12
Before that, album next year. Just to confirm then, Worthing Assembly Hall,
03:17
Saturday, December the 21st. Lovely to speak to you, Mike. Happy Christmas.
03:24
Thanks, Phil.
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