A Change Of Plan

Cycling through Highfields, as is my want these sunny afternoons, I came across some singers being filmed, while they stood near the large stone lions from China.

Stopping to watch, I wondered whether it was something that some university students were doing. Maybe from Trent, rather than Nottingham, as Trent runs the more arty courses. Nottingham is more academic.

So out popped my camera for a few shots. A little while later a guy came over and said that it was ok for me to take photos, as long as they didn't appear on social media. I asked what it was about, and he explained that they were filming for the new series of The Choir, and these were some of the competitors.
I've not see the show before, but apparently a choir is made up of gifted amateurs, and the well known conductor Gareth Malone turns them into a professional singing group.

So instead,  here's a very fine bonnet emblem for a Ford V8 Pilot car that I took on Sunday at Wollaton Park.

D.I.S.C.O

You may remember a band that I mentioned last year called the Disco Prophets. They are a local group that play well known disco songs from the 1970s and 80s.

They went quiet for a while, but I have been in regular contact with their leader Rupert, who I knew when we were both children in London. He said that he's had a change of line up and got rid of the horn section.

So as a first outing and warm up gig for a charity night next week, they played at a pub in town for an hour or so. The Disco Prophets usually have a male singer as well called 'The Soul Panther' but as they didn't have one at that point, Fay, a singer from another band was borrowed for the evening. And very good she was too. Singing songs that were around probably before she was born.

They also had a new bass guitarist called Heather, who is Paul the keyboard player's partner. She was also excellent, thumping away on an instrument that was nearly as big as she is.

It was a great gig, and I think the smallish audience enjoyed their unique take on all those hits from all those years ago

I Have A Dream

There are quite a few bands that I would have loved to have seen live; Kate Bush, Pink Floyd and ABBA, to name a few.

Due to stage fright, I don't think Kate Bush will ever tour again. She's only ever done one, and that was in 1979.  With the death of keyboard player Richard Wright and ongoing animosity amongst the remaining members, we are probably not going to see another Pink Floyd tour in the foreseeable future.

So that leaves ABBA. And as Agnetha Faltskog (the blonde) has more or less become a recluse, and Anni-frid (the brunette) is not interested in pursuing a singing career anymore, there is no chance of them recording again. Even after newspaper reports once said that they were offered a huge sum of money to perform for some Arab billionaire.

So we have to make do with tribute bands. And I saw a very good one yesterday at the Armed Forces event at the Embankment. Here are some shots of the individual members that make up Arrival UK. And very good they were too. They soon had the open air audience dancing on the grass and singing along to those oh so familiar tunes.

Dancing The Night Away

This is local band The Disco Propets who we went to photograph at an awards ceremony at a local hotel.

The awards were for foster parents which had been organised by Nottingham City Council, and the Disco Prophets were providing the entertainment. I know the group's leader, and he asked me if I could come along to take some photos, as Rupert has big plans for the group this year.

The band had changed a bit since we last saw them at a gig last summer. They had lost a female singer, gained a keyboardist and swopped a saxophonist. They had also been lent a percussionist. But they still had that great 1970s disco sound.

Lots of the audience got up to dance along to the tunes and the conference room had turned into Studio 54. So it was Boogie Nights all the way until late in the evening.

Studio 54 Reborn

West Bridgford tonight wasn't exactly downtown New York, but it was the nearest thing you could get to take you back to the heady disco beat of the 1970s.

Gail and I went to shoot a 70s night at a local pub. We were invited to by Rupert, the leader and guitarist of the band that were playing. They are called The Disco Prophets. In fact Rupert and I used to play together as children in London, back in the real 1970s. Alas not musically. Just kids stuff.

Strangely enough, he and is wife moved to Nottingham earlier this year for his job. I didn't know until his aunt told me, when we went to visit her in Rye, where she lives earlier this year.

It was a good night too. With plenty of tunes from that era going down nicely with the audience. Many of whom had dressed up for the occasion.

There was a dancing competition too. Gail had paid to enter. Not that she had any intention to do any dancing, unless it was with her OM-D. But she wanted go pay, as the money was going to charity. Oddly she won, as no one else in the audience had entered, even though they were all happily dancing away all night to the tunes. The band gave her a cup as a prize. Not a silver one, but a drinking one, with instructions of how to moonwalk on the side. Someone also won a cup for the best 70s outfit.