Al Bowlly's Croon Manifesto on YouTube
Here's a preview of our latest show in development. Very excited about this project, a collaboration with old friends JC and Angelina, AKA The Gramophone Party.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tEIiLN1U6w
It's in 4 parts for youtube so get searching
And a little promo schpeel.
Roll up the carpet and push back the chairs. Untied Artists in collaboration with The Gramophone Party bring you a rip-roaring evening of music, theatre and dance in
'Al Bowlly's Croon Manifesto'.
A celebration of Britain's greatest singer of the dance band era, this show offers an insight into a pre-pop pioneer, delves into the seamier side of between the wars hedonism, and then gives the audience a chance to put on their dancing shoes and get their rocks off ballroom-style.
The title of the show is inspired by Bowlly's book "Modern Style Singing" in which he issues a rallying call to embrace the new media of his day, the microphone. The tender, expressive and intimate vocal style he championed marked a turning point in musical history and brought about an entire change of focus from bandleader to singer.
Arguably the first ever ‘pop star’, his life is ripe for revisiting. He had a rock and roll lifestyle before rock was invented, a fiery temper, a penchant for globe-trotting, a rollercoaster career, tried to make it Stateside, and psychosomatically lost his voice. Like so many pop icons he lived fast and died young.
An inspiration to generations of singers and artists, Al Bowlly’s songs are the type of tunes you’ve heard hundreds of times but just can’t place. The voice that really did make ‘a hundred lonely housewives clutch a milk bottle to their hearts’ has featured in cult films like Amelie, The Shining and Dennis Potter’s seminal Pennies From Heaven.
Featuring hits like ‘The Very Thought Of You’, ‘My Woman’, ‘Guilty’ and ‘Goodnight Sweetheart’, we promise an evening to remember. Wear the gladdest of your gladrags, and once you’ve listened to the finer points of 'Al Bowlly's Croon Manifesto', put it to the test on the dancefloor.