Tag Archives: Les Mis

Alfie to Miz: Les Miserables from A to Z

On the eve of the 30th anniversary of Les Miserables in London, let’s take a look at 26 highlights and facts from Alfie to Miz!

A is for Alfie Boe of course! Alfie played the role in the West End for six months, having first taken the role at the 25th anniversary concert, and is now Jean Valjean on Broadway

B is for bread.  JVJ is jailed for stealing a loaf of bread but the onstage bread was once responsible for almost choking Dan Koek! Whilst pretending to eat the bishops’s bread, a crumb went up Koek’s nose and lodged at the back of his throat…and stayed there for the whole of the soliloquy!

C is for Carrie Hope Fletcher. London’s current Eponine, is the younger sister of McBusted’s Tom Fletcher…who appeared with Alfie at the Royal Festival Hall on the Bring Him Home tour

D is for Do You Hear the People Sing? We can and we can’t imagine ever stopping!

E  is for Eponine, brilliant character – surely, I can’t be the only one rooting for her over Cosette in Marius’ affections?

F is for Frances Ruffelle, original Eponine, winner of a Tony award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical and mum of singer Eliza Doolittle

G is for Grantaire, a glorious character who spends most of his time onstage in an alcoholic glaze

H is for Hans Peter Janssen, the only Belgian actor to play JVJ in London

I is for I Dreamed a Dream, iconic song from Fantine, memorably performed by Lea Salonga at the 25th anniversary concert.  Went into the entertainment stratosphere with Susan Boyle’s Britain’s Got Talent audition

J is for John Owen-Jones, the youngest Jean Valjean (he was 26).  He most memorable Les Mis moment came in rehearsal with Claude-Michel Schonberg for the 25th anniversary tour.  John says “I was rehearsing Bring Him Home with Claude-Michel in a room backstage at the Barbican. We were running through the song when he suddenly stopped playing the piano and looked slowly around the room with a quizzical look on his face. Then he looked at me and said in that wonderful French accent of his: “Wait…zis room…it is where I wrote zis song!”

K is for Karrie, Peter who played JVJ for three years from 1986.  In a recent interview he told me that he worked with one Javert who made him corpse one day at the end of the cart scene: “he clicked his heels together and turned to walk off, his microphone was already off, and he said so only I could hear, if you don’t have that cart moved, I’ll have it clamped!  I laughed so much I had to feign a coughing fit and run off stage quickly!

L is for Lea Salonga who played Eponine in the 10th anniversary concert and Fantine in the 25th anniversary

M is for Mackintosh, Cameron, the producer of Les Mis as well as many more musicals around the world

N is for Norm Lewis, picked as his favourite Javert by Alfie Boe in his Club 24601 interview with thoughtsofjustafan

O is for One Day More – best ending to a first act in musical theatre bar none (the combination of Michael Ball and Ramin Karimloo is superb here):

P is for Peter Lockyer, current London JVJ –  first played JVJ whilst directing an amateur production in Hawaii

Q is for the Queen’s Theatre, home to the London production

R is for revolving stage, no longer in evidence in the Broadway show.  Dave Willetts remembers several shows in the early days where the stage stopped revolving at awkward moments, notably at the end of the barricade scene when all the dead actors had to get up and walk off stage in the full glare of the lights!

S is for the Soliloquy, favourite song of several of the Club 24601 JVJ’s

T is for Thenardier – a villain we love to love

U is for understudies – Dave Willetts understudied for Colm Wilkinson before taking over the lead when Wilkinson originated the role on Broadway

V is for Valjean, one of the most iconic roles in modern musicals and the Valjean Quartet from the 25th anniversary:

W is for writers, Claude-Michel Schonberg, Alain Boublil and Herbert Kretzmer

X is for Enjolras’ xylophone vest at the barricades (trust me, it’s real) – big thanks to Debbie Bannigan for telling me!

Y is for young performers – Little Eponine, Little Cosette and Gavroche

Z is for Miz which is the twitter spelling for the Broadway production

 

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Club 24601: Alfie Boe is Jean Valjean

Thirty years of Jean Valjean and we’re celebrating the legend that is Les Miserables by looking back at some memorable Valjean’s.  So who better to start with than the best of them all (in the opinion of this blog anyway, and, I suspect in the opinions of one or two readers) than the current Broadway JVJ, Alfie Boe.

I interviewed Alfie before he started on Broadway and asked him what he thought would be the greatest difference in his approach from when he played the role in the West End. The main difference would be the difference in the production: “the production is completely different, it’s not the same show I performed in the West End”.  Alfie went on to say that although the music is the same, the structure and choreography is different, so “I’m excited to embrace the new direction for the role”.  As Alfie had appeared on Broadway before (La Boheme) I wanted to know how and if that experience would differ.  Of course, La Boheme was only three shows a week and now he is fully embracing the show with seven shows.  Did the fact that he is a lot more well known now factor at all?  The answer was definitely not, Alfie said “although I’m a little more well known than I was back then I’m not focused on that.  I’m focused on doing the job, doing it properly, performing each show I’m in to the highest standard”.  Judging by the rave reviews, Alfie is doing a great job in New York.

Talking about the differences and the challenges of returning to the show naturally led us on to Alfie’s time in the West End.  I’d forgotten (no idea how!) that Alfie had been in the show for a couple of weeks prior to the 25th anniversary show at the O2.  Alfie said that he had had a great experience, loved every minute of his new venture into the world of musicals as he’d not really done much in the West End before that.  He made friends immediately amongst the cast which as Alfie says was “a blessing, it stuck with me for a long time.  They helped me, supported me in my interpretation of the role and character.  A wonderful experience”.

Of course, performing an iconic role like Jean Valjean means a lot of pressure to be wonderful every night but also brings the opportunity to sing an incredible score every night which inevitably gets an incredible audience response.  When asked to choose his favourite JVJ song, I felt that Alfie could easily have chosen them all and indeed mentioned the epilogue, the soliloquy and of course his signature tune, Bring Him Home.  Alfie says “Bring Him Home is the song that everyone turns to but for me, one of the greatest moments to express true emotion and strength is towards the beginning of the show in the soliloquy.  It’s a real embracing of emotion, expressing the emotion to the audience.  I put a lot into those moments, anxiety, fear, passion to reach an understanding of who he is as a character, so I really like that moment in particular.  Also, at the end of the show, the epilogue is a beautiful piece , when he’s realising he’s close to death, coming to the end of his life, I really enjoyed singing those moments too”.  Here is Alfie at the Royal Variety Performance 2010:

Although JVJ is our focus here, Les Mis is a show full of outstanding songs so I was interested in asking the JVJ’s I interviewed if they had a favourite song by another character.  Alfie chose Stars by Javert and revealed that he’s actually quite jealous that he doesn’t get to sing that song in the show himself!  He also chose Norm Lewis as his favourite Javert, saying “I’ve heard it sung by so many Javerts but the one that sticks in my mind is Norm Lewis at the 25th anniversary and also Earl Carpenter [which is handy, seeing as he’s in the Broadway show!].  Those are the two guys who stick in ,my mind, their rendition of that song, very talented singers”.

Thanks Alfie for a lovely interview – I’ve quoted most of his answers without editing as I found I didn’t need to add or remove anything, his answers were perfectly eloquent by themselves.

The next JVJ interview is Dan Koek and you can find it on Monday 12th October.

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Club 24601: 30 Years of Jean Valjean

The time has come, the day is here and Les Miserables is shortly to celebrate its 30th anniversary.  This also means thirty years of Jean Valjean and a considerable number of actors who have portrayed one of the most challenging roles in modern musical theatre.  Some have played the role for a short time, some played the role for a number of years and I spoke to some of the more notable names (mainly in the London production) over the past few months to get a feel for what it’s like to play such an iconic role.

In no particular order, thank you to Alfie Boe, Peter Lockyer (the current London JVJ gave me the title to this piece: Club 24601, a very exclusive club), Geronimo Rauch, John Owen-Jones, Simon Gleeson (currently in the Australian production and to lead the Manila show in 2016), Hans Peter Janssen, Peter Karrie, Dave Willetts and Dan Koek for being so generous with their time.    The role is famously challenging in all sorts of ways and something I was interested in was how the actors changed their interpretation of the role as their run got longer or in some cases, when they returned at a later date.  For John Owen-Jones, being the youngest ever JVJ at 26 meant that the emotional challenges of the role took on new meaning when he returned a few years later.  He says “I had a more rounded outlook on life and more life experience to draw on when I was older. I had two children in the intervening years and suffered some loss in my family and had grown up a lot. I therefore was naturally able to give the character more depth and I like to think my approach to interpreting the role was more mature than when I was 26”.  Hans Peter Janssen, who played the role in London from 2000 – 2003 agrees with John: “I matured in my portrayal…especially in my understanding of JVJ as an older man”.  In contrast, Geronimo Rauch who had previously played the role in Spain said the biggest difference for him in returning to the role was the language; a phone audition with Cameron Mackintosh to see if his English was good enough obviously did the trick as he then got the London job.

This piece has been some time in the works and when I interviewed Alfie, he had yet to start on Broadway.  As we know by now, Alfie Boe as Jean Valjean in New York has been a runaway success but Alfie’s focus back in July was on the production as whole.  He explained that “the main difference is that the production is completely different, it’s not the same show I performed in the West End.  Although the music is the same, the structure of the show, the choreography of it is different.  I’m so excited to embrace the new direction of the role”.  Alfie also mentioned that “although I’m a little more known than I was back then, I’m not focused on that.  I’m just focused on doing the job, doing it properly, performing each show I’m in to the highest standard”.  Judging from the reviews so far, Alfie, you’re certainly doing that!

Peter Lockyer said that JVJ is the “best role in musical theatre” as it “goes through so much of life; everything is there on stage” and again, this is reflected in the experiences of the other actors.  When asked about the best thing about playing JVJ, every single interviewee cited the emotional, vocal and physical challenge to do the part justice.  Simon Gleeson mentioned “sharing the scope of the the story with an audience” and Peter Karrie (1986 for three years) said that he found the role “very satisfying as an actor and a singer”, something that was repeated by all the interviewees.  Another common link is the music – all the actors mentioned the joy and privilege of being able to sing such an amazing score night after night.  Of course, that incredible score can also be one of the downsides to the role; John Owen-Jones compared it to “climbing a mountain if you’re not 100%” and Dan Koek (2013-2014) said that the “pressure to always be amazing is hard, especially if you’re tired”.  The last word on this goes to Geronimo though, who when asked what the worst thing about the show was answered that it was very demanding but “at least we don’t have to dance as well”.  That really would be something to see, a dancing JVJ!

Thirty years of Jean Valjean, one of the most iconic roles in musical theatre, has given us some wonderful musical moments –  all the Valjean’s interviewed mentioned the incredible score as the high point of their time in the show and I wanted to pinpoint their favourite songs: would they all choose differently?  Without exception, Bring Him Home cropped up, but as a given; no one who performs the role would say anything else I suspect.  However, several of the Valjean’s (Alfie, Dan Koek, Dave Willetts, Peter Karrie and Geronimo Rauch) also chose the same second favourite, the Soliloquy.  As Dave Willetts (1985-6 as understudy and then took over from Colm Wilkinson) says, this song shows “the journey of the character of Valjean” and in Alfie’s words, it shows “what Valjean has become and what he has come from, a chance to show the anxiety, fear and passion of the character”.  John Owen-Jones chose Bring Him Home as a singer and Who Am I as an actor whilst Peter Lockyer named the Epilogue as one of his favourite moments.  Alfie also mentioned the emotional intensity of the Epilogue but I got the feeling he would have named all his songs as his favourite!

Six months ago, when I started researching and interviewing this piece I had a good idea of how I wanted it to turn out.  I thought that there would be enough material for an interesting look at the different portrayals of Jean Valjean over the years but I never thought there would be so much material that I couldn’t use it all!  Several hours of interviews meant that there was enough material to publish this piece five times over, so I’ve decided to publish each interview in full, starting with Alfie himself, on a weekly basis.  If you want a sneak preview of Alfie’s interview, make sure you’re a subscriber – you get it ahead of everyone else so check your emails shortly for the password.

Tomorrow we get to hear if we got lucky and won tickets for the 30th anniversary gala – come and tell us if you won!

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Alfie Boe to Appear in Les Mis 30th Anniversary Gala!

Yes, you read that right – Alfie Boe will appear at the 30th anniversary performance of Les Mis in London on 8 October.  You may not be all that surprised at this news as Alfie’s Broadway dates were so recently changed.  Other famous Jean Valjean’s will also be appearing including the very first one, Colm Wilkinson and more recently, Geronimo Rauch and John Owen-Jones.  Frances Ruffelle and Roger Allam have also been announced.

The best news for fans is that there will be a large number of tickets available in a mobile lottery and charity auction – the money raised will be donated to Save the Children’s Syria Children’s Appeal.

Cameron Macintosh said “Having already had so many requests to attend this very special anniversary performance, we know we could sell this performance many times over. We are limited by the capacity of the Queen’s Theatre and the number of invited guests who have been involved over the 30 year history, but we wanted to make over 40% of the house available to fans. The only fair way we can get these tickets out to the fans is through a lottery. Everyone involved in Les Misérables also wanted to take the opportunity to raise as much money as they can through the distribution of tickets towards the Save the Children Syria Children’s Appeal.”

The mobile lottery will be live online from 12 noon on Friday 25 September and can be found by clicking on www.lesmis.com/30 – if you enter, good luck!

Let’s remind ourselves of the 25th anniversary concert:

If you’re lucky and get tickets come back and let us know!

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Fans Top Ten Alfie Moments

The summer concerts are over and Alfie is in the US to start rehearsals for Broadway’s Les Mis.  Ramin Karimloo will be a hard act to follow but I’m sure Alfie will do us proud – look out for the first night review in September.

Now, in case us Alfie Boe fans are likely to be ever so slightly down in the mouth and suffering from post Alfie concert syndrome, here’s a little something to keep you entertained.  Back in March, I asked you what your top Alfie moments were and you responded enthusiastically as always.  My top Alfie moments included meeting Alfie and hearing him sing Addio Signi di Gloria at Classic FM Live – click here to see the rest.

So, in no particular order, your top ten fan moments are:

  • Nancy Webb meeting Alfie at the Utah concert in March this year and getting a photo.
  • Pauline Partridge meeting Alfie unexpectedly outside the Blackpool Opera House and getting a photo.
  • Marie meeting Alfie (again unexpectedly) in the bar of the Radisson Hotel, Glasgow after the Scottish Proms in the Park, 2013.
  • Alfie giving his drumsticks to Linda W on the Bring Him Home tour 2011.
  • The red carpet of the Classic Brits 2013 – Alfie bypassed the waiting press and came straight over to see The Two Linda’s and me.  Later that evening he tweeted a photo of the 40th birthday card we had given him.
  • Cecelia meeting Alfie outside the stage door of the Royal Albert Hall on the Storyteller tour and getting a photo (thanks to Nikki Lewis) – two actually as she spoiled the first one by giving Alfie a peck on the cheek!
  • Pat, Janet and Cecelia seeing Alfie at breakfast the day the Azura cruise departed.
  • Bring Him Home with John Owen-Jones at the Royal Albert Hall.

  • Love reign O’er Me live for the first time.

  • That show stopping moment when Alfie sang with the Jean Valjean Quartet at the Les Mis 25th anniversary concert – aka the moment most of us were Boed.

You picked some amazing top Alfie moments – again got goosebumps when watching the 25th anniversary video.  Other than that, the top moments show how generous Alfie has been when meeting fans – at the Royal Albert Hall on the Storyteller tour, Alfie was actually in the car on the way home when he stopped and got out to sign autographs and have photos.

If you have any more fan memories you’d like to share, please leave a comment – we’d love to see them.

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John Owen-Jones in Japan

I recently caught up with the ever lovely John Owen-Jones for an article about Les Mis (you’ll have to wait a while for that, sorry!) and he mentioned that he would be travelling to Japan in the near future for a couple of concerts.  The repertoire will be mainly musicals with songs from his last couple of albums thrown in…Rise Like A Phoenix should be amazing live.  Tokyo will feature a band but Osaka will have a much more intimate feel with John accompanied by just John Quirke on piano.

 

JOJ japan

During the interview, John talked about a few new projects coming up, one of which involved directing!  Sounds intriguing.

In case, Japan is a long way to go for a concert, John is also appearing at the following UK summer concerts:

Aug 2 – Les Mis v Phantom

Aug 6 – Welsh National Eistedfodd

Oct 23-25 – Broadway to the Bay

John’s album, Rise, is available here:

JOJ Rise

 

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Alfie Boe Delivers a Superb Seaside Prom

A beautiful sunny day, not a hint of rain, just a slight breeze and the lovely seaside setting of Scarborough combined to make a fabulous evening out at the Scarborough Proms.  Not to mention the fabulous company of amazing friends…once we all found each other.  All I can say is don’t mention the trains!

This trip to Scarborough was a birthday treat for the lovely Linda W who so kindly shares her videos and photos with us when she can and although we weren’t entirely sure where we were sitting, we were absolutely certain we weren’t at the back.  Suffice to say when we climbed the seemingly endless steps we were in the very back row!  However, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it meant we could dance about to our heart’s content without getting in anyone’s way whilst also having a fabulous view – lesson learnt that being at the back can sometimes be a good thing, depending on the venue.  There’s a lake in between the stage and the seating area at this venue so being at the front doesn’t necessarily mean being closer to the performers either.

Being a Prom concert, and Armed Forces Day to boot, the evening had a different feel and set list to other shows in this mini UK tour, starting off with some beautiful harmonies from the Military Wives Choir of York.  The National Symphony Orchestra then performed a medley of Les Mis songs before Alfie first appeared to sing Bring Him Home, the first time I can remember hearing this staple at the beginning of a concert.  As usual, it went down a storm.  The musical theatre section then went into Come What May with Alfie duetting with London based American soprano, Angel Blue.  Alfie probably thought he was suffering deja vu from Swansea when Angel first started singing as her microphone failed!  Angel performed several songs throughout the evening including Mio Babbino Caro and Summertime before returning for the finale of  Jerusalem, Rule Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory.  She was absolutely superb with her acting fully complimenting her voice.

The repertoire that Alfie has been singing most recently was curtailed slightly due to this being a Prom concert but he still fitted in Mambo Italiano, Keep Me In Your Heart (which featured a men vs. women singing match – women won due to overwhelming numbers!), Volare (or oh Scarborough) Marechiari, Run and of course Quadrophenia.  The orchestra was bigger for this concert and they contributed magnificently to the epic sound needed for Classic Quadrophenia.  Alfie’s last note on Love Reign O’er Me was spectacular – it will be a long week until the world premiere of this next Sunday.

The evening was rounded off by the traditional Prom sound of Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance with Alfie, Angel Blue and the Military Wives Choir singing Jerusalem, Land of Hope and Glory and Rule Britannia – all accompanied by ferocious flag waving and singing.  My first Alfie concert was Last Night of the Proms in Hyde Park in 2012 and I was there with lovely Linda W so it was doubly nice to be there with her again,  Here is her video of Jerusalem:

Lovely weekend with amazing friends The Two Linda’s, Jan, Carole, Pat, Janet, Paul and Janet, Nikki, Marie, Annie and Pauline.  We also discovered that every single person staying in our (small hotel) was there for the concert and we made some new Alfie friends in the bar afterwards – hello Roger and Barbara and the two from Leeds whose names I don’t know, sorry!

Speaking of names I don’t know – lovely Carole has told me the new guitarist is Al Cherry – and we have seen him before as he was with Emilia Mitiku on the Storyteller tour! No need to keep calling him “the other one” out of Murray Gould, Richard Causon, John Tonks and Dan McKinna!

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On This Day, 25 June 2007, Alfie Boe Sang…

…at the Coliseum in the ill-fated ENO production of Kismet or as Alfie calls it in his autobiography, My Story, “the horror”.  According to Alfie, the production was a nightmare of a project.  The only good thing was the chance to appear on Michael Parkinson’s chat show to sing the show’s most famous song, Stranger in Paradise:

I remember seeing Alfie on the Parkinson show but I was not remotely interested in either him or his voice at that time; it must have been the combination of Alfie, the beard and Les Mis (not to mention the puffy white shirt) that hooked me! I believe this is also how Alfie and Michael Ball became friends…and if that hadn’t happened, Michael would not have been able to recommend Alfie for the role of Jean Valjean for the 25th anniversary concert of Les Mis. So, everything happens for a reason, even if that reason remains a bit unclear at the time!

If you saw Alfie in Kismet, leave a comment with your thoughts on the production – thank you x

Alfie’s My Story, is available here:

alfie autobio

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My Kind of Festival: Alfie Boe at Hampton Court

After the fantastic review of Alfie Boe’s Belfast shows earlier this week, my expectations of his show at the Hampton Court Festival were sky high.  Luckily, along with the weather, he didn’t disappoint.  The evening was glorious, the setting perfection and the company of fabulous friends made it an evening to remember. I suspect it will also be an evening to remember for the poor audience member who popped to the loo at the wrong moment and Alfie stopped the show for her!

And so to the show itself.  Alfie was accompanied by the usual band line up of Murray Gould, Richard Causon, John Tonks and Dan McKinna who were joined by a new guitarist, Al in place of Matt White.  Apologies to Al but I didn’t catch his surname so if anyone has it please let me know!  Launching into A Marechiari and Mamma, the evening got off to a lively start before giving way to the gentler sounds of Parlami D’amore Mariu.  The musical theatre section included a lot of references to Les Mis although the only song included was Bring Him Home.  Alfie jested that he would in fact be singing I Dreamed A Dream but sadly / luckily (delete as appropriate) he stopped himself.  Prior to that, we had Come What May and Being Alive.

It was around this time that Alfie said that he was now coming to the part of the concert that involved him taking his jacket off which he duly proceeded to do…unfortunately, this was the wrong part of the concert and Murray had to point out the order of the set list.  Those in the front row were then able to get a close hand view of Alfie down on all fours as he peered at the set list – they may have recovered by now!  Happily for me, the set list dictated that the next songs were from my favourite Alfie album (and favourite EVER), Trust.  The title song was followed by Keep Me In Your Heart which had us all in fine voice and up out of our seats dancing.  After listening to the song countless times, I can confirm that “the buttons on your blouse” still has the same effect on me.  Here is Linda’s video of Trust and showcases the incredible musicianship of the band (with the biggest shout out reserved for Murray):

As you can see from this, Alfie was at his quick witted best with the audience, taking photos of the band and himself with a lady’s phone…before being beaten to the punchline by an even more quick witted audience member.

Before rounding off the evening with Mambo Italiano and Buona Sera from Serenata, Alfie gave us four songs from the newly released Classic Quadrophenia.  Alfie is one of those rare singers who sound better live than on recording but as the sound of Alfie’s vocals on Quadrophenia sound as if they were recorded live (click here to see what Alfie said about the recording process) I was keen to hear these songs live.  Two of them were already included on the Serenata tour but Sea and Sand and Drowned are new to his live repertoire.  After hearing them live, I can safely say that the lucky ticket holders for the Royal Albert Hall on 5 July will be blown out of their seats by the production.

When the Serenata tour ended in December, I felt that I had seen and heard Alfie at his best.  The repertoire, the range, his stage presence not to mention the voice were all far better than I had previously seen him.  At Hampton Court last night, he again raised his game and was quite simply phenomenal – this was without a doubt the best.  I’ve no doubt that when we revisit the Favourite Alfie Boe Tour poll in 2016 (it’s still open – click here) this mini UK tour will be head and shoulders above the rest.

After singing for almost two hours, Alfie’s encore was a song that he sang for the first time only a few weeks ago but has swiftly become a fan favourite, Snow Patrol’s Run.  Thanks to Linda for sharing:

Classic Quadrophenia is available here:

classic quad

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Beth Ford – A Natural Voice

Although this blog is primarily about the uber talented Alfie Boe, we also like to showcase other music, especially young and upcoming voices who are starting out on their musical journey.  Long term readers will remember reading about a young singer by the name of Beth Ford – I’m happy to tell you that Beth has just launched her website ahead of the release of her debut single later this year.

I caught up with Beth recently to talk about this exciting development in her musical career:

Beth started singing in public with her local church choir, Jigsaw at age 5 and she also had her first solo at this young age!  From then, she has been singing with the Voice in a Million Choir and the Walsall Youth Choir amongst others.  In addition, Beth regularly performs at an Open Mic night in her home town of Bloxwich and always gets lovely comments about her pure, natural voice.  This quite often leads to further performances; most of her appearance invitations can be traced back to those open mic nights.

In this day of reality TV and the seemingly never ending ways of making it to the big time quickly, many people will want to know why Beth hasn’t tried and has no interest in, Britain’s Got Talent or similar.  Quite simply, Beth prefers to hone her talent in a natural progression – she knows she can sing so being told that she can sing in such a public way does not hold any attraction for her.  She wants to make it on her own merits and not just because she appeared on a TV talent contest.  This isn’t the confidence of youth talking either as this quote from Rebecca Newman, The People’s Soprano shows:

‘Beth’s interpretation of these songs is very relaxing and sung with an elegant simplicity – without pretence or ego – which is so refreshing!’

Perhaps surprisingly for a teenager, Beth’s musical influences are mainly musical theatre, especially Les Mis which is how she first came to hear the vocal ability of her main inspiration, Alfie Boe.  Upon seeing the DVD of LM25, Beth was overwhelmed with the music and Boe himself, so much so that her parents got her VIP tickets for Boe’s Bring Him Home tour.  The concert date was December 2011 and Beth soon found that the VIP element involved a meet and greet with Boe before the performance.  Also at that meet and greet was another young singer, Flo Bannigan and Alfie invited the pair to sing Impossible Dream with him at that afternoon’s soundcheck.  To say they were excited was an understatement but the result was beyond their wildest dreams.  The video below shows Alfie and conductor James Morgan exchanging glances of appreciation at Beth’s voice and Alfie was so impressed that he invited the girls to sing in the concert with him.

Beth cites this as the moment that gave her the confidence to further explore and develop her voice; as she says

“if Alfie hadn’t have done that, I would never have had the confidence to keep going”.

As inspiring as this was, that wasn’t the last of Alfie’s generosity.  Beth and family had tickets for Alfie’s concert at Llangollen and when his management got wind of this, they were all invited backstage during the interval.  Beth still has the unopened Mars Bar Alfie gave her!

Now, Beth is starting to take her first steps into the world of recording and releasing which she first got into through her singing teacher Gary Hill who worked at Birmingham Music Academy which has its own recording studio, Progress Studio.  The result was the unreleased I’m Always Chasing Rainbows and Beth is giving you the chance to download and hear her naturally gifted voice – for free!

Click here for Beth’s website and download I’m Always Chasing Rainbows now – hurry, this is a limited time offer!

You won’t regret it but don’t take my word for it, this is what Michael Boe had to say about Beth:

‘So refreshing to hear a young artist really use her natural and unique voice without resorting to vocal gimmicks. This is an artist who deserves to be heard and is certainly one to watch out for in the future. Every note, spot on.’

So, if you’re a fan of soulful female vocalists, visit Beth Ford Music and get the free download I’m Always Chasing Rainbows.  This hasn’t been released…so get it while you can!

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