Tag Archives: Volare

Friday Round Up with Alfie Boe: No. 7

With the New Year celebrations over for another year, it’s time for our first Friday Round Up in 2015 and the first since before Christmas.  Luckily for us, there was a new interview aired this week on BBC Radio Cornwall.  Alfie was interviewed way back in September by Debbie McCrory and they held the whole hour long interview back until this week – just the thing to banish the post tour blues. Thanks Marcia for sharing:

There’s a lot of chat about Les Mis as you would expect (Debbie had previously interviewed Alfie after the 25th anniversary) and amusing to hear Alfie struggling to say something good about Russell Crowe as Javert.  Damning with faint praise I think it’s called!  Also, some nice chat about Murray (he’s a Cornish lad) and the recording process of Serenata as opposed to Love Was A Dream.  Both were quick but one was considerably quicker!  A nice selection of music from Alfie’s earlier career too although it would have been nice to hear some of the Lehar as it was referenced in the interview.  Radio interviewers do tend to play a varied choice of music from Alfie’s career but Love Was A Dream never seems to get a look in – wonder why?  Slippers story gets another airing too!

In addition, Alfie was a guest on Bruce’s Hall of Fame on 27 December.  He sang Volare in tribute to Dean Martin which was lovely and had us all singing along at home I’m sure (two words at least, just like the tour!).  Alfie was first on which was great as it meant we didn’t have to watch the whole programme if we didn’t want to, although that would have meant missing a cracking turn from Alfie’s mate Jason Manford in tribute to Les Dawson.  Volare was Alfie’s only song but it was on the whole well received (I’m discounting the audience reaction here as they gave every performer a standing ovation) on social media.  Incidentally, interesting to see Alfie respond to people’s rude tweets; even with provocation he is always polite to trolls.  That doesn’t stop him putting them in their place though!  Again, thanks to Marcia for sharing the clip:

Volare is of course from Alfie’s new album, Serenata (available below) which is in the classical top ten for a sixth straight week!

serenata

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Alfie Boe: What Turns Him On

Have I got your attention yet? I thought of a lot of headlines based on today’s Mail on Sunday interview but in the end went for the safe option!!!  Alfie is described as an opera star in the interview about his cultural highlights but at least we’re spared the TVR story!  Click here to read about his first experiences of opera as part of the audience.

The post Christmas weekend has been a good one for Alfie Boe fans – last night saw the showing of Bruce’s Hall of Fame, a one off TV special recorded back in November.  Artists such as Alfie, Jason Manford, Ben Miller, Jon Culshaw, Jamie Cullum and Jessie Wallace performed songs and sketches in tribute to an artist that inspired them in their career; Alfie sang Volare in tribute to Dean Martin and had a chat with Sir Bruce Forsyth (thanks Marcia for sharing):

The song was wonderful (would you expect anything else?) and the chat was as you would also expect!  Would have been nice to get another song from Alfie but it was still fabulous to see him on prime time TV showcasing his latest album – everyone’s a winner!  Just to make us all that bit happier he did tweet after the show too!

Alfie Boe’s Serenata is available now:

serenata

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Alfie Boe: Strictly Radio Wales

This weekend has been a busy one for Alfie; not only did he start his UK Tour in Newcastle and Liverpool but he also appeared on BBC TV’s Strictly Come Dancing:

I don’t think that this slower Volare showed off Serenata or Alfie to the best effect but the dancers were fabulous and the exposure is great for Alfie.

Not satisfied with this, Alfie’s interview with Beverley Hughes on BBC Radio Wales aired last night.  Listening to Beverley interview anyone is always a pleasure as she really does her research and as an opera singer is hugely knowledgeable about music – and here we learnt that Alfie and Beverley both love pilchards for breakfast.

Listening to Alfie talking about Serenata, in particular, Addio Sogni Di Gloria, I was struck by how much Alfie still wants to do in his career; he says that if it all ended tomorrow he would be thankful for everything so far but disappointed in his as yet unfulfilled ambitions.  Also nice to hear him talk about the performance that meant the most…and it’s not the one you might think!  We also got to hear a great selection of Alfie’s songs over the years, with obviously an emphasis on Serenata.

Alfie Boe’s Serenata is available now:

serenata

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Alfie Boe sings The Who

From time to time Alfie likes to surprise fans with new songs (Led Zeppelin’s Rock n’Roll springs to mind) and he again surprised us on Weekend Wogan this morning with a song from The Who.  Love Reign O’er Us was written by Pete Townshend for the 1973 rock opera Quadrophenia and has been a concert staple, on and off for years.

Alfie’s version (again introducing this fan at least, to something new) was breathtaking – gorgeous vocals.  Prior to that, he sang Volare, accompanied superbly by Murray Gould and Matt White, and also by Terry at one point!

Nice to hear Alfie again and great that we can see him on TV twice more this week – Alan Titchmarsh on Tuesday and QVC on Thursday.  Let’s hope there’s much more in the run up to the #AlfieBoeUKTour and #AlfieBoeSerenata.

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Alfie Boe’s Serenata can be pre-ordered below:

serenata

Interview with Morgan Pochin coming…soon!

I will be interviewing Morgan Pochin, the producers and conductor of Alfie’s new album, Serenata.

If you any burning questions you would me to ask, just fill in the form below!

In the meantime, take a look at James’ previous interview – click here.

And here’s what happened in June the last time James met Alfie!

Please share this on twitter – use the hashtag #AlfieSerenata

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Alfie Boe Headlines Symfunny Fundraiser

What a fabulous show James Morgan and Juliette Pochin, aka known as Morgan Pochin, put on this week at Symfunny, proving music and comedy are a natural fit. Although it’s fair to say that Alfie Boe fans were looking forward to seeing him sing live the most (the entire front row was peopled with Alfie fans), the whole evening was a joy from start to finish.

Al Murray proved to be the perfect host for the evening; I had heard that he has a great reputation for quick fire repartee with the audience but had not anticipated being part of it!  I suppose sitting on the front row of a comedy gig does lend itself to being picked on so I was relieved when Al picked on my lovely friend Linda (one of the famous Two Linda’s).  However, my relief didn’t last long as she was asked who she brought with her which then led to me…cue several laughs about teachers (Linda) and school dinners (me).   Still, poor Steve the banker came off far worse although he was a great sport.

Of the other comedy acts, Jason Manford and Armstrong and Miller were my favourites.  The only thing I can possibly say about Armstrong and Miller’s act is that it was fiendishly funny but unmentionable in polite conversation! Suffice to say I will never look at train toilets in the same light ever again.  Jason Manford was also very funny, even if he did call Alfie’s fans “relatively normal”.  However, his best bit came when he sang Volare with Alfie Boe, successfully reducing Alfie to giggles several times which reminded Alfie fans of his days appearing with Alfie on his Bring Him Home tour in 2011 / 2012. Thanks to Linda W for sharing this video (and watch James Morgan when Alfie misses his entrance):

In total, Alfie sang four songs: Wheels of a Dream, which most of us thought we’d never hear live again so thanks Alfie, Mamma, Volare and Mambo Italiano.  A week later and Mambo Italiano is still going round in my head – I don’t think Alfie will have any trouble at all selling huge numbers of his next album, Serenata.  Seeing Alfie and James Morgan work together again on songs they had just recorded was also special.

Other musical highlights were Rebecca Ferguson’s acapella  version of Amazing Grace and Juliette Pochin singing Carmen.  It was a delight to hear Juliette and also to see her and James working together on what has been a highly personal and emotional project.  James and Juliette conceived the idea for Symfunny after James was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson’s just over a year ago.  After keeping it a secret for a while, they finally decided to use their talent and contacts in the entertainment world to raise some money and awareness for this disease.  Just before the interval, the audience was shown a short video of another sufferer of early onset Parkinson’s, Shamsa, and her husband and daughter.  Shamsa was only 28 when diagnosed and her bravery in showing us her life is amazing.  James recorded an audience shout out to her and her husband, Sarfraz, so I hope it made them smile.

The evening was rounded off with Al Murray and Alfie leading us all in a rousing rendition of Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.  The perfect musical end to a concert that began with James conducting Good Vibrations which shows that he at least has a sense of humour about his situation.

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