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Buddy Holly raves on
English performer Alex
Bourne once again dons the famous
Buddy Holly glasses for the
exuberant, high energy show,
Buddy the Musical. It is a
label you would expect to apply to an
ageing rocker of many years standing in
the industry, but Buddy Holly was just 22
when he died. Buddy the
Musical returns to Perth on February
8. Now in its
11th year in London's West End, it seems
no one wants this party to end. Buddy,
described quite simply by London's Sunday
Express as "an absolutely brilliant
musical", is a joyous celebration of the
music that launched an exciting decade of
music revolution. Holly's
career was as prolific as it was short.
Timeless classics like That'll Be the Day,
Peggy Sue, Rave On and Maybe Baby inspired
a whole new generation of music - and
looks. "He made
it easy to wear glasses," John Lennon once
said. It's Alex
Bourne who dons the glasses for the Perth
show. English actor and singer Alex played
the role of Buddy for three years on both
the British and American tours as well as
at the Victoria Palace Theatre in
London. He handed
over the glasses in 1995 to go on to other
musicals, including the West End
production of Only the Lonely, the London
production of Grease, playing Danny Zuko
and, most recently, The Rat Pack, playing
Dean Martin. Now aged
33, Alex claims to be the ideal
advertisement for giving up
cigarettes. He was
nervous about taking on the guise of
22-year-old Buddy again, wondering whether
he had enough energy for the power-packed
role, but he proudly declared from
rehearsals in Adelaide that he was fitter
and stronger since giving up his
pack-a-day habit. It was
"brilliant" to be back to the role of
Buddy, he said in his beautifully
modulated English accent, and "brilliant"
to be back in Australia. "Buddy is
a hard job if your brain's not engaged,
but this show is so full on that you just
can't help getting into it," he
said. "After the
first number you're off and suddenly,
two-and-a-half hours later, the show is
finished and you wonder where the time
went." After the
Perth tour Alex plans to holiday in WA
before returning to London where he hopes
to pick up on another favourite and
already familiar role, as Dean Martin in
The Rat Pack. "I'm so
lucky," he said. "I've got friends in the
business who wish they could be doing the
roles I do. Every night I go to work and
have fun." Buddy the
Musical, with its cast of 25, more than
200 costumes and 28 familiar hits, comes
to the Burswood Theatre from February
8. Bookings
are through BOCS. What's
going on down at the
Watershed Truly 'world' music from
Sydney-based Bulgarian folk-jazz
ensemble, Mara! Despite a similar line-up to French
swing jazz group Paris Combo, whose
Watershed show in the opening week of the
Festival was sold out, Mara! bring a
melding of musical styles drawn from much
further east across the European
continent. Mara! combine and rework musical
influences from Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece
and Hungary, and throw in helpings of
almost anything else. The result is a
truly "world" music experience that has
given international audiences an insight
into the depth and variety of cultural
influence in Australia. The band consists of the charismatic
vocalist Mara Kiek, backed by Llew Miek on
guitar, the Greek bouzouki and the smaller
baglama, double bassist Steve Elphick and
the duo of Paul Cutlan and percussionist
Andrew Robson who together team up on
clarinet and saxophones. Mara! have been recognised nationally
with two ARIA awards, the first for their
1996 CD Ruino Vino, and the second last
year for their CD, Live In Europe,
recorded at the European Broadcasting
Union Festival in the Czech Republic. The band also won the Australian World
Music Award for Best Group in 2001. Mara!'s visit to the Watershed will be
the first opportunity for Perth audiences
to see the band since the 2001 Fairbridge
Folk Festival, where they both performed
and held music and dance workshops. Mara! play one show at the Watershed on
Thursday, February 7, from 8pm. Tickets
are available from BOCS and on the
door.
Francine Reed Reed, who released her latest solo CD I
Got A Right! in July last year, has been
nominated for the W.C. Handy Blues Award
for Best Soul/Blues Female Artist of the
Year, to be presented in May in Memphis,
Tennessee. The nomination puts her up against
other blues greats Etta James, Irma
Thomas, E.C. Hunt and Toni Lynn Washington
and adds to her 1997 nominations for Best
Soul/Blues Female Artist of the Year and
Blues Song of the Year, arising from her
second solo release, Can't Make It On My
Own. The Handy Awards, named in honour of
legendary blues composer W.C. Handy, are
presented annually by the Memphis,
Tennessee-based Blues Foundation, whose
mission is to promote and preserve blues
music throughout the world. Reed began her vocal career as a young
gospel singer in Chicago before moving to
Phoenix, Arizona where she established
herself in local jazz clubs. She then
began working extensively as a back up and
duet singer, and became best known for her
regular work with country music artist
Lyle Lovett. In 1994, Reed branched out on her own
with a debut solo CD, I Want You To Love
Me, which gained her immediate
recognition, and became the first step in
establishing her as a powerful vocalist in
her own right. Once described by blues artist Bonnie
Raitt as a "national treasure", Reed's
live reputation is strong. She has
performed with an impressive array of
artists, including Lovett, Willie Nelson,
Smokey Robinson and Miles Davis, as well
as her current co-nominee for the Handy
Award, Etta James. Reed says that while she has always
worked hard to produce records that embody
the passion and energy of a live
performance, she prefers the live
dynamic. "I have a tendency to be more
improvisational and feed of the musicians
and the crowd, and I can kick it up a
notch", she says. "But how that comes about, I really
don't know. I just open my mouth and sing
from the heart." Country
singers are
mustering Country music has adopted a whole new
image and is attracting a new and younger
audience along with its trendy young
players - and they're heading for
Perth. Australian country music stars Adam
Brand, Adam Harvey, Beccy Cole and Gina
Jeffreys along with legendary Lee
Kernaghan, John Williamson and Smokey
Dawson will take centre stage at the third
annual Perth City Muster at the Claremont
Showgrounds on Saturday, February 23. Beccy Cole won female vocalist of the
year at Tamworth's Golden Guitar awards
last weekend, while Adam Harvey took off
the awards for best male vocalist and
album of the year for what had already
been declared as the most important album
of his career, Workin' Overtime. In little more than two years
Perth-born Adam Brand, named by Cleo
magazine as "Australia's sexiest country
singer", has become part of the Australian
country music hierarchy with his first
album near platinum and a second that's
gone gold. His newest album, released on January
14, raced straight on to ARIA's top 10
list and has stayed there. He sums up the attraction for country
music: "Country is totally lyric-based,
the story always comes first, every time.
And you don't have to born on a sheep
station to understand the songs. It's
often about the man next door..." The line-up of country music stars
along with a Beaut Ute competition,
sideshow alley, food stalls, exhibitions
and displays, City Muster is an event the
whole family can enjoy. The first
performance starts at 3.30pm Win! POST Impressions has five double passes
to give away for City Muster on February
23, and five CD packs for runners-up. To be in the running to win a double
pass or CD pack, send an envelope with
your name, address and daytime contact
number on the back, to City Muster, POST
Newspapers, 2 Keightley Road East,
Subiaco, 6008. The competition closes on February 11
and winners will be notified by phone. Copyright © 1999 - 2006 Post Newspapers Pty Ltd. All rights reserved. |
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