Spamalot

What a mad couple of weeks..

Played on the Spice Girl's new single, recorded at Abbey Road, then the next day we did our first quartet recital of the season, at St Olave's Church in the City. We played Elgar's only String Quartet and the Bax G major. We have recorded both works on a disc which is being released on November 19th on the Discrete label. I am busy writing to radio presenters at Classic FM and Radio 3 asking them to consider playing it! Currently surrounded by pile of padded envelopes, CDs and stamps. But have no internet at the moment, so have set up work in a corner of my local bar, where they have wireless internet!

The day after the recital, I played in Fiddler on the Roof again, then my niece came to stay for the weekend and I took her to the Open Air Theatre in Regents Park. We watched 'The Boyfriend' and we loved all the 20s music and costumes, not to mention the dancing. We were lucky- it was the last performance of the season, and Dame Judi Dench came on stage at the end to make a presentation. We cornered her in the bar afterwards so Louisa could get her autograph!

The Quartet played at Ronnie Scotts on Sunday 16th. We played in the first set with singer Victoria Hart. I had taken my Dad to Ronnie's for his 60th, and he was delighted to come and watch his daughter (plus honorary daughters in the quartet!) actually play there.

Tuesday 18th - we played at the V and A Museum for the London Fashion Week party. There was a 50s theme, and I spent 2 hours in hair and make-up. Came out looking like Marilyn Monroe. All very well and good, but those icons of the 50s must have done nothing else except their hair all day long.

Spent the day in Cheltenham on the 23rd, being filmed for a video for the band Girl Friday. Then it was my birthday! Two days of celebration, ending with 20 of us going to watch Spamalot in the West End. We had front row seats, and because I play in the band sometimes, I managed to set it up so they picked my poor unsuspecting brother to go on stage!!


Had to recover quickly from all the pink champagne I consumed, for a recording session at 9am the next morning. It was for the 'Lord of the Rings' cast album.

The quartet played at the National Movie Awards aftershow party last night, but the only famous people I spotted were Shane Richie and Ron Weasley from Harry Potter.. Have spent today stuffing envelopes and sorting out the booklet for our Elgar CD. Bryan Adams very kindly took all the photos for the album, and we're really pleased with them - can't wait to see them on the shelves of HMV!

5 am start tomorrow - going to Pinewood studios to play on a video for John Barrowman!