What’s new pussycat (doll)?

Round & About

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Henley Festival

Festival season isn’t far away, and Henley Festival has just announced its line up for 2024

2024 has only just got its feet under the table and we’re already looking forward to basking in the sun, having a few cheeky ones, and having a proper knees-up in a field. That’s right, festival season is looming on the horizon like a glitter-filled, good-time cloud; which is preferable to the rain-filled, dark and pendulous kind that we’re used to. Obviously.

Henley Festival have wasted no time in announcing their headliners for this year’s event, and we have to say, it’s looking impressive already. Opening the festival is Pussycat Doll, Masked Singer panellist and Sunset Boulevard star, Nicole Scherzinger.  

Eurythmics co-founder Dave Stewart is set to captivate the Floating Stage audience with ‘Dave Stewart’s Eurythmics Songbook’. It’s been a full 41 years since the release of Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This), so expect that particular tune to get an airing.

From one icon to another…the Empress of Soul, Gladys Knight will be heading to Henley on the Friday night, and sadly, it will be the final show of her UK Farewell Tour. At least we’ll have the chance to say goodbye to a genuine legend who, along with The Pips recorded some of the greatest music of the 20th Century.

As the sun goes down on Henley Festival’s Friday evening Rylan will be DJing and entertaining the crowd with a trademark larger-than-life performance! It doesn’t feel like 10 years since he lit up the ninth series of The X Factor, but apparently it is. He’s now one of the UK’s most loved broadcasters, and we’re always a bit partial to his appearances on Celebrity Goggle Box.

The House Gospel Choir is exactly what it sounds like: an exhilarating mix of Gospel and House. Worshipping at the altar of dance they find the place where spirituality and the euphoria of the dancefloor come together –  amped up further by a full house band and percussion from the one and only Dezy Bongo, creating an effortless live fusion of the biggest house and gospel tunes that never fails to raise the roof.

Keeping the rave going will be no problem on Saturday evening as Ministry of Sound Ibiza Anthems with Ellie Sax take to the Floating Stage presenting the anthems that have sound-tracked everyone’s most iconic Ibiza moments.

Also confirmed for this year are classical music’s most famous Aston Villa fan Nigel Kennedy and the king of lockdown cover versions Sam Ryder. With some top names gracing the comedy stage (Mark Watson, Sara Pascoe, and Dara Ó Briain) Henley Festival is shaping up to be one of the highlights of the summer.

You can get tickets here.

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Star Q&A: Katherine Jenkins

Liz Nicholls

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Henley Festival

Liz Nicholls chats to mezzo soprano Katherine Jenkins OBE ahead of her performance at Henley Festival, 6th-10th July.

Q. Hello Katherine! You’ve performed for popes, presidents and princes as well as that wonderful Jubilee performance for The Queen. Which of these, if any, has made you the most nervous? “I was nervous the very first time I performed for The Queen, at the Festival of Remembrance in Albert Hall, especially because you have the afternoon performance then The Queen comes for the evening performance which made me more and more more nervous! And as I’ve become more of a fan over the years I’ve actually become more nervous. You never get blasé about singing for her. Anyone backstage at these events who says ‘oh I’m not that bothered’ I just don’t believe them! The Queen always makes me want to do my best. Because of the admiration I have for her I think that it makes me want to pull out my best performance because that’s what she deserves.”

Q. You’ve met The Queen several times – how have you found her? “I’ve just always found her to be really warm and really good at knowing what to ask you, very interested in what you’re up to. When you see her at formal events but she’s quite witty and funny. I’m a real fan. I’ve grown up in a household who are real fans of hers. And I think as I get older the more I meet her the more I’m impressed by her and admire her – I think she’s an amazing woman. With the celebration at Windsor the whole audience were so thrilled to see her and be in her presence. It was incredibly emotional in terms of seeing that love for her. I remember once being at Buckingham Palace for an event to help musicians at Christmas, being in a line-up next to Brian May and she said oh yes you’re the one who keeps making all that noise on my roof! She’s very quick – she’s made some very funny comments over the years.”

Q. Are you looking forward to Henley Festival and are there any other acts you want to catch? “I listen to all kinds of music. I very much like Craig David [who stars on 7th July], I think Tom Jones is on on the Friday [8th July]. He’s a friend of mine. The thig is about Henley is I’ve been there as a performer and I’ve been there as an audience member. And it’s so much fun as an event that I don’t think I can allow myself to go prior to me performing, if I want to sing well on the Sunday. I want to be in good voice. I do go every year but this is my third time performing. I went last year for Sophie Ellis Bextor. I’ve seen Tom Odell. Whether you’re in the audience, or a performer, there just isn’t an event like it. It’s such a cool occasion, including the fact that the audience are better dressed than you are – it’s a very quintessential British event and I’m excited. I have friends who live in the area, I love the beautiful countryside around there.”

Q. You are an inspirational charity patron & ambassador – is helping others something that was instilled in you by your parents? “Definitely. One of my early memories at primary school was my mum fundraising for a minibus. She never sat still, whether it was for the school or church, there was always some kind of fundraising. I think when you see that at a young age you do inherit that. I’m so grateful that she did give us that sense of responsibility. If you have any kind of success in any field you should pay the good stuff forward. There’s a lot of different charities that are near to my heart but I try to choose ones I can make a difference in.”

Q. What’s your first memory of music? “My mum teaching me I’m a Little Teapot and standing there singing that for anyone who came into our house, putting on a show. When I think of my childhood, I feel like there’s a soundtrack, a lot of church music, male voice choirs, all those opportunities that come with growing up in south Wales. I look back and wonder: would I be in this position today if I hadn’t had that around me?”

Q. Are there any up-and-coming music stars you love? “I work with quite a lot of singers that are coming out of the Royal Academy of Music. Quite a lot of young singers have reached out to me for advice, about the business, how to get a job, and I’m so happy to help out. It’s a very small industry and. Mum and I didn’t believe it was going to happen for me because we didn’t know anyone in this industry, the entertainment sphere at all. So if I can help with connections and advice than I’m so happy to do that. But I can’t choose one to sing the praises of because that would be too hard!”

Q. What’s your favourite book? All the books I’m reading at the moment are parenting books. I have a daughter who’s nearly seven and I’m constantly reading to get ahead of the next stage.”

Q. If you could make one wish for the world what would it be? “Kindness – that’s the root of everything. That we can be kind to each other, to the planet – remember that we’re custodians of it, pass it on. Let’s be kind to ourselves and each other.”

Visit henley-festival.co.uk

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Bjorn Again

Round & About

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Henley Festival

Bjorn Again are set to shine at the black-tie cultural extravaganza that is Henley Festival on the banks of the River Thames, between 10th & 14th July

One of this year’s headline act started out with a pub gig in Melbourne which had an audience of 350, from just a chalkboard outside the pub that day in 1988.

Scripted and choreographed as a tongue-in-cheek satirical parody of ABBA, the show rapidly achieved cult status. Having been acknowledged by Bjorn Ulvaeus as being the show which single-handedly initiated the ABBA revival in the late 1980s early 1990s, the Bjorn Again show is hailed as the most popular and successful show of its type. Now, just over 30 years later Rod Stephen, who founded the group brings Bjorn Again to the Henley Festival.

Growing up in Australia, who was the first band Rod remembers following and seeing live? “I was probably more into the rock scene than music like Abba,” he says. “The main group who I liked at the time started off as a New Zealand group Split Enz (you probably know them better as Crowded House); it was not just their musicality and vocals, but also, they opened my eyes to the theatricality of pop music. I remember seeing them once live and the entire stage looked like a front room, the keyboard player was playing with a standard lamp behind him.”

So, how did the idea of an ABBA parody band come about? “It was 1988, and none of the groups I had been in amounted to anything. I felt like doing something different and thought of a parody band. I had three choices, Queen, The Beatles or Abba, growing up in the 1970s I had the flared trousers so picked Abba. I got together a group of musicians and we spent months rehearsing and watching videos of Abba, then came our first gig. It was at a pub in Melbourne, and the only publicity was on the chalk board outside, “Abba tribute band here tonight”. We had 350 people in, they couldn’t hold any more! We were invited back the next month, and before we knew it, we were performing quite a few nights of the week in either Melbourne or Sydney and the media picked up on us.”

Is this your first time in the Thames Valley, or indeed floating! “I think it is the first time we have appeared at the Henley Festival, and we’ve performed on floating stages though I hope it doesn’t put us too far from the audience. We did make an appearance just up the Thames at the Reading Festival in 1992. I had this call from my agent to say we were needed to play the Reading Festival, and I said needed, why? Apparently, it was one of the late Kurt Cobain’s requests that we open for Nirvana. It was a great gig and that night we really rocked the Abba hits. To this day, I can still remember the cheers of the crowds.

What can the crowds at the Henley Festival look forward to? “All the great well-known Abba hits and some of the others they can sing along to. With Bjorn Again in authentic costumes, hopefully we can get everyone dancing in the aisles.”

Henley Festival

Bjorn Again are on the floating stage on Saturday, 13th July; visit the website

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Homegrown heroes

Round & About

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Henley Festival

Henley Symphony Orchestra will take centre stage on Saturday, 14th July, at the Henley Festival which Round & About magazine is proud to sponsor this year

Featuring a programme of popular classics from around the world, Henley Symphony Orchestra will play an inaugural concert from 11.30am to 1.30pm, on the “floating stage” as part of Henley Festival.

This is the first of two special classical concerts over the festival weekend; the second being the English National Opera’s concert on Sunday evening.

The HSO, now in its 48th season, continues to attract a wide audience and soloists of the highest calibre. It has given performances in Henley’s twin towns of Leichlingen, Falaise and Bled. Most recently it performed to a full house at the Hexagon, Reading, with the inspirational young cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason playing Elgar’s Cello Concerto.

July’s concert will feature the violinist Min Kym who has performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras and eminent conductors. She will be playing two showpieces with the orchestra; Massenet’s beautiful Meditation from Thais and Sarasate’s scintillating Zapateado.

Under the masterful command of conductor Ian Brown, the orchestra will also perform Dvorak, Gershwin, Marquez, Offenbach and Walton. Tchaikovsky’s iconic 1812 Overture, with its resounding bells and cannon fire – a fitting end to the concert!

Tickets for the concert on 14th are £20 (£10 for under-18s and students). For the full Henley Festival line-up visit www.henley-festival.co.uk

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