Author: Louise

Motown vs Beautiful!

Motown:
We went to see ‘Motown’ for a second time and I must say, it’s just as incredible a second time around! It’s currently running at the Shaftesbury Theatre in the West End. 

Personally, I love musicals that tell stories, go behind the scenes, giving us as an audience a glimpse into a character’s journey. I love this show for that. It gives us an insight into the creation and development of Motown as a music genre and although it doesn’t go into great depth, the show still includes critical moments of the ‘Motown’ timeline. It also includes classic Motown hits that we all know and love!

Those who know me well, know how much of a ‘voice-geek’ I am.  The vocal performances in this show are flawless. Especially from Cedric Neal, who plays Berry Gordy. Absolutely incredible. The ensemble pieces are amazing too – vocal blending is on point! (Which, of course, made me so happy!)
 Beautiful:
We also went to see ‘Beautiful’ this week, which is currently running at the Aldwych Theatre in the West End. This show is now up there with my favourites.

Again, this show follows a journey. This time about the legendary Carole King… And what an incredible songwriter and artist she is! Like I said, I personally love musicals like this. Not only do we learn things about Carole King’s music career, we learn about her life and the highs and lows that come with being in the music industry. It was also great to learn about the musical journeys of Gerry Goffin, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil as well. 

Both productions are fantastic in their own way. From set, to costumes, to casting, to music and vocal arrangements, to the stories. For me, they’re incredible. 

It’s near on impossible for me to pick a favourite stage show (musical or play) as I love so many things about each one I’ve seen. But these two are up there… with about 10 others!! 

Lou xx

New School: LCA Caterham!

I’m so excited to finally, officially announce that I am opening a THIRD LCA Stage Academy school in Caterham, Surrey. 

I have a very talented team ready and raring to go for the big launch! It all kicks off with a summer workshop at the Soper Hall in Caterham from Monday 21st August – Friday 25th August 2017.

There will then be a big open day to celebrate the opening of the new school on Sunday 10th September, where budding and aspiring young performers can come along and try our musical theatre classes FOR FREE!! 

Check the poster for details:


I’m so excited for LCA’s third year! There’s already things being planned for our performers and new performers who will be joining us!

Lou xx

Performance Showcase, 2017!

Last year, I organised my first ever Performance Showcase which included performances by a number of singers/vocalists I teach, the choir I am MD of (Westerham Local Vocals) and my theatre school, LCA. I set out to make this event an annual showcase and have set the date for its second year! 

This year, the Performance Showcase will be held on Friday 26th May at the Oxted School Drama Studio. It will all kick off at 7pm. The evening will include performances by several singers/vocalists I teach and my wonderful WLV songbirds! (I’m putting together a separate event for LCA performers this year, which will be announced on the LCA Facebook page – www.facebook.com/LCAStageAcademy). 

I’m so excited!


Lou xx








Music Monday: Talk to a Girl – Tim McGraw + Faith Hill

Happy Monday! Here’s my song of the week:
https://youtu.be/4MzJKeMv8co

Lou xx

LCA Summer Workshops!

My theatre school, LCA Stage Academy, is expanding and this year- watch this space for announcements!

We are running FOUR summer workshops in 2017! Which I am SO excited about.. That’s FOUR whole weeks of musical theatre madness with a team of amazing teachers around me and a bunch of wonderful, talented performers!

If you know of any young people who love to sing, dance and act and can make any of the above workshops, send them our way!

www.lca-stage.com

Lou xx

ORFILA: C2C, Bluebird Sessions, Recording Studio… and a Surprise!

It’s been a long time since I’ve uploaded a post like this, however, I thought I’d write a little update of what has been happening in the Orfs world. 
A quick summary/overview of just a few recent ORFILA events: We have been to Yamaha HQ, C2C 2017, Bluebird Sessions, Radio Stations, Recording Studios,  took part in a surprise performance and much more! 

(I will be posting more updates about several other musicy things that are happening but thought I’d start with ORFILA!)

C2C 2017:
It was a dream come true when we played UK’s biggest Country Music festival back in 2016, so being back for a second time was just awesome! We had such a great time! We (either myself, Matt or Abi) were all at C2C at various points over the weekend taking in, what I like to call, the ‘Country-Goodness’, before preparing to play our sets on the Sunday.

Sunday morning was packed with interviews for various radio stations, online blogs, magazines and tv programmes. We were then whisked away to get ourselves ready to play our first set, which was on the Big Entrance Stage, with our second set later on in the day on the Saloon Stage. We had a band for our set on B.E.S this year as we wanted to bring a fuller sound, much like our album, to the stage! We were joined by our good muso-friends, Tom Leary (Fiddle), Anthony Martin (Bass) and Jamie Crompton (Drums). Thank you so much for joining us up there, guys! Thank you to all those who took the time to come and see us or just stopped to listen when we were playing. It means the world to us all and it was so special to look out and see some familiar faces and many new faces in the crowd! Thank you for all the lovely messages and thank you to all those who purchased our album and came to meet us at the signings. It was so good to be back at Country to Country this year. Thank you to the organisers for having us! We had the BEST time!

Just a few pics from the day:

A quick snap of the audience whilst we were on stage:


We visited our friends at Yamaha in the Town Square and took an obligatory action shot… Here we are, the Orfs rocking out!!!


Us with our good friend, James Vince, before we started our signings!


A shot of us on stage… Sporting quite interesting expressions!


Bluebird Sessions:
We were invited to play at the legendary Bluebird Sessions in Kelvedon in Essex. It was a great evening supporting UK country music and we were honoured to share the stage with the wonderful Liv Austen and Ash Cooper. We also got to catch Retreat, Jodie McKay and Steve Young! (Check them out, I’ve added links to their names so simply click away and you’ll be directed to their websites!)

Thank you so much to the amazing Amy Westney for having us. We had such a great evening, full of so much fun, laughter, music and plenty of Country-Goodness!!

Recording Studio!

We went to the studio a couple of weeks ago to record some backing vocals for a good friend of ours, Steve Hewitt! (Again, click on his name and you’ll be redirected to his website!). We had so much fun in the studio with Steve and we are so excited to share the final mix of the song. The track we recorded on is a song called ‘Pieces’, written by Steve, and it’ll feature on his upcoming album. I’ll share it when it’s released. Watch this space! 

Thanks for having us, Steve!

… Surprise!

Another one of our awesome friends, James Vince, asked us to be part of a surprise performance for his mum’s birthday! It was us a Steve Hewitt in the famous ‘Living Room (you guessed it… click and ye shall find!). We played a few songs each and jammed a little too, it was a great evening. Happy birthday, Diane!! 


I shall leave it there for now! I will be posting more updates soon, including news more ORFILA news, news about LCA, Westerham Local Vocals and putting together my second annual Performance Showcase!

Lou xx