Wednesday 31st October 2007

Last year on October 31st I had my debut at Bertorelli's in Soho as Nick Reeve 'Pianoman', which saw me rekindling the live performance side of my musical career. I remember that Hallowe'en clearly, it had been about 8 years since I was a jobbing public entertainer and I was nervous to sit at that piano stool in front of a random crowd of London diners. I would never have dreamt that one year later, to the day, I would find myself completing a month's residency in Barbados at Lexy's Piano Bar. My journey to get to Barbados wasn't straightforward, the catalyst coming after 9 months performing twice a week in Bertorelli's when they cut their budget which meant a swift farewell to 3 piano players and a DJ. This is not untypical of the risky live entertainment world, and having been on both sides of the fence as a restaurateur and pianoman I'm fully aware how instantly and ruthlessly cuts are made. It was this very situation that prompted me to seek other venues and on route to a Google-discovered piano bar in Kensington, I stumbled upon another one called 'Piano' which is owned by Bazz Norton who offered me a night to try out. This was a success and after a few more nights entertaining the crowds there, Bazz asked me if I'd like to play in Barbados for the month of October. The rest is history, along with the nice little life affirming adage that goes to show how out of unfortunate events better things arise.

Week 4 has concluded and I'm dipping my toes, finger tips and vocal cords into week 5 having learnt, amongst other things, to 'be prepared for the unexpected' as well as to 'go with the flow'. Last night, notoriously quiet Tuesday night, bore this truism out. As usual in the first few nights of the week, I've seen new arrivals come and check out Lexy's and then often return one or more times during the week. Well, last night there were new faces when at around 10.30pm a swarm of about 20 young girls, all about 19 years old, descended on Lexy's with their chaperones. It was like the Spice Girls' reunion, as soon as they were in the bar the volume went up infinite decibels and the dancing never stopped. It turned out that they're the British Army Volleyball Team and they certainly had some energy! They lynched the area round the piano and requested their songs like a gaggle of excited teenagers ordering their first Happy Meal at MacDonald's - I think I earned my 5 gold stars! The girls were brilliant fun and sang along to everything which mainly consisted of Take That, Oasis, Robbie and more Take That. Not to forget the ballsy performance of 'Big Spender' by their coach!

I have my last night behind the piano at Lexy's tonight and there have been a few 'threats' by the staff that I'll probably end up quite drunk as is tradition for the pianoman's swansong. I am not looking forward to or planning getting on a plane with a dreadful hangover!

The experience here has been fantastic, from the baptism by fire of the first week (especially the first Friday night) to the wonderful staff at Lexy's to the ever-changing faces in the audience to the random guest singers to the tropical island life to, my highlight, working with my new friend and incredibly talented drummer, Max Taylor. He threw a soiree at his home on Monday and regaled more intriguing and fascinating stories of his life in music, it's quite bizarre when some someone starts a story with 'I was at this party in the 80s with Mick...' and he is talking about Sir Mick Jagger. Max and I have struck a great musical relationship and friendship, proof of this is that he wants to come down tonight (not a scheduled or paid night for him) and perform with me on my last night. I am truly touched. He refers to all his relationships with piano players as 'marriages' and so I guess we're getting divorced tonight. Let's hope that we can consider future engagements!

Tuesday 23rd October 2007

Can another week have just gone by? Three weeks in Barbados and island life has certainly captured me, I'm firmly into a routine that's becoming my 'norm'. As mentioned before I play 6 nights a week with Mondays off, and with nearly 20 performances under my belt I can reflect on the experience so far.

St James (which includes both Lexy's and Coral Reef Hotel) is a small parish with an obvious sense of community, one that's expanding mainly through commercial developments such as hotels and related amenities. Last night I was taken out for dinner by Barbara (Lexy's co-owner) and the shared support for neighbouring businesses was clear.

I go to Lexy's each day at 9 (that's 9pm) and finish around 2am, so by the time I've unwound and made the kilometre back to the Coral Reef Hotel I don't tend to get to bed much before 3. Not having to wake up to an alarm each morning is blissful, and then pulling back the blinds and seeing the mid-morning sun shining through the gently swaying palm trees on my balcony.... no complaints there either! After a light breakfast, I might check emails and then head to the hotel beach, nab a sun bed and then take a dip in the crystal clear ocean before laying back with a good book and my beloved iPod. By 2pm the sun is pretty relentless and I take that as my cue to head for shade and lunch before spending some time in the afternoon looking at new songs for the evening or popping to the nearby supermarket and stocking up. Groceries here aren't cheap - nearly is everything imported and vegetables are more expensive than meat. Jam costs over $20 BBD (the Barbados dollar is worth approximately 25p, but still I have never paid a fiver for a jar of jam!). Late afternoons are spent back in the sea and then off to the gym which signifies the beginning of me preparing myself for the 5 hour gig. A decent meal followed by outfit choosing (that can take some time, believe me!) and finally my vocal warm up. I'm out the door at around 8.45pm and at the piano at 9pm - on goes the PA system, a quick sound check and away I go with the first song of the night.

The last week of performances have been great. After the vocal scare the previous week, I think my voice has moved into a new phase and has stayed strong right through the 6 nights. Friday night was the best night so far, not only was it the busiest but the crowd sang and danced until the final number at 2am. I think we finished with a rocking version of "I'm a Believer'. The highlight was, again(!), 'Hey Jude' - nothing can beat the sound of 100 people singing along to 'Na na na na na na na........'.

Tuesday 16th October 2007

Well what a weird and wonderful week I've had. The second week at Lexy's has been a successful one from the quiet midweek nights to the rollicking Thursday, Friday and Saturday affairs. I'm now in the middle of my Barbados experience and finding that I'm learning a great deal about a great many things.

So what have I learnt? Well the main journey I'm going on is how my voice survives, suffers, recovers, dies and gets reborn. Before I embarked on this trip, I had an anxiety about the quantity of singing I would have to do each week and the toll it would take on my vocal cords. Some of this anxiety has been realised, for example, on Friday night as I reached the final set of the 5 hour stint (this set ran approximately from 1.15am until 2am). I realised that my normal/comfortable multi-octave range had been reduced to a gravelly few notes. Up until this point in the evening I had been singing well but then panic set in and this last 45 minute set was one of the toughest sings of my life (it was nothing short of hellish). Not only did I feel that I was sounding horrible but note by note I was becoming more concerned about the damage that I might be doing to my voice for the future. Anyhow, I snuck off home to my apartment at the lovely Coral Reef Club (above) and went to sleep somewhat under a cloud of uncertainty and worry. I woke on Saturday morning and spent my day 'monk-style', politely nodding and making unspoken replies to people that talked to me. As the Saturday evening show drew nearer I did my (so far) ever faithful vocal warm ups and headed with some trepidation to Lexy's. I said to the staff that I would have to take the evening very gently, which they were happy about. However, a miraculous thing happened, once I began to sing and got a measure of what state my voice was in, it soon became apparent that I was in fine voice, dare I say, excellent voice! I was blown away and could not understand the rhyme or reasoning behind this. Ask no questions! Survival!

I've enjoyed getting to know Max (the drummer) better as the weeks have gone on and he is a fantastically out-there, eccentric, worldly-wise, hilarious and not forgetting talented man. During the performances we have been able to develop our silent communication/relationship that allows us to end on the same beat (this is very helpful) and transition into other songs smoothly or mix up beats and play around with arrangements. It's been a ball. A little more insight into Max - he is the drummer of a successful Bajan group called 'Ivory' who had their stab at fame back in the 80s which included being signed to Brian Epstein's (of Beatles fame) record label N.E.M. Max has told me many stories about them being flown around the world to perform and record, Ivory still reunite to perform and are highly respected and popular here. So there have been many occasions where customers have come into Lexy's and had a moment of adulation and nostalgia for Max and Ivory. I feel privileged to be working along side him. Max is also a great singer (he does a superb rendition of 'Hotel California' and came to my rescue the night when my voice disintegrated) and an acclaimed songwriter. He told me about a song he wrote for Ivory that eventually found its way into the hands of the Carpenters' manager, Max was informed that the Carpenters wanted to record his song. So which of their classics did he write? Well, sad to say that four months later Karen Carpenter died and that song never got recorded. As Max philosophically says 'It was not meant to be'.

This last week has brought new songs to my repertoire, including 'In the Air Tonight' (Max does a perfect Phil Collins drumroll just when you want it), 'Ordinary People' by John Legend and not so much a new song but one that we have held off from doing since it is so over performed - 'American Pie' (we finally gave in).

Have had a few guest singers join me including the very gregarious Candy O who grabbed my arm as I walked through the bar on my break and told me she is a 'Blues AND jazz singer' - she came up and did a high-octane version of 'Summetime', also on Sunday night former Miss Barbados came up to sing various show tunes including 'Don't Cry For Me Argentina'. She was a little rusty on the lyrics but made up for it with her heart-felt performance. Great fun!

So there you go - that's week two wrapped up and delivered. Each night is entirely unpredictable from every aspect, so who knows what next week will bring!

[top] The Coral Reef Club  [middle] Playing live  [bottom] Lexy's Piano bar

Tuesday 9th October 2007

Week one done! Six nights of singing and playing from 9pm until 2am is some challenge. I have to be thankful to my singing teacher Natasha for supplying me with a series of vocal exercises to bring a tired voice back into line. And believe me, it needed bringing backafter some of these nights!

To be honest each night has presented different challenges and rewards. In Barbados it's low season so Lexy Piano Bar is not rammed every night, just Thursday through to Sunday. Lexy's is a popular bar in St James and already in the first week I've got to know several of the locals and also some holiday makers, many of whom have made three or four trips to Lexy's so I must be doing something right. I'd particularly like to mention three holidaying couples who had their own special 'romantic' requests: Kay and Simon (honeymooners) - Paul Weller 'You Do Something To Me', Chris and Kate (honeymooners) - Elton 'Crocodile Rock' and Matt and Rachel (new young loves) - The Kaiser Chiefs 'Oh My God'.

At this point I have to give a huge mention to Max, the drummer who joined me on the Thursday to Sunday slots and without any rehearsal we struck up our new band! It's been a pure joy to work with him, he is renowned throughout the island as the best drummer and I would not disagree. Max is a white Bajan in his fifties (I would hazard a guess) and has been involved in music his whole life. And here am I this upstart of a Londoner throwing all sorts of 'weird' and unknown music at him. It was quite funny watching his reaction when I told him we were going to perform Madonna's 'La Isla Bonita', but as a true professional he didn't miss a beat.

It's rapidly becoming clear what pleases the crowds, top of the pops from last week were 'Brown Eyed Girl', 'Faith', 'Crazy' (Gnarls Barkley I'll have you know, its a winner!), 'Hey Jude' and 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love', to name but a few....

The Staff at Lexy's have really welcomed me to their establishment, of course this has nothing to do with the unending supply of Jack Daniels and cokes that seems to find their way to the piano. I have already seen some interesting things from my vantage point at the piano; for example some very curious dancing by scantily clad women who seem to dance the same rhythm to whatever song I play and also customers who are convinced I am 'somebody', I had this one gentleman come sheepishly up to the piano and say to me 'Look famous!' (which of course I did my best to) and as he said this his mate took a photo!

So it's Tuesday night here and I'm about to head off into my second week, will get some photos this week - promise - so you can see that this is all really real!

Friday 5th October 2007

Hi there! So what's going on? Where am I?

Sometimes I haven't got a clue but right now I can tell you that I am the resident pianoman in Barbados' premier music venue 'Lexy Piano Bar' in the beautiful western side of the island. I arrived on Monday 1st October after a last minute call from Bazz at 'Piano' in Kensington High Street (you may be aware of my new gig there) asking if I could go and perform in Barbados for the month of October. I obviously spent a long time contemplating that one as I looked out of the window and saw the dull drizzling autumn skies of London!

So one quick flight on Virgin Atlantic and I hopped the pond to the Caribbean. I'm a few days in and life is sweet!!! 'Lexy Piano Bar' is located in St James on the west coast and is very popular with both locals and tourists. The set up is simple; piano, mic and (from tonight) Max the drummer (can't wait - he is known as the best drummer on the island and has played for the likes of Sir Paul McCartney.... bring it on!). My first few nights have been great fun and have been a test for all my performance skills from vocal and piano ability to audience interaction and satisfying the multiple requests! Last night I even went for 'Grace Kelly' by Mika - anyone who knows that song will know that one practically needs a vice on the 'privates' to reach those top notes!!

I'm really enjoying getting in the swing of things here and building my repertoire, it's incredible the power of some songs - I have to say I cannot underestimate the power of Oasis' 'Wonderwall' and Marc Cohn's 'Walking in Memphis', not to mention nearly every Elton classic....... gifts from beyond the realms of normality!

The bar has been frequented by many a famous person including Prince Harry and Simon Cowell (last week apparently), so I'll be on celebrity watch for all you gossip lovers! Life is great here - the sun is glorious, the sea warm and I get to do what I love each night.

Wow.