Blake - A Classic ChristmasBritish vocal trio BLAKE release ‘A Classic Christmas’, a collection of timeless Christmas songs, featuring a fabulous duet with Dame Shirley Bassey - ‘The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)’UK release November 20th 2015
Featuring ‘The Christmas Song’ with Dame Shirley Bassey
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British vocal trio BLAKE release ‘A Classic Christmas’, a collection of classic festive songs with Hollywood-style arrangements and BLAKE's famous, award-winning vocal harmonies. This is an album with a vintage festive party feel & silver screen glamour, bringing back memories of many Christmas pasts and will be enjoyed for many years to come. ‘A Classic Christmas’ features timeless Christmas songs including ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’, ‘Frosty The Snowman’ and ‘Let It Snow’ – and a percentage of the sales of the entire album* will go to Variety, the Children’s Charity.
In addition to the vocals of BLAKE (Ollie Baines, Humphrey Berney and Stephen Bowman), the album also features a fabulous duet with Dame Shirley Bassey - ‘The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)’ – which is Dame Shirley’s first ever Christmas song. Already tipped for the Christmas Number 1 spot, the song will be the soundtrack for the upcoming festive season with soaring strings, swoonsome harmonies and, of course, Dame Shirley’s distinctive voice.
“I would love to have a Christmas number one,” she revealed at the recording of the single’s video in a North London studio. Talking about the collaboration Dame Shirley recalls: “Blake sang Moon River at my 70th birthday party, and then we met again at the reception of [the charity] Variety’s 70th anniversary six months ago. Ollie mentioned singing a Christmas song together, and I said I’ve never done a Christmas song before!” After recording the song she said “I was quite overwhelmed because it just fits my voice so well. I was amazed how well our voices blended.”
BLAKE are known for their ability to perform a huge mix of genres, using vocal harmonies to create their classic sound and that's exactly what they have achieved in this album. “We wanted to create an album which would be distinctively BLAKE and we've achieved that. It's been a great album to record and we do think it's a classic Christmas album” says Humphrey. In addition to creating new arrangements of the more well-known songs, BLAKE have enjoyed arranging and recording songs that perhaps are less familiar including ‘Little Saint Nick’ (Beach Boys), ‘I’ll Be Home For Christmas’ (Bing Crosby) and ‘Christmas Time Is Here’ (Charlie Brown/Snoopy). Produced by Ollie Baines, the album also features an original song ‘Back In Your Arms For Christmas’, written by BLAKE, with lyrics that are rather poignant and draw inspiration from people the trio know who have in recent years been away from home at this time over Christmas, particularly friends who have been in the forces and based overseas. “I think we have made a record that really captures the spirit of Christmas” says Ollie, adding “when we were recording and mixing it, my overriding feeling was “If someone wrote a musical about Christmas, what would be in it?” I think this has that feeling written all over it.”
‘A Classic Christmas’ has been funded through crowdfunding site PledgeMusic. *Part of the money raised through the Pledge campaign will go to the charity Variety, with Stephen saying “We are ambassadors of Variety, The Children’s Charity, and were reunited with Dame Shirley at Variety’s gala event this year, so it is fitting that a sizeable donation is being made from the funding of the album to the charity. The work that they do for disadvantaged children in the UK is absolutely essential, and we are very proud to be associated with them.” Dame Shirley is also supporting a children’s charity with the release of the single “It’s so lovely to finally get to release a Christmas song, and my royalties will go to Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital, in Cardiff.”
Tracklisting: 1. The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) 2. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! 3. Christmas Time Is Here 4. Frosty the Snowman 5. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas 6. It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas 7. Little Saint Nick 8. Walking in the Air 9. In the Bleak Midwinter 10. O Holy Night 11. I’ll Be Home for Christmas 12. Back in Your Arms (For Christmas) 13. Silent Night
BLAKE will be touring the UK, in November and December spreading festive cheer across the land. The tour will start in Portsmouth on November 20th and conclude in Southend on December 19th. The BRIT award winning trio will be performing Christmas songs with the warmth that only their rich vocal harmonies can deliver. They describe the show as an “all out Yuletide journey, through warm cosy fireside moments in our finest Bing Cosby festive jumpers, through to big anthemic classics where snow will actually fall inside the theatre!”
After eight years entertaining audiences around the world this will be the first time the classically trained group embark upon a Christmas tour. It will be a spectacular evening, where the group will be joined by fantastic choirs to back up their harmonies, as well as beautiful video projections of Christmas nostalgia. They’ll even be doing a ‘virtual duet’ with Dame Shirley Bassey, projected on the screens behind.
NOVEMBER
20TH KINGS THEATRE, PORTSMOUTH 023 9282 8282 27TH CONNAUGHT THEATRE, WORTHING 01903 206 206 DECEMBER
2ND KENTON THEATRE, HENLEY ON THAMES 01491 575698 3RD MALVERN THEATRES, MALVERN 01684 983277 4TH VENUE CYMRU, LLANDUDNO 01492 872000 6TH GWYN HALL, NEATH 0300 365 6677 8TH SOUTHHILLPARK, BRACKNELL
01344 484 123 10TH THE CORNERSTONE, DIDCOT 01235 515144 12TH THE GRAND, CLITHEROE 01200 421599 13TH THE BRINDLEY THEATRE, RUNCORN 0151 907 8360 17TH THE ROYAL HIPPODROME THEATRE, EASTBOURNE 01323 802020 19TH PALACE THEATRE, SOUTHEND 01702 668026
BLAKE have an impressive CV of achievements including several No. 1s, multi-platinum selling albums and over 150 TV appearances, as well as having won a Brit Award for Album of the Year. Famous fans include Keira Knightley, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey and Will Smith. The trio tour constantly and take part in a vast amount of charity work, from performing for the Queen and Prince Harry at the Festival of Remembrance and the launch of the Walking With The Wounded South Pole Challenge, to working with the ‘Sing to Beat Breast Cancer’ Choir. Other charities they have supported include Help For Heroes, The British Legion and MIND. They have fans worldwide, which has sent them on tours to the Philippines, South Korea, Barbados, Russia, and even at the White House in the US.
For more information contact info@republicmedia.net / +44 20 3213 0135 November 11, 2015 11:02am ET by Republic Media |
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