Thursday, 23 June 2011
Pictures from the 2011 Wold Tour
Attached are some photos from the AK47's recent Ashton Keynes concerts. Some camera shake was noticeable in these and a few rejected pictures, evidence of the barely contained excitement experienced by this photographer at least. The Haul Away Joe pic does suggest that we may be in danger of frightening young children and small dogs.
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
Corsham Fringe Festival - Best performance yet?!
Well who would have thought that we could top our recent performances in AK? And so quickly!
It's been a busy few days on the Magnificent front with three performances in five days, almost a mini tour.
We journeyed down through soggy Wiltshire to the lovely town of Corsham to perform at their Fringe Festival at St Bartholomew's Church. It was another tall order to follow our illustrious leader and his very talented pair of ladies as The Croutons but the blokes rose to the occassion, er, rather magnificently.
Most of us were slightly taken aback when Chris announced a curtailed set, depriving us of doing Haul Away Joe and the now ritual of doning our Pirate garb. There were a few plaintive "Aaars" to try to make him realised that he had skipped this integral part of the show but he was having none of it, last song Down to the River to pray was called so we duely obeyed, if somewhat heavy hearted.
We were very well received by the enthusiastic audience but sloped off back to our seats a little dejected at being deprived from singing one of our favourite pieces, or so it seemed. It turned out that he had just had the brainwave of using the piece as a Grand Finale so we were called back onto the stage to get togged up and wave our swords about intimidating the nice ladies from the Pound Sound crowd - and mighty fine it sounds too! You can here the whole set at http://soundcloud.com/the-magnificent-ak47/sets/corsham-monday-20th-june-2011/
And who will forget the picture of most of the troops sat in a section of the stalls like the angelic little choir boys they once were, except not all dressed in black at the time.
The evening was rounded off by a swift half or two in the Flemish Weaver which included a single round of Tsmidao to one of the ladies in the pub which brought the place to an amazed standstill, and Lisa(Chris' wife) rushing to his side to protect him from the lady in question. All most bizarre but very entertaining.
Roll on next year's event!
P.S. Great trip there and back, thanks to Stuart for driving and buying crisps (along with his milk) on the way back - Rock 'n' Roll ;-)
It's been a busy few days on the Magnificent front with three performances in five days, almost a mini tour.
We journeyed down through soggy Wiltshire to the lovely town of Corsham to perform at their Fringe Festival at St Bartholomew's Church. It was another tall order to follow our illustrious leader and his very talented pair of ladies as The Croutons but the blokes rose to the occassion, er, rather magnificently.
Most of us were slightly taken aback when Chris announced a curtailed set, depriving us of doing Haul Away Joe and the now ritual of doning our Pirate garb. There were a few plaintive "Aaars" to try to make him realised that he had skipped this integral part of the show but he was having none of it, last song Down to the River to pray was called so we duely obeyed, if somewhat heavy hearted.
We were very well received by the enthusiastic audience but sloped off back to our seats a little dejected at being deprived from singing one of our favourite pieces, or so it seemed. It turned out that he had just had the brainwave of using the piece as a Grand Finale so we were called back onto the stage to get togged up and wave our swords about intimidating the nice ladies from the Pound Sound crowd - and mighty fine it sounds too! You can here the whole set at http://soundcloud.com/the-magnificent-ak47/sets/corsham-monday-20th-june-2011/
And who will forget the picture of most of the troops sat in a section of the stalls like the angelic little choir boys they once were, except not all dressed in black at the time.
The evening was rounded off by a swift half or two in the Flemish Weaver which included a single round of Tsmidao to one of the ladies in the pub which brought the place to an amazed standstill, and Lisa(Chris' wife) rushing to his side to protect him from the lady in question. All most bizarre but very entertaining.
Roll on next year's event!
P.S. Great trip there and back, thanks to Stuart for driving and buying crisps (along with his milk) on the way back - Rock 'n' Roll ;-)
Sunday, 19 June 2011
Ashton Keynes Music Festival - back to the Mother Ship
It was an emotional afternoon at Ashton Keynes Music Festival as we returned back to the Mother Ship from whence The Magnificent AK47, or the Spooky Blokes of Ashton as we were known for a little while, were spawned.
It's hard to believe that just about 3 years ago we staggered into the public consciousness, swaying onto the stage on the Sunday afternoon doing a rendition of the Volga Boatman song and then massacred Rawhide and polished off a version of "Vo slav!" to depart to tumultuous applause.
How times have changed. This time we marched on and ran rings round some of the audience to a drill song and then proceeded to wow the assembled throng with "Concrete" (which we must never announce again as it gives away the joke), a fantastic, best ever yet version of "Tsmidao", a glorious confessional version of "No Satisfaction" and finshed off with a audience participartion of "Down to the river to pray". There were some very bewildered looks from some of the younger children but the vast majority of the audience seemed to thoroughly enjoy us.
Chris was delighted with the performance and thought some of the singing was the best we have ever done to date. All very gratifying along with the many, many wonderful comments people have made about us in the last few days.
Onwards and upwards and here's to a great performance at the Corsham Festival tomorrow night.
Well done, lads, your mothers would be proud (in fact mine was!) even if they don't quite understand what's going on!
It's hard to believe that just about 3 years ago we staggered into the public consciousness, swaying onto the stage on the Sunday afternoon doing a rendition of the Volga Boatman song and then massacred Rawhide and polished off a version of "Vo slav!" to depart to tumultuous applause.
How times have changed. This time we marched on and ran rings round some of the audience to a drill song and then proceeded to wow the assembled throng with "Concrete" (which we must never announce again as it gives away the joke), a fantastic, best ever yet version of "Tsmidao", a glorious confessional version of "No Satisfaction" and finshed off with a audience participartion of "Down to the river to pray". There were some very bewildered looks from some of the younger children but the vast majority of the audience seemed to thoroughly enjoy us.
Chris was delighted with the performance and thought some of the singing was the best we have ever done to date. All very gratifying along with the many, many wonderful comments people have made about us in the last few days.
Onwards and upwards and here's to a great performance at the Corsham Festival tomorrow night.
Well done, lads, your mothers would be proud (in fact mine was!) even if they don't quite understand what's going on!
Awesome Village Voices
We have to say what a great evening we had at the Ashton Keynes Music Festival's Village Voices event.
We were flying solo in public performance for the first time so it was with nervous trepidation that we undertook to assignment but we needn't have worried. Whisper it quietly so as not to ruin our reputation, but all the extra rehearsing we have done recently paid off handsomely. Egged on by a very encouraging audience the Blokes rose to the occasion, singing and acting up to great effect.
A prize must go to Jon Hughes who managed to forget his pirate outfit but found a model sailing boat to hold for the performance of "Haul away Joe"! (Although he should be fined for not remembering the correct props). Another highlight was Martin's penguin falling off his arm because he was waving it around so much whilst he was conducting.
We've all had so many complimentary remarks about the show and are looking forward to the Family Prom and then Corsham on Monday. It's all go.
We were flying solo in public performance for the first time so it was with nervous trepidation that we undertook to assignment but we needn't have worried. Whisper it quietly so as not to ruin our reputation, but all the extra rehearsing we have done recently paid off handsomely. Egged on by a very encouraging audience the Blokes rose to the occasion, singing and acting up to great effect.
A prize must go to Jon Hughes who managed to forget his pirate outfit but found a model sailing boat to hold for the performance of "Haul away Joe"! (Although he should be fined for not remembering the correct props). Another highlight was Martin's penguin falling off his arm because he was waving it around so much whilst he was conducting.
We've all had so many complimentary remarks about the show and are looking forward to the Family Prom and then Corsham on Monday. It's all go.
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
Flying Solo - Final Rehearsal before the Ashton Keynes Music Festival
The Final Rehearsal before the Ashton Keynes Music Festival will take place Sunday 12th June 5-7pm in Holy Cross Church, Ashton Keynes - see you there!
This will be a full run through of the following:
This will be a full run through of the following:
Magazena (Trad. Trinidad)
Concrete
Tsmidao (Trad. Georgian)
Haul Away Joe (Trad. English)
Down to the River (Trad. USA)
Big Spender (Coleman/Fields) - singing along with backing tape
I'd like to teach the verld to SVING! (our own unique interpretation of those two lines)
We'll also see about having a stab at Satisfaction, just for our own amusement.
Tsmidao (Trad. Georgian)
Haul Away Joe (Trad. English)
Down to the River (Trad. USA)
Big Spender (Coleman/Fields) - singing along with backing tape
I'd like to teach the verld to SVING! (our own unique interpretation of those two lines)
We'll also see about having a stab at Satisfaction, just for our own amusement.
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