“Ava was there in the morning, now she’s gone
She’s reborn like Sarah Vaughan”
(October Song by Amy Winehouse)
We thought a song about Amy’s dead canary would, um, put things in perspective, in the sense of the necessity of things having to die, to come alive again in Spring. Or something. We just needed a song about October to kick off this newsletter. Here we go:
VOICE JAMS FOR YOUNG SINGERS
It’s been a few years since we’ve been able to get this popular programme off the ground again, but we are up and running with our VOICE JAMS half term course for wannabe young singers. So if you know or live with a youngster who might be interested, here’s the deal… five days run by dynamic vocal coach Clive Brown, and anybody within that age group with a song in their hearts and a desire to perform and record is welcome to join us, FREE OF CHARGE, all over half-term (24th-28th Oct). With late starts, half days and great music that you’ll record on the final day with a band, what’s not to love about this half term activity? To read more about the programme and sign up head here.
PIANO WEEK Our sold-out 24th Annual Piano Week was a great success, with Nikki Yeoh, Tim Richards, John Crawford and Robert Mitchell taking our eager, hard-working and dedicated piano players to a level of excellence we have seen and heard in previous years. We’ve pumped more money and keyboards into this course, so everybody got in loads of practice before the recording day. The fact that we have a core group of regulars who return year after year is testament to the popularity of the course. The recording went brilliantly and everyone was blown away by the results. Watch this space for our next Piano Course, which will focus on live performance.
GABRIEL LORD-BAPTISTE’S VIDEO IS UP A couple of months ago we ran a competition to win a free video filming session with our videographer partner Sheridan Seraphin, with a view to expanding our services to include a video package for bands rehearsing or recording here. The winner was Gabriel Lord-Baptiste, (now going by the name of Leigh) whose haunting, and at times downright brooding track I Am My Enemy lent itself perfectly to Seraphin’s stark, minimalist lighting and shots. It was a four-hour, three camera shoot to a pre-recorded track and it was great to see Lord-Baptiste prowling the stage in Studio one like a young man with a message, a mission and a mighty presence. To see the video head here (pw: Gabriel1). And if you’re looking for a high quality, low-cost video, email: michele@premiseseducation.org
ARTIST OF THE MONTH
Last month we were lucky enough to hear Matt Maltese rehearsing for a major European and American tour and some UK dates. If you hear the same song 30 plus times a day and still love it more than anything else, it’s gotta be a winner. When he came out of the studio I pinned him to the floor and screamed, ‘What’s that song and why is it so good and why has no one ever told me about you?’ The song is new and he can’t say too much about it, except it’s called Irony Would Have It and it’s a thing of beauty. You might know him from the TikTok versions of his massive hit When The World Caves In. He’s also working on a song with a pretty unique premise: having to comfort his mum when he broke up with his girlfriend, cos she really loved her. We feel her pain.
IN RECORDING STUDIO A The BBC have been in a lot recently, recording Sketched Out, a new, fast paced radio comedy show, written and hosted by Gemma Arrowsmith, who tries to wrestle back presenting her own show from guests more famous than she is. Next episode features the luscious abfab Joanna Lumley (or as she reminded us, ‘Dame, and don’t you forget it, sweeties!’). Viv needed a lie down afterwards.
WHO’S BEEN IN? Ezra Collective, Sophie May, Mykki Blano, Asian Dub Foundation, The Untested, Tomorrow’s Warriors, Boy Bleach, Olivia Dean, Omar Puente, Perhaps Contraption, Lava La Rue, Liberty Church, Celeste, My Fair Lady, Clive Brown, Gabriel Baptiste, Beatenburg, Poppy Ackroyd, Ash, Irene Taylor Trust, Hot Chip, Kym Mazelle, Alex Williams, Lazy Williams, Lazy Habits, Puppini Sisters, Liberty Church, Fossils, Business as Usual, Dave Okumu, Donna Thompson, Anna Calvi, Kokoroko, Jocelyn Brown, Aine Deane, Matt Maltese, Polly Gibbons, Afrobeats Orchestra, NHS Band, Beth Orton, L.Devine, Nubian Twist, Jean Toussaint, Lava La Rue, Seraphina Simone, Sorry, The Life and Death, Biig Piig, Yazmin Lacy, Jealous Nostril, Flourish, Dolores Forever and Bree Runway.
EVENINGS AT PREMISES BISTRO & BAR Those of you who get your basic food and music groups from our caff may want to note the extended opening hours, when it morphs from a caff to a Bistro, suitable for later rehearsals but also just good people who like good food, or even bad people who like good food. We’re not judging. Open til ten Monday to Saturday, the Premises Bistro features great filling plates with some lighter options. The Mezze selection is to live for (because, what does to die for even MEAN?) and the soundtrack is exclusively from our studio customers, so you may well hear yourself and have to pretend to be all like …casual. See you in there!
PREMISES RADIO TOP FIVE If you’re dining in our Bistro or having a natter with bandmates in reception, do prick up your ears and have a listen to our in-house radio station. Every month we chose five great tracks, in no particular order, except fat wads of cash in plain envelopes might just…no, never mind. You play it. We dig it.
1) Brenda Russell: Piano In The Dark 2) The Comet is Coming: Summon The Fire 3) Ezra Collective: The Philosopher 4) Kokoroko: Baba Ayoola 5) Jazz Jamaica: So What
NO PRICE HIKES HERE Prices are going up everywhere it seems, but not at The Premises. In response to the huge jump in our energy bills, we’ve added five more studios on to our solar power system, so unless the world goes dark, no increase in our hire rates and we’ll hold it like that for as long as we possibly can.
OUR BOY DONE GOOD Christo, who works here, has a secret life as a curator of subatomic particles. (we don’t ask, he doesn’t tell, because we might not understand) BUT, he’s made a glorious installation called Particle Shrine, with five cosmic ray detectors, vibrating surfaces, projections, light design, music, and live readings from a neutrino observatory in Japan. It’s a good way to experience a sense of connection to the Cosmos, and does not involve Class A’s. We’re dead chuffed that our resident Renaissance man has made this spectacular experience. It’s at Science Gallery London and you can attend the installation until Jan 2023, or a free concert on 21st October at your subatomic leisure.
AND FINALLY…
