Lili goes to Coalville and Rosehill

Tags

cabaret, Coalville, Corsetry, Cumbria, Rosehill Theatre, Snibston Colliery, songs to make you smile, steampunk, Tom Carradine

Last weekend I had two fabulous gigs, the first was in the Snibston Colliery in Coalville. It was a steampunk event called ‘The New Age of Discovery’ and they asked me to sing some opera tunes from a gantry above the old railway tracks. The audience were beautifully attired in steampunk regalia and I do love dressing up, so it was a thrill to wear a corset and a huge Victoriana skirt and my ship-topped tricorn.

In the 20/20 vision of hindsight, it was maybe not the best outfit choice for climbing gantries on a soggy December evening with a gale blowing through!

It was amazingly evocative, especially when a real steam engine came powering through a screen towards the audience. There was also a most interesting corset exhibition of corsets from the 1890’s.

On the Saturday, I went on a stunning roadtrip (the A66 – amazing!) across the top of England, all the way to Cumbria to do a show in Whitehaven. The Rosehill Theatre is situated on the top of a hill in the middle of nowhere, overlooking the sea with far reaching views across to Scotland! Breathtakingly stunning. Once you step inside, it is like a miniature West End Theatre – complete with faux boxes.

The entire theatre is lined in red silk and they had a concert grand piano on the stage! It made my day. So many venues today make do with keyboards or electric pianos so it is such a treat to perform in a place with a real instrument as I feel you never get the depth and delicacy of touch from a souless electric piano. Everyone at the theatre was incredibly welcoming and my mother Dru, Tom Carradine, (who was playing piano for me) and I had an absolute giggle. The show (Songs to Make You Smile), went fabulously with such a warm audience. It was a real joy and I do hope I get the chance to go back to this beautiful, historic little theatre.
It is so rare to find these amazing little venues and I love to perform in such wonderfully intimate spaces, they should be treasured for their history and kept for future generations.

Until next time…

Love Lili.x

Lili Wants to Make You Smile

Tags

photoshoot, richard healey, road trip, sausage dog, songs, songs to make you smile, terry mendoza, Vintage, vintage songs, What Katie Did

This week was the first time I have done a tour show since I had Rafferty. We had a show of ‘Songs to Make You Smile‘ booked in to the Swindon Arts Centre and so on Wednesday morning we were up at silly o’clock to get everything ready. In my carefree ‘old’ life, I’d sling a bag in the car and head off. Now, leaving the house, involves packing almost everything minus a kitchen sink. We decided to add a sausage dog to the equation too, why make life simple?

We stopped along the way to p p pick up a pianist! Mr Richard Healey was on keys for this show, which is always a treat because he’s bloody super. We ended up running late, which I hate, so when we made it to Swindon Arts Centre they were concerned that we had forgotten! After explanations of ‘child, dog, traffic!!’ we got to the auditorium for a soundcheck. Dickie and I have soundcheck down to a fine art, literally 3 minutes to check mics and lights. This show, we decided to chuck in a new song to amuse ourselves, (slightly risky, given that I’ve just had three months off and the last tour show we did was in November!!) so we had a quick run through of ‘Sit Down You’re Rocking the Boat’ and we were happy with it.

Backstage, I threw make-up at my face, chucked my hair into an updo, ripped my dress as I dragged it on over my new best friend, my What Katie Did spoon bust Morticia corset and had 10 minutes to breastfeed Rafferty before it was showtime! So I hit the stage slightly flustered but it was fabulous to get back into the swing of things. The show was really marvellous, with a really supportive audience and the new song went beautifully, in fact, it might be my new favourite!

This afternoon, I had a photoshoot with the amazing Terry Mendoza. I absolutely adore shooting with him. We just click, if you’ll pardon the pun! We shot a couple of new costume pieces (a fabulous hat and some Elizabethan-style collar and cuff ruffs) and tried to shoot some pictures of Rafferty, who was having absolutely none of it. Every photo had him screaming or burying his head in my shoulder. After 10 minutes, we gave up!

In other news, Rafferty is trying so hard with noises. He’s copying ‘Guh’ and ‘Brrrrrrrrr’. It’s the best time wasting thing in the world.

Until next time…
Love Lili