An Appropriately Seasonal Article

The sunny weather has got trumpeter Max Fagandini thinking about winter again, so he's thoughtfully provided us with an article about our fantastic gig at Harvey Nichols on New Year's Eve!

It's mid-April, and the keen and industrious types among you will know what that means: it's time to start planning your New Year’s Eve party. But how are you going to make sure that this year is the year? That this time, it'll finally live up to those dizzyingly high expectations rather than dashing everyone's hopes on the cruel, jagged rocks of disappointment? That this time, finally, people might refer to it as 'the Harvey Nichols NYE party of [insert location here]'? 

Well, while I can't help you source capoeira troupes or éclairs the size of your own forearm, I can tell you one thing Harvey Nichols got right last December: booking an awesome band.

These guys.

Down for the Count ended up with quite a busy New Year’s Eve, with a jazz trio gig for our friends at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons preceding our other booking: the full 9-piece band playing at the 5th floor bar in Harvey Nichols on Knightsbridge. Swanky doesn’t even begin to cover it, but even before we got inside the building we knew we were in for a treat. Not content with just bringing our errant singer Nicky Dega back into the fold, we were also graced with the bassful antics of our beloved Steve Torpey, who had been taking a little time off from gigs to recover from a medical condition known as ‘playing too much awesome bass’. With special guests Freddie Hosken on alto, Rob Cossins on trumpet and Hugo Fagandini on drums, we were set to deliver a spectacular evening of entertainment.

DftC's red-hot horn section

Now, the music was all well and good, but we actually had a little bit of a gap between putting up all the equipment and launching into our first tune, so the staff set about making us feel at home. Knowing that the way to a band’s heart is through its collective stomach, they directed us to the restaurant. Sadly a couple of our number (who were covering the gig at Le Manoir) couldn’t make it for dinner, so, Kate and Rob, if you’re reading this, please skip to the next paragraph and assume that the food at Harvey Nichols was alright, I guess. Is the coast clear? Great. I’m not ashamed to say that I was sorely tempted to record the agent, Kevin Reynolds, telling us ‘order whatever you want from the menu’, just so I could replay it to myself whenever I felt sad. We gorged ourselves on steak, venison, potatoes and vegetables, all the while weeping silent tears of blissful gratitude (okay, maybe that was just me).

By the time we were joined by the rest of our number, it was time to go on and wow the party-goers with that brand of swing jazz and souly Motown goodness you lovely people have come to expect from us over the years. People were on the dance floor for most of the evening, and when we rang in 2013 at midnight, arms were linked and a hearty chorus of Auld Lang Syne was sung with appropriate gusto. Before we knew it, we were an hour into the new year and we had to wind things down to get our stuff back to the unit. But the festivities didn’t end there, oh no. Starting at approximately 3am, Down for the Count kicked off their own New Year’s Eve celebration that lasted well into the morning. So there you have it folks – not only can you expect some cracking tunes from these guys, but if necessary we can party with the best of them too.

These guys did give us a run for our money though.

Keep Calm - We Do Live Gigs!

Keep Calm - We do Live Gigs!Yes, it's true! You see, although we love performing at weddings, private parties and corporate events, we feel it’s important to share our music with everyone. So seeing as our next event, Keep Calm and Carry On Swinging is coming up this Friday 8th February, we thought now might be a good time to tell you a little more about what to expect.


Our public performances Alongside our busy schedule of private events, Down for the Count frequently perform live at open public events, for friends, family and fun. It's also a useful opportunity for people who are considering us for their event to be reassured that they're getting the real deal! However, it's not just about our clients or our friends - there is nothing we love more as a band than putting on a good show, with great music, to a fantastic audience. It's what we do.Where it all began Ever since we formed way back in 2005, Down for the Count have put on an annual show at Winslow Public Hall in Buckinghamshire. These nights have included themed evenings such as Down for the Count Does Havana, as well as sundry Chicago/New York-style Rat Pack shows. We also bring in the winter cheer each year with our super-festive A Very Down for the Count Christmas (annual, not to be missed) - but best of all, since we radicalised our sound and formed the Down for the Count Swing Orchestra, our biggest recent success has without a doubt been Keep Calm and Carry On Swinging (2012).

Keep Calm and Carry On Swinging, Winslow Public Hall 2012 (Photos by Declan, Etch Photography)

We have a dear place in our hearts for Winslow, and return there every year, but since the band took the plunge and moved to London we’ve been making a name for ourselves in London’s ever-growing swing revival movement. We now appear increasingly regularly in London venues, including East Sheen's Don't Tell Fred, and the ultra-hip-and-glitzy Crouch End Music Palace in North London, where we played last year, and where we can be seen regularly from now on!
Crouch End Music PalaceSeeing as sizeable chunk of Down for the Count now live in north London, Crouch End Music Palace is a fantastic local venue where we can really show off what we do best - live swing music, with exciting and authentic arrangements of legendary classics.

Last year we had a terrific audience, and surprisingly varied, ranging from local young people looking for an alternative night out, to die-hard swing fans and professional dancers! With a well-stocked bar and a well-stuffed dance floor, it truly was a night to remember - and to repeat. With a twist.

Photos of our 2012 event. To see more, click here.























Keep Calm and Carry On Swinging - DFTC Live! at the Music Palace, 8th Feb 2013In 2012, we crammed the place with jazz and soul lovers alike, but in 2013 we're going one better. With a revival of our Keep Calm and Carry On Swinging night, we are bringing the glamour and romance of wartime dance-hall music to the Music Palace, with the help of some very special guests!Swing Patrol – This cracking swing dance team will be giving a taster dance lesson at the beginning of the evening (aimed at absolute beginners with no dance experience at all). The instructors will demonstrate the basics of 6-beat lindy hop, which you can then use to dance along to the live band!The Marjorie Belles – The smooth sound of the Andrews Sisters is back! We will be joined on stage for the very first time by this sensational vocal trio, to perform some wartime classics you’re sure to know and love.

Our classy and uber-cheesy poster! Share it on Facebook.

So keep your eyes peeled for more chances to catch some live jazz music across our swingin’ capital! Or if you’re free, get yourself down to Crouch End Music Palace this Friday at 8pm (tickets £4 on the door). We'll see you there!For more information about events, including this one, go to www.downforthecount.co.uk and click 'LIVE EVENTS'.If you represent a London venue and would be interested in booking the band for a public performance, please get in touch via our website: www.downforthecount.co.uk

Top 10 moments of 2012

There is no doubt that 2012 has been by far the best year in Down for the Count history.  As January is a time for reminiscing, we thought we would take a look back and pick our top 10 moments of 2012!

1.        Getting Stuck in the Snow

Our first wedding of 2012 was at the beautiful Eynsham Hall in Oxfordshire.  We were performing for Jenny and Dan’s wedding, and it was an absolutely fantastic event – which was just as well, because the journey home was nothing short of treacherous.  The country had been bought to a standstill by snow, and we spent more than five hours stuck on the M40 heading back in to London.  It’s a good job we enjoy each other’s company so much...

2.       Performing at Wembley Stadium

The Wednesday after our snow escapades, we were booked to perform at the D-Link European Annual Conference at Wembley Stadium.  It was a fantastic evening that will stay long in the memory – Steve even had a special message for the crowds....

3.       DFTC Live! At The Crouch End Music Palace

To cap off a busy week at the start of February, we hosted our own evening at The Crouch End Music Palace – a fantastic music venue in North London.  As much as we enjoy performing at weddings and corporate events, it is a different feeling being able to perform in front of friends and family and we had a fantastic evening.  We are heading back to the Music Palace on 8th February 2013 – and we hope to see you there!

4.       Photoshoot with Declan Fleming

In August 2011 we performed at a friend’s wedding in Oxford.  We got chatting to their videographer, Declan Fleming, and when it was time to organise our next photoshoot there was only one person we could call.  We had a fantastic morning at Adrian Pini Studios taking more than 400 shots – posing for photos doesn’t come that easily to most of us (well, there are a few notable exceptions...) but both Declan and Adrian really put us at ease and we were delighted with the results!  Adrian even referred to the girls as “the models,” which they seemed to enjoy...

5.        Christmas Party at Ronnie Scotts

After our photoshoot, we made the most of a rare evening off and headed to Ronnie Scotts for our Christmas party (yes, this was in March – but nevermind).  We never quite manage to organise a Christmas party, so we thought we would go all out on this one!  We had a fantastic evening indulging in champagne and cocktails and watching The Ronnie Scotts All Star Big Band, directed by Pete Long, performing the music of jazz legend Dizzy Gillespie.

6.       Working from a Nelson Riddle score

Regular readers of this blog will know how excited we were to perform at Jonathan and Paulette’s wedding, as they had managed to obtain a copy of Nelson Riddle’s original score for Ella Fitzgerald’s All The Things You Are.  They were determined to have this song for their first dance and involved The Library of Congress in Washington DC, The Ella Fitzgerald Foundation and George Washington University in their quest to find the music!

7.       Recording our album at The Limehouse

A highlight of any year for Down for the Count is heading to the studio to record a new album.  In 2012 we returned to The Limehouse Studio in East London for a three-day session.  We’ve written about The Limehouse many times on this blog, mainly because we love it – especially our engineer Joel Davies, who is the unofficial tenth member of Down for the Count (although he doesn’t know that yet).

We were delighted with the results of this recording and released our new album “Downtown” a few months later.

8.       Keep Calm and Carry On Swinging

Probably the highlight of our year, Keep Calm and Carry On Swinging was our swing-themed evening at Winslow Public Hall.  We used the themed as an excuse to dress ourselves in vintage clothing and learn loads of new swing and jive songs great for the dancers we invited along.  We also had Declan along again, who took what we all agree is the best photo of Down for the Count in existence!  It was a fantastic evening and we look forward to returning to Winslow Public Hall in 2013.

9.       Our new mixing desk, and building Tim

OK, you might have to bear with us on this one.  This year we decided to upgrade our sound equipment, and were one of the first bands in the country to buy Mackie’s new DL1608 – a mixing desk that can be controlled wirelessly from an iPad.  The improvement in the sound quality is incredible!

However, we had to find somewhere to keep the new mixing desk, and so Tim (named by our very own Max Fagandini) was born.  He is a little overweight, but holds our mixing desk, lighting dimmers, CD players, microphones and audio cables, and lots of other bits and pieces that might be useful in an emergency.  The only thing he can’t do is make us a cup of tea – but trust us, we’re working on that one.

10.   New Year’s Eve at Harvey Nichols

The final highlight came right at the end of the year.  It is fair to say we were pretty excited about our performance at Harvey Nichols New Year’s Eve Great Gatsby themed party, but we had no idea just how much fun we would have.

The whole event was absolutely spectacular, and Down for the Count went down a storm – our swing set fit perfectly with their 1920s theme, and the dancefloor was absolutely packed during our soul set – in short, it was probably the best New Year’s Eve Down for the Count have ever had.

Oh, and we each got fed a delicious steak...

It's Christmas!! (well...almost)

A popular function band like Down for the Count has two busy periods- the summer and Christmas. The summer is spent playing first dances for excited (and sometimes nervous) brides and grooms, and enticing wedding guests up on the dance floor to dance the night away to swing and soul music.

As soon as the nights start drawing in- our thoughts turn to Christmas! Most of you out there will probably start embracing that good old Christmas spirit around the start of December- but at Down for the Count Towers, the Christmas spirit is normally upon us in September!

Down for the Count is always in demand for Christmas parties and events- and we endeavor to seamlessly incorporate Christmas hits into our swing and soul sets.  Mike goes to great lengths to arrange popular Christmas songs that suit the whole 9-piece, and one of our favourite tunes to play is Andy Williams’ “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year”. We often use it to open our sets and it always goes down extremely well! When we want to slow a set down and give the guests a break from dancing to energetic swing and jazz, another firm favourite is Eartha Kitt’s “Santa Baby”.

Rich practices the good old swing rhythms we are so well known for!

A lot of preparation and work goes into getting the band Christmas-ready, after Mike’s spent far too many festive hours arranging new tunes for the band, we all come together for a fun day of rehearsing to drink too much tea, eat too many pastries, and to put the tunes together.

In rehearsals we cover issues such as where Kate can add some sleigh bell accompaniment to tunes, adding backing vocals to “All I Want for Christmas Is You”, and where in a set is it appropriate to put on the Santa hats…

We love doing public gigs at Christmas time. They’re a rarity, so it’s especially great when our friends and family can watch us play. Last year we put on A Very Down For The Count Christmas in Winslow, which was a New York-inspired glamorous evening. 

Christmas Down for the Count...

This year we are delighted to be returning to Bucks- but this time to Wingrave as the DFTC Swing Orchestra where we will be playing at ‘the UK’s hottest tea dance’ for the Swingrave Christmas Special on 2^nd December. So come and join us as we dig out our 50’s outfits and provide the music for a real swing party. Find out more at www.swingrave.co.uk.

Swing Down for the Count!

We can’t wait to start performing for all these Christmas functions, so pop along to our public performance if you can, or who knows- we may be playing at your work’s Christmas party!

The Enigma Ball

Our lead trumpeter Max Fagandini provides a blog post this afternoon, reviewing our most recent weekend of musical shenanigans.

Let me tell you about the Enigma Ball.

No, wait, hang on. I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start with our big rehearsal the following day, then we can back up a bit for the juicy stuff.

Christmas is coming, and we at DftC Towers are oh-so-ready for it. A knackering day in the rehearsal studios at Audio Underground in Stoke Newington saw us running through not just our old festive favourites like All I Want For Christmas Is You and Santa Baby, but also allowed us to work on some great new soul repertoire (including a cracking medley of several tunes that won’t let you off the dance floor for a second) and a lot of our recently-added swing numbers (including Trumpet Blues and Cantabile, a favourite – if very formally named – tune of mine) for some exciting upcoming gigs. This stuff is sounding red hot, so if you’re lucky enough to be at one of our gigs next month…well, you’ll be the envy of all of your less-fortunate friends.

The trumpet section gears up for Christmas

The rehearsal was, as always, great fun and full of delightful and inappropriate bandter™, but it was our gig at Bletchley Park on the 24^th November that was the real highlight of the weekend. The Enigma Ball is an event put on by the transgender community around Milton Keynes and masterminded by the wonderfully personable and organised Kathy. The band’s played at two previous Balls for them and has found it hugely enjoyable both times, but this time we rolled out the full 9-piece band for our friends at Bletchley Park. For 4 of us (myself, Kate, Kate and Katie – confusing, right?) that meant our first experience of the Ball, and, well, I for one wasn’t even quite sure what to expect.

I needn’t have worried. The Enigma Ball was genuinely one of the most fun gigs we’ve had, with a bubbly and animated crowd who rarely left the dance floor as we ran through classics like Finally and I’m Every Woman along with the specially-requested I Will Survive and that Shania Twain song that everybody secretly enjoys, Man, I Feel Like A Woman. The energy in the ballroom was immense and even by the time the end of the night rolled around it showed no signs of ebbing.

However, it wasn’t really until we got back to the band room after our final set and we had the chance to sit down and chat with Kathy for a bit that we started to really understand the significance of the evening, and what life is like for a lot of people who identify as trans. The Enigma Ball provides an event, a place, a sanctuary of sorts where people can come and be themselves, without a shred of judgement in anyone’s eyes, in the company of friends, partners, and others. One attendee, Kathy told us, was out ‘dressed’ in public with his wife for the first time. The Ball gave him the chance to do that, and offers a fantastically fun night for a lot of people for whom this sort of opportunity perhaps doesn’t come around as often as it should.

There are far too many stories about discrimination and unreasonable animosity from other people against the trans community. From subtly condemning looks in the street to a fear of reprisal upon being ‘outed’, it’s sadly hard to deny that there’s a lot of hate still out there in the world. But Kathy and the team behind the Enigma Ball deliver an evening set apart from that, where people from all walks of life can gather for a fun and relaxed evening among friends. Next time, they’re aiming for upwards of 600 guests. I say they should aim for the thousands.

Down for the Count - Christmas Party Band

As another fantastic summer of weddings and events draws to a close, we've started to think about our Christmas repertoire.  It's probably fair to say that Down for the Count love Christmas - and we believe that we are the ultimate band for any classy Christmas party or Christmas-themed wedding.

We try and make our Christmas music as tasteful as possible - we perform only the best Christmas hits, ones that fit into the sets of swing and soul music that we already perform.  If you're anything like us, you probably can't stand the majority of Christmas songs that get played on the radio, which is why we've gone to great lengths to choose our Christmas repertoire carefully.

One of our favourite songs is this Frank Sinatra version of "Let It Snow".  We haven't been able to find out who the original arranger was, but we love it all the same - especially as we all get to do a bit of singing in the middle!

We often use Andy Williams' "The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year" to open our Christmas performances.  It's a fast jazz waltz with a fantastic opening section - and we can't think of a better opening number!

Another of our favourites is Eartha Kitt's classic "Santa Baby".  It's a slower song, but always goes down a storm.

Also on the set lists will be everyone's favourite Christmas Song - Maria Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You".  We've made a habit out of re-creating scenes from Love Actually in the past and can't wait to play this for you - Amelia is particularly excited about the tubular bells part!

Of course we're also planning lots of other Christmas songs - but we don't want to spoil all the surprises just yet...

Head over to our website today to enquire about having the band perform for your Christmas party - and if you don't have an excuse to book the band for a party, come and listen to us perform our Christmas repertoire and have a dance on Saturday 15th December, when we are performing a Christmas Swing Night at The Olde Watermill, Bedfordshire - see here for more information!

A Very Special Wedding

On Saturday 21st July we were delighted to be invited to perform at Jonathan and Paulette's wedding reception in Ashley Green, a beautiful village in south Buckinghamshire.

There were several reasons we were particularly looking forward to this wedding; in our email dealings with Jonathan and Paulette it quickly became apparent that they were real enthusiasts of the swing and jive music that we love to perform, and they seemed like jolly nice people too.  And they had also booked a jive dancing lesson for their guests to enjoy before the swing set - always great fun!

Our suspicions that it would be a great day were confirmed when we arrived at the village hall to be treated by the smells of delicious home-cooked Carribbean food - and with the reception being held in a village hall rather than the grander venues that, rightly or wrongly, seem to be "expected" of wedding couples these days, the wedding had a unmistakably friendlier, more welcoming feel.



However, there was one particular reason that set this wedding apart from all others. Jonathan and Paulette had chosen as their first dance an arrangement of "All the Things You Are". This song is a jazz "standard", performed and recorded hundreds if not thousands of times by just about every jazz musician you could care to think of. The arrangement they had picked was written for their favourite singer Ella Fitzgerald by Nelson Riddle, the great American arranger who was a significant reason behind the success of Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee and many other singers we now recognise as the "greats".

There was just one problem - only a tiny proportion of the music arranged by Nelson Riddle is commercially available, meaning that we were faced with the task of transcribing the notes, without music, from the record (a process that we've done many times before but which is very time-consuming nevertheless!)

However, an off-the-cuff remark to Jonathan that the music might be available in the archives of the Library of Congress in Washington DC set in to motion an incredible chain of events.

An email to the Senior Music Specialist at the library quickly established that indeed the music did exist in their Ella Fitzgerald archive (when we've saved up enough pennies, we'll be there in a flash!). However, to get permission to take copies and perform the piece of music, the groom had to contact the Ella Fitzgerald Foundation. Again, a quick reply from the Foundation followed giving us permission to perform the song for their first dance.

There was one more obstacle to surmount - how to get the music from the archives? Obviously Mike was willing to travel to Washington DC (a day spent rummaging in the archives would be rather fun, after all!) but with the gig fee covering perhaps a tenth of the seat on the plane, we needed to come up with another idea.

Which is how Jonathan ended up contacting the Director of Jazz at George Washington University, asking if he wouldn't awfully mind heading to the archive to get us copies. Never in a million years did we expect such a quick "yes" - but a few weeks later we had in our possession copies of both Nelson Riddle's original hand-written score and orchestral parts for the song.

A snapshot of the opening page of Nelson's score

I then had the pleasure of spending a whole day pouring over Nelson's scores and was struck by just how simple, but how fantastic, the arrangement was. The 60s studio recordings don't quite demonstrate just how lush Nelsons string writing was, with over 8 lines of harmony at a time, or how the age old trick of a simple musical line repeated throughout the sections of the big band can be so effective at driving the arrangement to a rousing finale. It was also amazing how few dynamic markings and directions were either printed or handwritten on the parts (these were the actual parts used in the recording studio) - proof that Nelson's "regulars" (the nickname for his faithful, long-serving session musicians) either had a telepathic relationship or simply just instinctively knew how the arrangement should sound.

Our arrangement stayed as faithful as possible to the original Nelson version, adding an extra trombonist to our band to play the opening section, and keeping the structure and harmonies the same. The result was a fantastic, special and very memorable moment for us and the bridal party.

So a massive thanks to Mark Horowitz at the Library of Congress, Fran Rosman at the Ella Fitzgerald Foundation, Peter Fraize at the George Washington University, and most importantly to Jonathan and Paulette for all their help in making a small, personal dream a reality!