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.

A weekend in the life of Down for the Count

The weekend of the 3rd -5th of February was a busy one for Down For The Count, and definitely had its fair share of challenges and surprises! With swing, soul and lots and LOTS of snow on the agenda, here's a little snippet of what went down...

The 3rd of February 2012 meant one thing and one thing only for the folks here at DFTC: the eagerly-awaited Down For TheCount LIVE at Crouch End Music Palace, London!

The first of many public concerts in this stylish yet homely venue, the band swung the hall to the rafters with two sets of our finest, premium-quality jazz and soul. Set-up was a breeze, with everyone chipping in and knuckling down, and soon soundcheck was under way. This time we were polishing up our new addition of backing vocals by the very lovely Kate, Claire and Steve, and as a rare treat we had the stonkin' duo of BOTH of our premier singers, Katie and Nicky, who delivered a cracking duet of 'Me And My Shadow'!

Once we were finished, the venue looked a treat:

And the rest, as they say, is history - if you don't believe us, read a rave review from Hire-a-Band's Martin Kyprianides! A fantastic gig, and a tradition in the making: head on to our next performance here on the 4th of May, when we will be opening the very first Crouch End Festival.

Review: www.hireaband.co.uk/down-for-the-count-gig-review

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But the fun didn't stop there, oh dear me, no. After a well-earned rest at DFTC Towers (aka Mike and Amelia's flat), Rich and Simon nipped off to Budgens for what can only be described a a brunch fit for a Count (sigh), perfectly cooked by Claire:

After that it was straight off in the car, on our way to Eynsham Hall, West Oxfordshire - Simon was in the middle. Cue obligatory panoramic car photo:

As we approached Oxfordshire however, the snow began to fall… so much of it! So that by the time we arrived the beautiful venue looked like this:

A fantastic wedding was to follow, and such a success it was that the venue has asked us back for a charity ball in aid of Ovacome! Energetic as ever, we were still full of beans enough to have a little play in the snow afterwards:

Fortunately, high spirits were exactly what we needed next - as a long, LONG journey back along the M40, and a skillful but hazardous drive by Mike back to the unit, saw us arriving home at 5.30am (an average journey speed of 16 miles an hour) - but not a minute of it wasn't good, bandterous fun.  We even had our text message read out by Richard Allinson on early-morning BBC Radio 2!  Down For The Count's epic weekend in the snow was certainly one to remember.

A Down for the Count Road Trip!

In September 2011, we had three gigs, in three days, in opposite corners of the country – the perfect excuse to hire a van for a long roadtrip!

The long weekend started, as ever, at Tesco (if you're ever at a loose end on a Saturday afternoon, come along to Colney Hatch Tesco, as there's a good chance you'll find us there...!)  We loaded up the van with food - some healthy, some less so - before hitting the road.

The first gig was a wedding in Somerset.  We had been looking forward to this gig for ages, because we were being joined by Simon Selmon from Swing Dance UK, who took the guests for a swing/jive lesson (we couldn't resist joining in!) before we started our first set.

At the end of the night we were swung out, so it was off to Leigh Delemere Travelodge for a snooze, followed by brunch....

...before driving to the next wedding in Buckinghamshire.  As we were early we took the opportunity to have a pub lunch before heading to the venue to set up.

The wedding was for a couple who had seen the band at Down for the Count Live - and they insisted we had a glass of champagne whilst they were finishing dinner - we were only too happy to oblige!

After we had performed it was back to London for a sleepover at Mike's before driving to the final gig in Suffolk.

By this time the travelling was taking its toll - with some people needing a 'disco nap' in the van:

The event was a 40th wedding anniversary party in a beautiful house on the seafront - before we set-up we had 30 minutes to enjoy the views - and for Steve to do a spot of birdwatching.

It was then time for the final two sets of a fantastic weekend.  There was still one more surprise in store as we were joined by a relative, who gave an absolutely fantastic rendition of three Frank Sinatra numbers.

Our three-day, 508-mile road trip was a fantastic experience - one we hope to repeat several times in 2012!

Behind the scenes at Down for the Count present On The Town – Part Two

Continuing our build up to A Very Down for the Christmas, Mike shares a look behind the scenes at our last Winslow Public Hall gig – On the Town, in May 2011.

The tickets had been sold, the drinks bought, songs rehearsed (if not quite yet perfected!) but the serious work was only just beginning.

The big day actually started on Friday lunchtime, in the same way as every single Down for the Count gig – loading the van at our storage unit.  With extra lighting, decorations and drinks to fit in the van was even more packed than usual!

Next was a quick stop off at Granger Hertzog, an amazing prop house in West London where Amelia worked until October 2011.  We were borrowing some fantastic lights to add a touch of ‘glam’ to our New York-inspired evening, and couldn’t stop from helping ourselves to a few other bits and pieces too…!

Then we had a short hop up the A41 to Winslow, to start setting up for the next day.  This involved setting up the tables and chairs, rigging the lights and hanging our chandelier decorations from the stage – work so physical that we had to reward ourselves with fish and chips.

There was just enough time for a quick sleep before heading back to the hall on Saturday morning, to finish decorating the hall and setting up the sound system and stage.

After a quick lunch, it was time for our rehearsal.  Playing on a hollow stage in a large, boomy room creates a few technical difficulties so we spent a long time on the soundcheck, getting things sounding just right. Anna, our ever-present sound engineer, once again worked her magic, and soon the band was sounding fantastic!

In the afternoon we ran all the new material we had prepared for the concert, and brushed up a few other other songs that we hadn’t performed for a while.  There was also time to practice the feature songs we had prepared for the evening, and to rehearse the opening and closing numbers of each set so that the show on the night is seemless!

Then it was time for a quick dinner – probably fish and chips again, knowing us – before coming back to the hall to tidy up, add the final touches to the decorations, check that everything is good to go and finally get changed, ready to welcome our guests for the evening before launching into our three sets!

Our next Winslow Public Hall performance will be on Saturday 10^th December 2011.  A Very Down for the Count Christmas will be a fantastic evening of live jazz, swing, soul and Motown music, with a few of your Christmas favourites thrown in for good measure!  Buy your tickets here.

Behind the scenes at Down for the Count present On The Town – Part One

With A Very Down for the Count Christmas just a few weeks away, this week Mike takes a look “behind the scenes” at one of our Winslow Public Hall events


Once or twice a year, we host a themed event at Winslow Public Hall to give us an opportunity to perform for friends, family and future clients. It’s also a great chance for us to learn some new songs to add to our ever-expanding repertoire!

In May 2011, inspired by a holiday to New York City, we chose the theme On The Town, with decorations and music inspired by the Big Apple.

Planning these events always starts months beforehand – and the most difficult thing is often finding a date that we are all free!

Having juggled our nine diaries to secure a date, we started planning the decorations. This has always been the domain of Amelia, who always works wonders at transforming the hall on a very limited budget. This time the decorations included making ten hanging chandeliers – giving Mike the perfect excuse to mess around with scissors and spray paint – and wall displays featuring some New York jazz greats.

The next task was selecting and then arranging the new songs. We had chosen songs inspired by New York City, including There's a Boat Dat's Leavin' Soon for New York, Manhattan, Lullaby of Birdland and On The Street Where You Live. Our arrangements are usually done by Mike, and involve hours sat behind a computer and keyboard, writing individual parts for each band member. On the surface Mike complains about having to do this, but secretly he is scarcely happier than when arranging music for the band!

A few weeks before the big day, we met up to practice the new music. Our favourite rehearsal studio is Audio Underground in Stoke Newington, and it was here that we headed once again - spending a whole weekend consuming snacks, drinking our own body weight in tea and coffee, engaging in a not insignificant amount of ‘bandter’, and also doing some playing as well.

This was the time to work on another big aspect of the evening – the feature songs, where each member of the band gets to choose their own piece of music to perform on the night, getting their three minutes of fame.

After a busy and productive weekend, it was time for a quick publicity performance at Winslow Farmer’s Market, and then the final push to sell tickets. On The Town was an extraordinary success, with over 120 tickets sold – smashing our previous record!

Check back soon to find out more about the big day itself…

Our next public performance at Winslow Public Hall is A Very Down for the Count Christmas on Saturday 10th December. Click here to buy your tickets before they sell out!

Down for the Count 6 years on

This week Claire looks back at the last 6 years with Down for the Count!

For my blog entry, I found myself thinking about how far the band has come since we formed way back in 2005, and how many different and exciting things all the band members have been up to in the past 6 years!

Some quick facts showing how far we’ve come since 2005:

•  Our first album was recorded in Mike’s living room. Our most recent album Say No More was recorded in the Limehouse Recording Studios in London.
• Our first gig was for a 50^th birthday party in a marquee - now we’re headlining the Herne Hill music festival and playing at prestigious venues such as Pinewood Studios.
• We started off playing for events in small villages in Buckinghamshire, now we’ve played in Somerset, Nottingham, Gloucester and everywhere in between.

Steve and Rich at our very first gig - as a 6-piece band, performing for Hugh Martin's 50th Birthday Party on April 2nd 2005. We've done hundreds of gigs since - but this one still takes some beating!

Down For The Count first started when Mike asked Steve, Claire, Stan, Rich and some other musicians to play for a village production of Aladdin, and of course we all jumped at the chance to be part of such a cheesy, entertaining production…

Well, it was a pantomime...

Although panto music clearly had its appeal, Mike was keen to create a jazz band, and “Poinciana” (our first working name) was born. Little did we know that 6 years later, we would have evolved into the band you see and hear today! (And if you haven’t seen or heard us, come and see us at the Herne Hill Music Festival!)

Our first recording session - for one day only, Mike's living room and garage were converted into a temporary recording studio.

Poinciana quickly grew in size, firstly with additions to the horn section. Kate and Simon added alto sax and trumpet, and then Milly joined the band on keyboard so we could have lots of different extra sounds without all the extra players. During this time we were all in various stages of secondary school, doing GCSE’s and A levels. Mike, Milly, Katie and Steve were getting ready to go to university to study a variety of topics - medicine, media arts, more medicine and psychology. Even though many of us didn’t study music at university, it was our shared passion in music that kept the band together and going strong. It’s also interesting just how spread out the band members were once we all left school. We had DFTC members in Bangor, London, Oxford, Leeds, Bristol and Manchester!

Our most recent recording session, in the absolutely amazing Limehouse Studio, East London.

Over the years the band has gone from strength to strength and also through a few changes. Our lead trumpeter Stan went to study in Singapore in October 2010, and Max joined the band as his dep. In June this year Katie joined the touring production of Dreamboats and Petticoats, so we have Nicky filling in for her.

The band at a wedding in 2006

So what are we all up to now whilst we continue to play with the band? Well, just like when we all started playing together - we’re all doing very varied things! Steve, Milly and myself are living and working in London. Steve’s working as a waiter while he ponders his next move, and Milly and I are attempting to turn our hobbies into full time jobs. I’m working as a freelance musician and Milly has set up her own vintage homewares business. A third of the band are still being educated at UCL - Mike’s in his final year of medicine, Max is starting his Masters and Nicky is going into her second year of studying history and French. Kate is starting a career in recruitment and also plays with the ska punk band The Amendments. Rich is working as a drum teacher and is also playing with the pop punk band FlipSideUp. Finally, Simon is starting his Masters in composition back up at Manchester.

The band at one of our first performances as a 9-piece - Magdalen College Auditorium, Oxford

So that’s Down For The Count in 2011 - who knows what we’ll be up to in another 6 years??

Down for the Count in August 2011

Bank Holiday Photoshoot

Nicky Dega, our newest band member, tells us about yesterday's day of photos, videos and bandter!

On the 29th of August, Down for the Count headed to The Joint Rehearsal Studios in Kings Cross. For nearly all of us, it was the first time we had been to these amazing studios and we got to use the largest room, the Sound Stage for the whole day. This time we were not recording any songs but using it as a background to take some lovely new pictures and two new videos. As a new member in the band, this was especially exciting for me as it will be nice to be on the website with the other band members.

In the morning (after getting a little bit excited at the possibility that Eliza Doolittle was in the same studio as us!), Steve's girlfriend Linda very kindly took lots of pictures of the band performing, some head shots and everyone's favourite 'hanging out' shots!

In the afternoon the real work started when we recorded videos for Lady is a Tramp and Superstition. Mike and Amelia took charge of the camera, shooting people individually from lots of angles, which meant that we could sit and enjoy watching different members play.

Although it was a really fun day, it was long! DFTC got there at 10am and stayed till 8pm, meaning that some of us did try and catch some sneaky naps in between takes!

The new photos will be appearing on the website in the next week or so, and the videos some time after that.