Carl Davis' 70th Birthday at Queen Elizabeth Hall

To celebrate the extraodinarily talented composer Carl Davis's 70th birthday, he conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra through Buster Keaton's "Our Hospitality" and Charlie Chaplin's "The Fireman" at Queen Elizabeth Hall - the first time his scores for these films had been performed live in London. The scores were beautiful, entertaining, and simply perfect accompaniment to the films. It really makes me think that more movies today should be shown with the score performed live - it adds an entire new dimension to the film. It just takes the cinematic experience to a whole other level.



The films themselves were both absolutely fantastic, though I have a strong preference for "Our Hospitality" due to its more developed plot and lack of overly repetitive silly humour. I think the silent film genre in general is quite neglected these days and am happy to find its still alive and well in some niches of London culture!


I was lucky enough to be introduced to Carl Davis afterwards at his birthday reception, and am pleased to have found him to be as nice, interesting, and charming as his music is rich, expressive, and extraordinary.


Referring back to my previous post on "Phantom of the Opera" at the Royal Opera House - below you can find a taste of Carl Davis' "Pride and Prejudice" score, as well as purchase some of his work on CD via Amazon.com. Enjoy!


On a side note, all previously posted songs will most likely not be working. This is because our file host, EzArchive, have made some major changes. We will be eventually updating all these previous posts for those of you who'd like to use our archives, but it will be done gradually over the next week. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Download:

Pride and Prejudice: Theme - Carl Davis

Buy:

Phantom of the Opera Score (1925 Silent Film) - Composed by Carl Davis (Amazon)


Pride and Prejudice Original Score (BBC 1996 MiniSeries) - Composed by Carl Davis (Amazon)


The Orchestral Works of Carl Davis (Amazon)

Lost Vagueness Presents.... Night of the Vaguely Dead

(NOTE: This was actually written on Saturday night, or should I say Sunday morning. However as our internet is still faulty [thanks BT] I've not gotten around to posting till today. This problem combined with the flu has prevented me from keeping up with stuff so I will be backlogging a lot of reviews this week!)


Back from what was without a doubt THE best Halloween party in London tonight, Lost Vagueness's "Night of the Vaguely Dead." Fabulously dressed people from serious horror to amazing glam to perfect vintage to complete fetish. Great live music, awe-inspiring acts, dead-on DJs, a casino, makeovers, bars, and the entire Coronet Theatre to accomodate it.


Going to post the video and a few images I have in an effort to inspire ANYONE who is here for New Year's to go to the Lost Vagueness party, TRUST ME it will be worth every cent (pence?)


Its the perfect opportunity to dress your personal style - I went in a hoop skirt ball gown as a Victorian Vampiress! I've always wanted to wear one of those cages, which I rented from the amazing Angels fancy dress shop on Shaftesbury Avenue near Covent Garden/Leicester Sq.

The live music included: Last Man Standing (who were fabulous as expected, see previous post), the gypsy punk stylings of Urban Voodoo Machine (very highly recommended!), and finally Alabama 3 - writers of the Sopranos theme song (who are meant to be very good but I completely missed their set!)


On top of these great live bands, you get all kinds of performers, here's a short snippet of a burlesque acrobatic act. Yes, that is a chandelier that she is suspended from! And, erm, the end of her act (not shown) is quite a **cough** hidden gem **cough**.


Just a taste of what you missed. I leave you with a snapshot from the dance floor, where yes, there was whipped cream involved at some point!