Moncrieff's Bar Opened

Last night was the official opening of the newly refurbished cafe bar at the Press Gallery in the Palace of Westminster, which is named Moncrieff's, in honour of my Dad, Chris Moncrieff, who has worked as a reporter there for 40+ years.

The proceedings were kicked of by the Chairman of the Press Gallery, Brian Shallcross, and then the Speaker, Michael Martin, said a few words. Then it was Dad's turn, who began by remarking: 'This bar must be unique in history in that is has been formally opened by a teetotaller, and named after a man who hasn't had strong drink for a quarter of a century. Despite that I have every confidence that this bar will live up to the disreputable reputation of its predecessors.'

He went on to recount some of the most famous feats of drinking and debauchery to have occurred in the previous incarnations of the Press Gallery bar. You can hear his full speech here.

Above the bar itself, there is an illuminated etching of my dad, in his customary attitude walking along with notebook in hand. It's quite clever, I think, how the designer has - with just a few well placed lines - managed to capture the rather unusual way that suits tend to hang on him.

There was an article about all this in the Independent a couple of weeks ago - here.

My other photos of this event are here. Sorry, they're pretty terrible.

18/12/2007 Edit: another article and better photo here.

Scenes - this Saturday on BBC1

Scenes of a Sexual nature (which was my first big screen credit!) will air this Saturday, 17th November on BBC1 at 10:50pm.

It's a comedy set on Hampstead Heath one sunny afternoon, featuring various couples and their various issues with love and sex. Stars a whole bunch of British stars, including Ewan McGregor, Catherine Tate, Sophie Okonedo, Eileen Atkins and Andrew Lincoln.

I worked as orchestrator and trumpet player on this (plus I did a little conducting and music editing) with composer Dominik Scherrer.

How to Make a Trumpet - 2

Quite a few people who come to this blog have googled "how to make a trumpet" and found my post of December 2006 which linked to a video of a visit to the Benge trumpet factory. Unfortunately, that video has now been taken down from YouTube, so in the interests of giving the people what they want, I've found this video of a visit to the Yamaha trumpet factory in Japan. It's all a bit cheesy, and obviously a huge advert for Yamaha, but anyway, it's pretty nice I s'pose. A bit different from the previous video - the Yamaha factory is all computers and robots.

If the above link doesn't work, try here and look for the Jens Lindemann podcast. I'll not embed it cos it's 71MB.

bloody buskers..

..just kidding - these guys are great!



(Or click here.)

forthcoming gigs

Just to plug a couple of mates: on Thursday 8th November, Steve Brookstein will be doing his Great American Soul Book show at the 606 Club, with Eileen Hunter supporting. The fantastic Liane Carroll will be guesting for a number. Alas I can't make it along this time :(

And on Sunday 11th Nov I'll be MDing (and playing a bit I think) the John Ongom Big Band at the White Hart pub on Mile End Road (map), featuring Gabrielle Ghray and Toot Sweet on vocals. Entry free!!