This week's Sunday Independent in Ireland has an informative profile/interview by Ciara Dwyer with
Dame Cleo Laine (photo: Dankworth Management), as a curtain-raiser for a New Year's Eve concert with Jacqui Dankworth, the RTE Concert Orchestra and Mark Nightingale in Dublin.
A few extracts:
Cleo saw Groucho Marx backstage at an event. She had been a big fan but suddenly, in his presence, her mind went to mush. "Mr Marx, may I ... may I shake your hand?" she said. The comedian replied, "Lady, you can shake any part of me you like."
(..)
Work and music have kept her sane. "I call it Dr Stage. You can go on feeling like death warmed up and the stage dispenses with it all. You drop 20 years in half an hour. It's better than having surgery."
(...)
One time she exploded and pulled a painting off the wall and put John's head through it.
"Just as well it wasn't a valuable painting."
(...)
Dame Cleo also talks about her first marriage, the significance of New Year's Eve to her, sharing a bed with a "dishwasher"...It's a full and affectionate profile. For the full article, here's a LINK
Details of the Dublin New Years Eve concert (and the small number of seats still on offer) : follow THIS LINK
Cheltenham Jazz Festival bookings are going well, with 3,000 tickets sold to festival members in the first two days. The Festival's new box office system survived its debut well. Jamie Cullum's solo gig sold out in the first three hours. Festival Executive Director Ian George, according to the Press Release says that the following concerts have already started selling well:
