Christmas big band sounds in Worthing and Southampton

One of the UK’s premiere swing orchestras is embarking on their most ambitious festive tour to date this Christmas.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor for Sussex Newspapers. Lovely

00:06to speak to Mike Paul-Smith, who is bringing the Down for the Count Orchestra to Worthing

00:10this Christmas with a, well, a festive edition. You've got some lovely Christmas treats in

00:15there, haven't you?

00:17We have, yes, and we're really looking forward to heading to Worthing for Christmas. It's

00:22our second year in a row doing our Christmas show in Worthing, and we are called the Down

00:27for the Count Swing Orchestra. We're a 32-piece big band with strings, so we do sort of classic

00:33big band music with a string section, so audiences will hear the music of people like Nat King

00:39Cole, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, with loads of Christmas favourites

00:44in there, also some non-Christmas tunes as well to break it up a little bit.

00:48Why is that your kind of music? What makes you a swing and big band fan?

00:53Oh, I've loved it since I was very young. I started playing in a big band at school

00:59when I was 14, and just loved the energy that a big band has. It's really, it's all completely

01:06live. It takes a lot of people to make it sound right, and you can't fake swing and

01:12big band music. You can't do any electronic wizardry to make it sound better than it is.

01:19There's no faking it. You've got to do it right, and you've got to do it properly, and

01:23that's what we do.

01:24And it sounds great. You've got a busy Christmas, and booking's coming up for the next year,

01:28and the penny's just dropped. You told me that you started in 2005. Next year is 2025.

01:33Next year's the 20th anniversary. Have you got big plans for that anniversary?

01:37Yeah, our big anniversary. We haven't quite got as far as making any plans for celebrating

01:43the anniversary, apart from just doing more of what we're doing at the moment, and looking

01:48to get bigger venues around the place. But we might try and organise a big celebration

01:54party as well. But one thing that we do have that's going to be very exciting is that we're

01:59really hoping that in the summer, we're going to be recording a brand new album to celebrate

02:0420 years of being together. So fingers crossed.

02:07And when was the last album?

02:09The last album was a few years ago now. It was recorded, let me try and get this right,

02:14it was recorded in 2021. But it took us quite a long time to release it. I can't remember

02:23whether it was 22 or 23 that we released it. So by the time we release another one, it

02:29will have been two years, which is quite long for us.

02:31And a new album is a perfect way to celebrate the anniversary, isn't it?

02:35Yeah. Yeah, it is. And we're quite a different band than we were a few years ago. The orchestra

02:42is getting bigger and bigger all the time, and getting better and better, to be frank,

02:47as we spend more time playing together. Our understanding of the music and of each other's

02:54playing evolves, and we're always getting more sort of sympathetic to each other's way

03:01of playing. And so it's a different ensemble, and we're sort of chomping at the bit to get

03:06it caught on record, actually. It's long overdue, so hopefully we'll make it happen.

03:12Before that, album next year. Just to confirm then, Worthing Assembly Hall,

03:17Saturday, December the 21st. Lovely to speak to you, Mike. Happy Christmas.

03:24Thanks, Phil.