Christmas Dial Ups!

Ho ho ho and all that jazz!

It's smiles all round as The Dial Up gears up for a month of Christmas Specials! Come and join us at any or all of our December events for Christmas songs, seasonal sing alongs, and more Dial Up fun than you can shake a figgy pudding at!

First up we're at the Watford Palace Theatre 5pm on Sunday 2nd Dec to kick off our festive frolics, then join us for a FREE Xmas Knees Up at Watford Museum, 1-3pm on Saturday 8th.

Then we jump on our Santa Sleigh to Croxley for our Coco Dial Up on Thursday 13th when we're joined by the marvellous Amersham a cappella group Eclipse. And finally we'll be sparkling among the Christmas lights of London at the Dragon Hall, 17 Stukeley Street for our Covent Garden Dial Up on Friday 21st! Notice the change of venue: for one month only we've booked a bigger space to really get our Christmas season swinging! And as a special Christmas present to all of you our London Dial Up will offer Two for One tickets! If you've never been to the Dial Up before, or have friends, family or colleagues who have never been who you'd like to bring along, this is the month for you!

Looking forward to seeing you and Merry Christmas! Alex xx

November at the Dial Up!

We have a spectacular month of music ahead of us at the Dial Up this November! Thank you to everyone who came and made our Cool Britannia evening at the Watford Palace Theatre such fun, especially our first half guests Alex H.W. and Sophia.

On Thursday 8th we'll be bringing our inimitable open mic to Croxley for our monthly Coco Dial Up, and then do join us again at the 7 Dials Club in Covent Garden on Friday 16th November when our theme will be Sparkling Music for Bonfire Night- Heavens Above!

And finally some great news: our new flyers on their way! I'll look forward to distributing them very soon but in the meantime please do visit our Watford, Covent Garden and Coco Dates webpages for our forthcoming events, especially during the Christmas season when we have some extra dates planned, including an exciting return to Watford Museum at 1pm on Saturday 8th December for our Christmas Knees Up!

I look forward to seeing you soon and much love, Alex xx

Happy Birthday Dial Ups!

Hi All! As most of you will know, October is a very special month for the Dial Up! At the Watford Palace Theatre on Sunday 7th we're celebrating our first birthday- 12 glorious months of music and fun at our wonderful Palace Theatre! And in Covent Garden it's our SECOND birthday, so on Friday 19th we'll be having a party as only we can to mark two whole years of celebrating community and creativity in the heart of the West End!

I hope you can join us at one or both events, and perhaps even come along to our Coco Cafe Dial Up in Croxley on Thursday October 11th where we'll be celebrating being one month old lol!

Much love and birthday wishes to the whole Dial Up Family! Alex xx

The First Ever Coco Dial Up is a Roaring Success!

Thanks so much to everyone who came and made our first ever Coco Dial Up such a success! Here's a little round up of the evening as penned by Linda Anderson:

Coco Café in Croxley Green was packed out for the first ever Coco Dial Up on Thursday September 13th. This is the third venue for Dial Up, which began life at the Seven Dials Club in Covent Garden before expanding to the Watford Palace Theatre.

Host and singer Alex Williams describes these monthly events as a celebration of community and creativity. The Dial Up website emphasises they are: “all about enjoying live music and performance in all its forms. Alongside singers of every style and genre we regularly welcome instrumentalists, authors, poets, actors, magicians and even dancers!”

Alex explained, ‘while continuing our famous open mic sessions the Coco Dial Up will also have something of an edge, with a jazz and literary focus. As well as more music each month, it means we can experiment with play readings and poetry recitals, workshops and rehearsals that we couldn’t really do at our Palace Theatre event.’

As a first night special Coco’s owner Beth Devonshire provided a free glass of bubbly for all guests, along with a bespoke cupcake. 

One of the audience, Judith Bruni, said: “This gets people together and it is really fun. It’s astonishing how talented people are and this gives them an opportunity.”

Do join us for our future events, details below and on the Coco Dates page! Much love, Alex xx

The Coco Dial Up on The Second Thurday of Every Month, 7pm

At Coco Cafe, Croxley
Tickets £5

Thursday October 11th

Thursday November 8th

Thursday December 13th

Thursday January 10th

Thursday February 14th

Thursday March 14th

Thursday April 11th

Thursday May 9th

Thursday June 13th

Thursday July 11th

Thursday August 8th

Thursday September 12th

The Coco Dial Up!

FREE EVENT!


Join vocalist Alex Williams and the whole Dial Up family for the first ever

COCO Dial Up!

As the Covent Garden and Watford Palace Theatre Dial Ups continue to grow, it's a pleasure to announce our first ever Croxley Dial Up at Beth Devonshire's gorgeous Coco Cafe, literally 30 seconds walk from Croxley tube station. The evening promises all of our usual Dial Up magic with a first half line up of rehearsed performances followed by our inimitable and much loved open mic session in act two!

Plus a free glass of prossecco for all guests, who could ask for more!

7pm, Thursday 13^th September at Coco Cafe


Do join us and help kick the Coco Dial Up off with a bang! Much love, Alex xx



www.facebook.com/thedialup

www.facebook.com/cococafedeli

Next Watford Dial Up: Sunday 9th September, 5pm

Next Covent Garden Dial Up: Friday 21st September, 8pm

The Disney Dial Ups!

As ever our Disney Dials have proved to be a huge success, with not just a spoonful but a whole mountain of sugar very much the theme of the day!

 The Masters of Whimsy performed three Disney favourites in their a cappella style: Lavender Blue, Zip a dee doh dah, and the vulture song from the Jungle Book: That's What Friends Are For.

 Special thanks must go to the amazing and Holly Worthington who, as a consequence of her tireless charity work, had the honour of being an Olympic torchbearer, and kindly shared that honour with us by bringing the torch along! What a privilege!

 Hand clapping and hip swaying galore for our regular closer, Fly Me to the Moon

 We were delighted to welcome to the Dial Up two first timers, Sam W and Alex HW, who quite coincidentally came as pair with delightfully coordinated black and red waistcoats!

 Dial Up favourite Phyllis led us in song on the guitar- after I'd sorted the microphone!

 Minnie Birch (third from left) gave a beautiful medley of songs from Beauty and the Beast

 Karen Kennedy and I lead the chorus as the whole room sang A Spoonful of Sugar- Dame Julie would have been proud! Join us again in September where we have three events lined up:

Sunday 9th Sep, 5pm: The Watford Dial Up at the Palace Theatre

Thursday 13th Sep, 7pm: The first ever Coco Dial Up at Coco Cafe in Croxley!

Friday 21st Sep, 8pm: The Covent Garden Dial at the Seven Dials Club

Hope to see you there and much love! Alex xx

A Very Disney August!

Hello! As ever, August is shaping up to be a Disney-fest for the Dial Up! On Sunday 5th we'll be joined by pianist Samuel Marks at the Watford Palace Theatre to celebrate some of our favourite songs from the Disney songbook along wish special guests Karen Kennedy, Linda Birmingham and The Masters of Whimsy!

Then on Friday 17th at the Seven Dials Club in Covent Garden pianist Wendy Long will be there to support another delve into the delightful ditties of Disney as we're joined by special guests Caspian Wong, The Volery and TMW!

And if all that's just too far away to wait for, join us for a free outdoor Dial Up in aid of Watford Hospital Radio in Charter Place, 1pm- 3pm on Saturday July 28th. No theme, just an afternoon of great open mic as we continue to celebrate community and creativity in all its wondrous forms!

Much love and I look forward to seeing you at one of our events soon! Alex xx

Second Outdoor Dial Up a Roaring Success!

Thanks to everyone who made our second outdoor Dial Up such a tremendous success! Hot on the heels of last weekend's event, our Charter Place Dial Up on Saturday 9th June was even bigger and even better! Bringing live music to the Harlequin and High Street shoppers has never been such fun! Thank you so much to all our performers, helpers and audience members, including the wonderful Kat Dallas (above) who duetted with me on our old favourite 'Ain't Misbehaving' and Glyn Thomas for the photo. See you all at the Palace Theatre, 5pm on Sunday July 1st for our Summer Sizzler themed Dial Up! Much love till then! Alex xx

Our First Ever Outdoor Dial Up!

Thank you to everyone who came to support our first ever outdoor Dial Up on Saturday 2nd June in Charter Place, Watford! As ever, the quality of local talent was phenomenal and we even managed to squeeze a couple of completely spontaneous performances in from passers by! Now THAT'S what the Dial Up's all about! Special thanks to Neil McCarty for these pictures and hopefully see you all for our next Charter Place Dial Up on Saturday 9th, 1pm- 3pm. Much love, Alex xx

 Robin and Mark of The Involved made their Dial Up debut!

 The ever-gorgeous Minnie Birch shared some of her original songs

 The wonderful Karen Kennedy adding some colour to proceedings!

The amazing Ayo! And as you can see our performances were in support of Watford Hospital Radio, a charity very dear to my heart.

Yes, that was a 1937 fire engine we were next too!

 We ended, as ever in Watford, with a communal Fly Me To The Moon!

Thank you so much to all our performers and participants, Dial Up regulars and newbies, everyone's involvement was much appreciated! And it didn't rain! Hehe! See you at the next Dial Up and much love to all! Alex xx

Photos from our Bringing Home the Blues Dial Up!

Thank you so much to everyone who came to support our Bringing Home the Blues Dial Up on June 22nd! Hope you enjoy these photos from the night, for which our sincere thanks to the Dial Up's Chief Photographer Prashant Meswani! Lots of events coming up in June, check our Watford and Covent Garden Dates pages for details! Hope to see you there and much love! Alex xx

 Our band was joined for the first time by a saxophonist! Big welcome to the wonderful Adrian Pring!

 Our marvellous drummer, Roman Marie!

 Our first half special guest, poet and Playerist publisher Martin Slidel

 A welcome return for our soul sister, Bandana Gill

 And our pianist-on-sabbatical, Jon Medcalf! Lovely to have him back with us!

 Singer and songwriter Caspian performs Chasing Cars with Bandana

 For the first time ever I handed over Open Mic hosting responsibilities to our resident poet, Jim Connor! And a marvellous job he did too!

 The soul sisters reunited! Bandana with the terrific Tracy Holtham

 Jo sings Cry Me A River with Cole on guitar. Heaven!

 Making her Dial Up debut- poet Elaine O'Neill!

 The astounding voice and piano playing of Thomas John 

 After a first half duet with yours truly, the gorgeous Peter Jones served up a bluesy cup of Black Coffee!

 Another Dial Up debut, the amazing Blair Kelly! With a Dial Up badge on! We like :-)

 The ever sonorous, hypnotic voice of the Dial Up's own Anthony Folami

 Matthew Thompson proves the Dial Up can do funk as well as blues! All genres welcome ;-)

 Another delightful return to the Dial up from Lola Phillips. A month of returns and firsts, but always a family of friends. I hope you can join us on Friday June 22nd as the Dial Up Does Duets! See you then and much love! Alex xx

More photos from the Watford Celebration!

More photos from onstage and backstage at the Watford Celebration! Our immense thanks to the day's official photographer, Ben Geremia, for taking the shots. If you'd like to see more of his work, do check out his website! www.photomaniabybengeremia.com Much love, Alex xx

The Dial Up at Watford Celebration!

Thanks so much to EVERYONE who came to support The Dial Up at the Watford Celebration on Bank Holiday Monday. The Colosseum was buzzing with activity, a real hive of creativity as representatives from every section of the Watford community came together to celebrate Harmony in Diversity. Our next Watford Dial Up is at 5pm on Sunday June 3rd at the Palace Theatre- I look forward to seeing you all there! Much love, Alex xx

The Dial Up had a stall from 11am -5pm, and it quickly became the place to be! So many members of the Dial Up family came to support that it quickly became a party! Here's our resident poet Jim Connor, me in my hat, Dial Up newbie Bradley and Dial Up regular John Gompers.

 The wonderful Shirley Connor and Helen Green!

 Proudly showing off our Dial Up badges! If you haven't got yours yet, get a shake on! Lol! :-)

 Our pianist for the day, the terrific Laci!

 We were on stage at 4pm singing some of our well known favourites, A Train, I Won't Send Roses, Brazil, Come Fly With Me, Fly Me To The Moon and Bye Bye Blackbird.

Thanks to Greg Peachy, Judith Bruni and everyone on the Celebration committee for putting together such a wonderful and successful event! Can't wait for next year! And thanks to Nathan and the Vibe Tribe for the photos! Much love, Alex xx