Cool Britannia- The Dial Up celebrates the Great British Songbook!

Thank you so much to everyone who came along to our First Birthday Bash this month! What a party! With four amazing performers squeezed into the first half, and a positive cavalcade of open mic performers- including, for the first time ever, a magician- it was a truly spectacular evening! Not least because about halfway through I got a sugar rush from the copious quantities of cake doing the rounds... hehe!

Please do come and join us for our next event on Friday 18th November when we'll be pulling out the Best of the Great British songbook! I look forward to seeing you then! Much love, Alex xx 

The Seven Dials Club,

42 Earlham Street, Covent Garden

Friday 18^th November, 7.30pm for 8pm start

Tickets £5

Future Covent Garden dates:

Friday 16^th December: The Dial Up Christmas Special!

Friday 20^th January: Bring in the New Year with a song!

Friday 17^th February: Love songs for the month of romance

Planning a party or event? Email contactalex@thedialup.co.uk Phone 07763 695 481

Special guests confirmed for The Dial Up First Birthday Bash!

Hi Everyone! On Friday 21st October The Dial Up celebrates its first birthday at the Seven Dials Club in Covent Garden. Alongside our usual blend of live music, poetry and general merriment, there'll also be cake (Lol!) and some extra-special special guests!

Soul singer Lola Phillips, a Dial Up favourite, will be on hand to perform some of her favourite tracks...

Long time Dial Up supporter Maria Gierszewski will once again dazzle us with her inimitable vocal stylings!

Neil Maxfield (on the right) came to the Dial Up for the first time last month and gave such a wonderful rendition of Cole Porter's 'Night and Day' as part of our Great American Songbook theme that we just had to invite him back!

And finally our resident soul singer, guitarist and songwriter, the delectable Tracy Holtham will be there to warm our cockles! What a line up! Only one question, why has everyone suddenly gone orange? Oh well, if you can't beat them...

 

Photos from our Great American Songbook Dial Up!

What an evening it was! Thanks to everyone who came along and made it such a special night, and big thanks to Colin McLeod for the following photographic evidence...

 Jon Medcalf and I prepare for take off with our usual vigour, and the Duke Ellington classic 'Take The A Train'

 The hilarious Fongphu Tran and his glove puppet with a number from Avenue Q!

 The wonderful Helen Green adds a little culture to the evening with a bit of Bach

 Our resident poet Jim Connor gave us the appropriately seasonal 'September Song'

Did someone say Maltesers? This way, please...

 Me looking surprisngly bright-eyed and bushy-tailed!

 The wonderful Jenny Branch makes her Dial Up debut...

 ...and it was our pleasure to welcome back her performance partner, the irrepressible Sam Marks!

 Liza Keast performed three American Songbook classics with Jon Medcalf on piano

Shimmering and splendid from top to toe! I want that hat!

As ever, we close with our fabulous farewell track Bye Bye Blackbird!

See you all at the next Dial Up, our first birthday bash, on Friday 21st October! xxx

Four new videos from the Disney Dial Up are now on the website!

Finally! We know you've been waiting for them ;-) And there are loads more on youtube! This one's Sacha Lisi and I singing 'No Matter What' from Beauty and the Beast, but there's also Nisha Halai, The Masters of Whimsy, Ekky Archibong, Frank Odendall... the list goes on! Take a look and let me know what you think! Much love, Alex xx

Photos from our Disney Dial Up August 2011!

 Who knew there were so many Disney fans in London!? Well, okay, so maybe we had an inkling...

 The Disney Dial Up was a HUGE success, with more sing-alongs, duets and debuts than ever before!

 Tracy Holtham, our resident soul sister, wowed us with her interpretation of a few Disney tracks including 'I Can Go The Distance' from Hercules.

 Nisha Halai, a much-loved member of the Dial Up family, made her first half debut with 'Can You Feel The Love Tonight' from the Lion King. As ever, the marvellous Jon Medcalf on piano!

 Sacha Lisi and I sang the gorgeous father-daughter duet 'No Matter What' from Beauty and the Beast.

 An amusing (or painful?) event clearly happening stage right! Helen Durkin and I later sang 'Beauty and the Beast' as a duet. She was Celine Dion, somehow I ended up as Angela Lansbury...

Jon, Tracy and I in full pose (though my hat seems to have disappeared...)

Nicholas and Rupal gave a splendid rendition of 'Part Of Your World' (dialogue most definitely included)

The Masters of Whimsy made their Dial Up debut (and world premiere, incidentally) with 'That's What Friends Are For' from The Jungle Book. More to come! Hope to see you all at our Great American Songbook special on Friday 23rd September! Much love, Alex xx

Two videos from our Globetrotting July Dial Up

How sad to say goodbye to Bandana for a second time as, unexpectedly, she was able to join us for our July Dial Up. It was a real treat to have her with us for one more month but she's now off on her world tour; it seems utterly appropriate that our theme was globetrotting! In honour of which Take the A-Train, which has become something of a theme tune for us, was performed in a fuller than normal version, above. And below take a listen to Bandana's beautiful version of Wicked Game. More videos available on the Video page! Much love, Alex xx

Three new videos in our Video Library!

Go check them out, especially Bye Bye Blackbird! If you were with us for June's summer themed show, it's an absolute MUST to watch! See you on the 15th! Much love, Alex xx