Music / Interview
Interview: Victoria Bourne
Victoria Bourne is a busy gal, as well as her main gig with ace punk blues band Husky Tones she’s got a myriad of projects on the go. Her latest is an innovative, exciting and frankly excellent concept for a series of live shows…she’s tells all about Rearranged below, and tickets for the first edition are here.
So, what’s the concept then?
A celebration of the songs of two well-known musicians, one male and one female, rearranged and performed in their own unique way. A showcase for established Bristol musicians, guest slots for artists outside of Bristol and introducing new talent from the South West.
How did the idea come about?
From hanging out drinking with other Bristol musician friends, “Oh, we should do a Dusty night’ or “Ooh, let’s do a Jeff night”. I love doing Husky Tones but I really missed having time to do other kinds of singing for myself. I thought if I make this happen it’s going to force me into getting on and doing other kinds of singing styles that I love. I have an “OK let’s get on and do this” attitude and thought I’m just gonna get on and organise it.
is needed now More than ever
Give us the schedule, and tell us what can we look forward to?
Dusty Springfield and Jeff Buckley 4th November 2018. Bristol established acts, Victoria Bourne, Chris Harper, Sarah Larkham and introducing Hattie Shepherd, Tom Randle. A mix of acoustic and electric interpretations with and without drums.
Bonnie Raitt and John Lee Hooker 6th December 2018. Bristol’s finest Bonnie Raitt band First Raitt with Caroline Tarbuck and Mike Crawford singing John Lee Hooker. Full Band.
Kate Bush and Scott Walker 7th February 2019. Bristol established act Victoria Bourne and Chris Harper, special guest Rookes from London plus members of the Bristol Hippodrome Choir and introducing Hannah Khan. Acoustic, electronic looping technology, chorale, synthesisers, drums and double bass.
These are pretty unique gigs, any plans to record for posterity and maybe some kind of physical artefact?
You’re not the first person to ask that. We’re gonna see what we can sort out. They are certainly going to be videoed, we would love to record them as well. I can tell you now there are Flamenco, Indian, jazz, rock, chorale versions of songs going on as well as some sung in Spanish.
Any plans for future whole band shows?
Patti Smith and Iggy Pop: sometime in July 2019, featuring Husky Tones, special guest drummer Sally Ann Iles and other acts tbc.
You’ve got some excellent choices, but what about the horror pairings: anything that you brainstormed and thought would be train wreck?
Britney Spears and Leonard Cohen.
In fact following that line of thought, would you like to suggest partners for…Ted Nugent and Gene Simmons?
Ted Nugent: David Crosby, he hates David Crosby, and then Gene Simmons with Taylor Swift
Any artists you wanted to feature but couldn’t find an ideal partner?
No it’s been relatively easy to pair people up.
How much are the events going to be rehearsed and how much is going to be improvised on the night?
There is so much rehearsal going on. None of the artists we chose for this series have simple arrangements. You have to learn to original first before you can rearrange it. That’s been surprising, for example the Dusty and Jeff night, you’d think the Dusty would be quite pop but there are all kinds of strange little extended lines and key signatures. Jeff covers four octaves. It’s been an exciting challenge that’s taking a lot of rehearsing and practice to develop rearranged versions.
Are you mixing obvious material with deeper cuts – how have you been selecting the set lists?
I knew the songs I wanted to do when I’m performing and quite a few are the deeper cuts. For instance on the Scott Walker night no one’s doing Cossacks Are but we’re doing a lot from Scott 3 and Scott 4. I send my set lists out to the other artists and they send me theirs. So far there hasn’t been any clashes. At each event there is something for everyone, some of the more well-known and then some of the deeper cuts.
Will this be a longer term thing or just the four events scheduled?
This is the first series and hopefully if it goes well which its looking like it will do we’ll do it again next year.
Rearranged: The Songs of Dusty Springfield and Jeff Buckley, Bristol Fringe Bar, 4th November 2018
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