East Sussex National Golf Club...

...and other prestigious venues...

...are places where Cornucopia has played! We started life as a jazz band called Melodius Thunk, and have played at, among others, the Globe Theatre, the Park Lane Hilton, Lambeth Palace, The Valley (Charlton Athletic Football Ground), The New Connaught Rooms, Number 4 Hamilton Place, HMS President, the East Sussex National Golf Club and London City Airport (for their Family Fun Day).

Spicerhaart Christmas Party

A new client...

Spicerhaart Group, comprising Haart estate agents, Spicer McColl, Darlows and Felicity J Lord, have just booked us as the 8-piece band for their Christmas party on 18 December. We are delighted to be providing the entertainment for them, and will make sure that the event rocks, as ever.

Scouting for Girls...

...at the Bond pre-screening

No, it's not what we'll be doing - it's who it is rumoured will be there. A little bird has told me that this popular band, who released hits such as "She's so lovely" and "Heartbeat", are planning to come and perform their new song, "James Bond" at the evening, so they will use our equipment. I hope they know what they're doing...!

Charity Ball

Prince's Trust and Macmillan Cancer Support

The NatWest bank are holding a Charity Ball on the 2 Dec at the Hilton Metropole in London. Tickets are £110 and the proceeds will go to support The Prince's Trust, Macmillan Cancer Support, St Francis' Hospice and the Newspaper Education Trust. There will be a champagne reception, charity auctions and speeches, plus, of course, live music from Cornucopia followed by a DJ. Tickets are available from jurate.east@ntlworld.com. They are hoping to raise £100,000 for the chosen charities, so book your ticket now...

The Railway, Blackheath

Solo gigs for Richard

I do a regular spot at the Railway, Blackheath (next to Blackheath Rail Station) on Wednesdays from 8-11pm. I was there again last night - good crowd - more responsive than the week before, where I barely got an acknowledgement that I existed... Played and sang a few songs which I've never done before -"Red, Red Wine" by Neil Diamond, "Crocodile Rock" by Elton John, "Panic" by the Smiths, "The Leaving of Liverpool"... all requested by punters. I decided it would have been too ambitious this time around to do "Delerium Tremens" by Christy Moore, although it was asked for... maybe next time. I'll be there again next week, then will find a dep to take my place for the 2 weeks when I'm in LA.

Centerparcs, Longleat

Cornucopia, wild at heart

Next Saturday (1 Nov) Cornucopia will be playing at The Venue, Centerparcs, Longleat Safari Park. We do this approximately once per month - it's a blooming long way, but we only play for an hour, and the audience is always responsive. We play from 9.30-10.30 pm, so if you are by chance visiting Centerparcs that weekend, come and see us. Oh, and get some of the chocolate fountain while you're there...

Busy week next week... Tuesday rehearsal for Bond gig, Wednesday I'm gigging at the Railway, Blackheath, Thursday is the Bond gig, Friday is a Hallowe'en party, Saturday Centerparcs and Sunday LA! Phew!

TAXI Road Rally

LA, here I come

In just over a week I will be flying to Los Angeles for the TAXI Annual Road Rally. For those of you who don't know, TAXI is an American song placement company - if you write songs, then they try to ensure that they get heard by the right people. I write a lot, and the songs I have submitted to TAXI have been well-received. Really I just need to write more, and keep submitting them, as something will stick eventually. Anyway, it should be an amazing time, and it'll be my first time in the USA. I'm really looking forward to it.

Quantum of Solace

...the name's Bond, James Bond...

For those of you that don't know, Cornucopia have been contracted as the band to perform at the pre-screening of the new James Bond movie "Quantum of Solace", starring Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko and Mathieu Amalric. This will be happening at a venue in Central London on 30 October - I could tell you where, but I'd have to kill you... We have to perform a stack of Bond theme tunes, including "Nobody Does It Better", "Goldfinger" and of course the new Bond Theme, "Another Way To Die" by Jack White and Alicia Keys. And we get to watch the film! Result! I am currently writing the arrangements - we are providing a 9-piece band for this, including the all-female horn section that we are so proud of...

Shaken, not stirred...

Rich

Maeve Morris

Soprano Extraordinaire

I have the privilege of being great friends with Maeve and her husband David Falconer. I actually grew up with David in Dublin - we were quite competitive musically, but these days we just co-operate. We have very different musical interests, but at the same time remain remarkably similar in approach. When I taught at Blackheath Bluecoat School, I took the Gospel Choir over for a week to St Mark's, Warrenpoint - they did some concerts and had a fantastic week.

Maeve is an extraordinary singer - amazingly subtle and effortless in the way she soars to the notes. For those of you who don't know, she toured Australia as Josephine in Timothy West's production of HMS Pinafore in 2004.

If Cornucopia are not to your taste, or you need your fix of "serious" music, Maeve is available to sing at your function - email me if you are interested and I will sort it out for you...

Absolute Radio...

...from Abbey Road Studio 2

Some of you may have heard Cornucopia mentioned on the Christian O'Connell show on Absolute Radio when they broadcast from Abbey Road Studio 2 to celebrate the rebranding from Virgin Radio.

Basically, Christian mentioned that they were looking for a house band to play the stings in between the travel, weather etc, and needed musicians. I rang in, and he proceeded to extract the Michael at some length about the name Cornucopia - "you'll never be famous with a name like that!". Well, I will if he keeps mentioning it in front of a million listeners! Anyway, I got through, and had the pleasure of MD-ing a bunch of really nice chaps, and good musicians to boot. I played on Mrs Mills, the original piano from "Lady Madonna", a Steinway and a Fender Rhodes too. And got the chance to publicise Cornucopia at the end of the show, which was a fantastic opportunity.

Absolutely.

Abba tribute

Thank you for the music...

Slightly separate from Cornucopia, but I had the dubious pleasure of going to Bangor University to dep as Benny in an Abba Tribute band the other day - great fun, but what a journey! 7 hours to get there, didn't go on till 12.30am, finished at 1.30am, left Bangor at 3am, back in London at 9am. I was indeed a Super Trouper!

Rich

Celebrity wedding...

Carmen Bruegmann & Anthony Nevill

Cornucopia played for the wedding of Carmen and Anthony in September. For those of you who don't know, Carmen is the deputy editor of "She" magazine. We had the 8-piece band out for this one. The wedding took place at Eridge Park in Tunbridge Wells, and was a marvellous occasion, with a huge firework display accompanied by music written by the bridegroom himself. Anthony also took to the stage to play the drums for "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder. The first dance was the superb "I don't wanna miss a thing" by Aerosmith, sung brilliantly by Gavin Conder, our male lead vocalist for the night.