This unofficial site features his current and recent events and tours
Review of Hampton Court Beer and Jazz Festival-
29th August 2010
I'd started Tony's summer festivals this year at Greenwich Beer and Jazz Festival on a sunny and breezy day on the second bank holiday in May, here I was again on a bank holiday weekend in Hampton Court with Tony doing the same sort of show.
As usual I'd kept a keen eye on the weather forecast. I'd learnt from Greenwich that unless you were there for the beer and cider, there really wasn't that much point in getting there much in there much before 6.00 pm. I was glad that we decided to do this as around about 4.00 pm the heavens opened and an extremely heavy rainstorm happened. Within about 30 minutes the rain stopped and it remained dry for the rest of the evening.
We took our picnic chairs and decided to sit in the audience on the left hand side of the stage and only later did we pack the chairs away and go and stand at the front. It was unfortunate that there wasn't an exclusion zone for chairs (and tables) close to the stage as people parked their chairs next to the barrier so it ended up that they took up more space than they should have.
For an August evening the weather was very cold with most people wearing sweatshirts and waterproofs to keep them warm, although I did see people wearing strappy tops or long flowing sun dresses and thought maybe they don't feel the cold or the beer is keeping them warm.
There were some familiar faces in the swing band including Richie Barrett, Simon Willescroft, Dave Williamson and Dan Carpenter and the whole band with Tony at the helm was on top form.
This sort of show usually starts off with 'The Mood I'm In' and this one was no difference. This set was longer than the one at Greenwich.
Tony made some quips about feeling 48 when he sang 'You make me feel so young' and then said that he didn't worry that he had turned 50 and that you are as young as you feel. When he sang 'Fly me to the moon' he looked round for the moon, but the sky was very cloudy, but even if the sky had been clear it would have been behind the stage and he wouldn't have seen it (as we did when the clouds parted mometarily). The version of 'Mack the Knife' is really good and I liked the addition of 'Feeling good', Tony said he had copied the arrangement from Michael Buble.
Tony mentioned the weather joking that he loved the british summer weather and how everyone was wearing coats, but I for one was glad it wasn't raining.
It was an excellent evening and I really enjoyed it, even though I couldn't drink any of the beer and cider on offer as I was driving back to Wendy's.
I wish as well as looking at the weather forecast, I had looked at the forthcoming roadworks on the M3 as we got caught in two lanes being closed due to road maintenance and the journey back took us 40 minutes longer than it should have done.