Well, I hope you are all enjoying our spendid-looking new website. No expense has been spared, no stone left unturned to bring you the best images of the Locrians at work! I am particularly pleased with the splendid new costumes that Carol Moon designed us for the Romance show, all gold and silver. Johann Strauss wrote a waltz called "Gold and Silver" and I think I shall start including it in our programmes. Our Christmas Carols tour at the end of last year was extraordinarily extensive and successful. Taking us as far north as Beverley in Yorkshire, and ending in Exmouth, we must have covered many thousands of miles, and played many hundreds of carols. If you saw the show, you will know that our double bass player, Paddy Lannigan, produced an astonishing "climax" to the evening when when appeared as Fairy Snowdrop, dressed in a tutu, builder¹s boots, a string vest, and a gaudy yellow wig. His rendition of "All I want for Christmas" and "Nobody loves a fairy when she's 40" inevitably brought the house down, and it will be very hard to top next year! Paddy was so dedicated to the role that he decided to have a full body wax to get into the part, and went around all his colleagues in the musical world, getting sponsorship for the ordeal. All proceeds, which should amount to almost a thousand pounds, will be given to the Locrian¹s nominated charity, Annie Mawson¹s Sunbeams Music Trust. Typical of Paddy, he thought the waxing should be filmed, and he turned up at the beauty salon complete with cameraman and sound engineer, much to the astonishment of onlookers. The final version of his hair removal now appears on DVD complete with a soundtrack, and makes eye-watering viewing...not for the squeamish! We had splendid audiences, many sell-out houses on the Carols tours, and I was delighted that so many people came to see us, when we were performing Christmas material  as early as the last week in November. One of the great joys for us Locrians was that because the ensemble remained largely the same personnel for the duration of the tour, we only had to do a very swift sound check when we arrived at a new venue, instead of a full rehearsal. This meant that we could all go off doing Christmas present shopping in the afternoon, and I have never been so well prepared or so advanced in my list of presents as this last Christmas. Particularly good shopping was carried out in Lincoln and Wells; those little lanes leading up to the cathedrals in both towns  are a rabbit warren full of brilliant shops, full of unusual surprises. I bought some excellent shoes for my nephews in Ireland, taking care to ring  them up on their mobiles to find out their sizes before buying.  Rita and Jean also had a great deal of success in Lincoln and Wells, so there¹s my recommendation to you all for next year - come to our show and get your present shopping done beforehand! After Christmas with my family in Ireland, I thought a rest would be in order, and as usual I rented a Landmark Trust property. After the alarms and excursions of the previous year travelling to Fort Clonque in Alderney, this year we were more conservative, renting a stunning medieval manor house in Somerset, called Gurney Manor.    I had always fancied trying a holiday in this part of the world after I had taken a long distance walk between Bath and Minehead some years ago. On that walk, the descent from the Mendips to Wells was simply stunning. On a warm summer evening, I looked down from the hills towards the Somerset Levels. In the valley below, the sun was setting just above the spire of Wells Cathedral and all the rest of the city was covered by mist. We walked on further over the waterlogged canals of the Levels, and then at Bridgewater  started the slow climb up over the Quantocks, eventually arriving in Minehead. I will never forget that evening in Minehead...we decided to go to the cinema, and nine of us formed a queue outside the theatre. When it was time for the film to start, the manager came and said that he would only show the movie  if there was a minimum audience of ten. So we all spilled out on to the street until we had convinced another astonished bystander to join us. The quorum being completed, we were offered a choice of two equally atrocious movies. The consensus was for a Michael Caine movie, so we went into the auditorium, and found that the film had already started some ten minutes before. The manager quite obviously wanted us out as soon as possible. When we took our seats, my close friend, long-distance walker and record producer, Michael Ponder, could hear a disturbing amount of noise coming from the projecting room, and decided to investigate. When he popped his head up towards the large projector, suddenly the growling head of a large Alsatian dog appeared, snapping wildly with his tongue hanging out, like a scene from "Peter and the Wolf". We roared with shock and laughter, as the figure of the dog's head filled the screen with it's silhouette, and was certainly more entertaining than watching Michael Caine stumble through a wretched script.    In any event, I was able to explore the Quantocks again this New Year, and had some wonderful walks over the straggling paths that afford wonderful views both down to the sea, and inland to Exmoor. What a wonderful part of Britain.    So, now we are firmly looking forward to another busy year of touring with the Locrians. Two new shows are on offer, the first modestly titled "The Greatest Classical Concert in the History of the World". I am delighted that the first time this programme appears is at the newly refurbished Hackney Empire. All reports are that the theatre looks simply stunning, and with a popular and rousing show, I hope we can live up to the traditions and memories of this wonderful venue. We are joined for that concert by the brilliant young percussionists, O Duo, and also the tenor Tim Evans Jones. Those of you have seen us working with Jill Washington, will know what a wonderful professional she is; always immaculately prepared, invariably producing a polished performance. It is no wonder that she enjoys a very high-profile career. Tim is her husband, and also enjoys a busy life as a tenor, performing frequently on radio and with the top opera companies. He is offering  some of the best tenor arias, including Neapolitan folk songs, and naturally finishing with "Nessun Dorma". We are including some of the most popular Proms numbers - nobody can get enough of that- and, hopefully, an interesting arrangement of 1812 overture for the ensemble. At the moment we are a little stuck for canon and mortars, but don't imagine that we will not get there in the end.    The other very fulfilling project for me, personally, is the touring of my play with music about Edward Elgar, called "Stirring the Spirit". It was commissioned by Anne Dudley (Oscar winning composer of the music for "The Full Monty") for her festival at Sarratt in Hertfordshire at the end of 2003. I had long wanted to write a piece about Elgar, but during my research, I became increasingly aware that the composer had a darker side than his more popular image would suggest. For many of his later years, he was considered past his sell-by date. Indeed, the Queens Hall was half empty for his seventieth birthday concert. He was devastated by the death of his wife Alice, and never really managed to complete works of original substance after she had passed away. It seemed that required the company of beautiful women to inspire him, and despite a late flurry with a violinist named Vera Hockman, his last ten years were largely unproductive as a composer.    I had thought that it might be a good idea to place my drama in a nursing home, where Elgar was being attended to by a fictional young nurse to whom he grew increasingly attached, thereby allowing him to indulge in "japes", or pranks, and also to reminisce to a sympathetic ear. Imagine my delight when I was introduced to a new book by Kevin Allen, who detailed in an appendix, that this scenario happened for real! Elgar, when he was sent to South Bank Nursing Home in Worcester in his last months, developed a very close relationship with his nurse, Kathleen Harrison. So much so, that Harrison had to be released from her nursing duties for a stretch because Elgar was wearing her out with his demands for attention! When Elgar found that his tumor was inoperable he  pleaded to Harrison, "Promise you will never leave me, Kathleen". Elgar was allowed home to die,  and Kathleen was on duty at Elgar's home the night he died.    It was almost as if the story was telling itself through my hands as I wrote it, and I am so grateful to David Graham (Elgar) and Serena Evans (Carice and Nurse Harrison) for their wonderfully committed and moving performances. We have had excellent reviews so far. here are just a couple of them:       "an undeniable "portrait of Elgar", warts and all. Elgar is assisted by Carice, his carer Nurse Harrison, and an onstage piano quintet. For me the evening two most glorious moments come when the author includes arrangements of "Nimrod" and the lyrical piano solo, "In Smyrna"- a touch of genius! It is hard to credit that this most beautiful of miniature tone poems lay all but lost until twenty five years ago. The intention here is to review the play rather than the performance, but it is only fair to add that all involved in this premiere performance - David Graham as Elgar, Serena Evans as Carice and Nurse Harrison, and a strengthened English Piano trio - give exemplary performances.    This is a hugely entertaining and absorbing evening. If it comes to a theatre near you, be sure not to miss it.    John Norris - Elgar Society Journal "An enthralling theatrical experience" Ken Hulme, Evening News We are planning to bring "Stirring the Spirit" to the Reid Hall at the Edinburgh Festival for two weeks in the Summer this year, as well as touring regional theatres. For David's and Serena's sake, I really hope that it might translate into a West End run at a later date. New recordings by the Locrians to appear this year should be really exciting. We have the arrangements of two Beethoven symphonies and the Pathetique sonata, discovered abandoned in a Swiss library since the 1820's, released on the Guild label around March. Early reaction indicates that this is going to be our very best disc to date. We also recorded the chamber music of Walter Leigh, an English composer who was tragically killed in Libya in World War II, and that will be released in the Autumn on the Dutton Epoch label. Most of the these pieces were still written in manuscript and held by his daughter in New York, so there has been a lot of work involved in  bringing this wonderful music to disc. Particularly appealing is a Romance for String Quintet, which only lasts three and a half minutes. We will be performing this along with the Carnival of the Animal at the Maddermarket Theatre on Tuesday, March 2nd. So that's the best of the news for the moment. As always, thanks to you all for your support, and we look forward to meeting you again at one of our concerts. Justin