News Archive 2007

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13th December 2007

The Last Laugh: Back in February, whilst all eyes was looking towards Picnic at Hanging Rock Brian was involved in another stage production. This time it was called "The Last Laugh" and I have just found a review of this production. The play was directed by Bob Thomson, who worked with Brian on Picnic and Brian contributed the music. Have a read. Last Laugh Review

25th November 2007

Picnic at Hanging Rock: After months of not being able to get onto writing a section on Brian's latest musical, that premiered back in February I managed to get around to it this weekend. Months of writer's block is out of the way. Hoorah!

Whilst searching the Internet I found loads of stuff by people who were associated with the musical, all positive and proud to have been linked to this production. Go to the new page by clicking on the following link. Picnic at Hanging Rock

BilboMusic Update: Following the launch of BilboMusic, the website about Brian and friends way back in the 1970's Dev from the band got in touch to tell Ritchie and I that he thought the site was great! He also send us some new pictures for the website, which is wonderful. If you have yet to visit BilboMusic, now is as good a time as any, as Ritchie and I are very proud of it. BilboMusic

26th August 2007

New Survey: As a result of contact from a site visitor who told me about a brief discussion taking place about Brian Spence's music on the website Melodic Rock I have started a new survey to find out if you would go and see Brian perform his own music in London.

This new survey is partially as a result of a discussion I had with who thought that such an event would NOT be well attended. I would like to prove him wrong (obviously) but I need your help to show him otherwise. If you want to leave your views go to the survey and choose your option. Go to survey.

Spence Hypnotised: A long-time fans of Brian's find an old brief article about Brian and sends it to SpenceMusic. Thanks to Bernadette you too can now read the article from a magazine from 1988.

Site Stats: Occasionally I look at the number of visitors to SpenceMusic. SpenceMusic is not a commercial website so I don't worry about such things, however, February of this year took a dip. There was no significant outages and the only event that I am aware of was the launch of Brian's musical "Picnic at Hanging Rock" in Chichester. Since then the activity is back up to what it was. If anyone has an explanation could they share it with me?

8th July 2007

Update Odds and Ends: Nothing much to report at present. I have been trying to create a page for Picnic at Hanging Rock with success. A thing call life just gets in my way and takes me away from what I want to do.

Speaking of Hanging Rock, there is a video on YouTube from the musical. It features a sample of the performance along with Brian's music. I recommend that if you have not already discovered this, click on the following link. Picnic at Hanging Rock video

Guestbook: Don't forget to leave a message in the Guestbook. There is just one thing to remember, give a genuine email address so that the guestbook can send you an email to confirm that you are a real person and not a spammer. Unfortunately, someone called Dave did not respond to this email and, as a result, his message did not get displayed and is currently lost in the system as spam.

1st June 2007

Colin Chisholm, one of Brian's best mate (if not his best) from his Bilbo Baggins days performed a one-off gig in Edinburgh on Saturday 26th May. This was Colin's first live performance in 6 years, but was at a private function so I was unable to attend. Apparently, Colin had a blast and really enjoyed himself and may perform more gigs around Edinburgh in the near future. I know Brian was pleased that Colin got up and performed, let us hope it is the start of a regular event.

2nd April 2007

Bilbo Music Launches: Today sees the launch of BilboMusic, the new sister website to SpenceMusic. Way back in the distant past before mobile phones, before computers, before X-Factor, reality TV shows, Starsky and Hutch - when colour TV was still new in the UK - Brian helped form a new pop group in his home town of Edinburgh. That group was Bilbo Baggins.

SpenceMusic has helped Ritchie Finney create a website about that band, the music and the trousers. This website, BilboMusic, is hosted by SpenceMusic and features pictures of Brian and his fellow bandmates when they were young, er, sorry, younger. The site also brings together numerous articles, pin-ups and music including "Let's Spend The Night Together" a cover of the Rolling Stones classic that was only available to fan club members.

To discover more about Brian's origins with Colin, Fid, Dev and Tosh click on the link and visit www.bilbomusic.co.uk

25th March 2007

Picnic At Hanging Rock Review: After finally handing my review of the premiere of Picnic At Hanging Rock to my editor (Sue, who took me on like a long lost puppy many, many years ago, to those in the know) amended my article to make it better than it already was. The result is Dreamtime Works.

Picnic Page: I am also in the process of creating a page about Brian's Picnic at Hanging Rock. When this is ready you will be the first to know. However, those of you who are on the SpenceMusic mailing list will have been informed about a video from the live production on YouTube. Due to the production involving a cast, some of which were, under the age of 18, the poster was asked for the video to be taken down and they obliged.

Bilbo Site: Just a reminder that the new BilboMusic website will launch on the 2nd April with some old images of Brian and his old band from the 1970s Bilbo Baggins. Their version of "Let's Spend The Night Together", which was never previously released, will also be featured.

17th March 2007

Hanging Rock Picnic Article: Living reasonably close to Chichester I came across an article in the Chichester Observer newspaper about the Bob Tomson directed musical. It talks to Bob about his approach to the stage event. There is little mention of the music. The article called Keeping The Mystery Intact can be found in the articles section or by clicking on the following link. Keeping The Mystery Intact

And a week later the same reporter (Phil Hewitt) wrote a review of Picnic At Hanging Rock. This can be read at Mystery Translates Well To Stage

I am part way through writing my own review. Just as well this is not a commercial site otherwise I would have had to sack myself ages ago for later delivery of my own work.

New BilboMusic Website: This new site by Ritchie Finney, with some help from me, launches on 2nd April 2007. The site is hosted by SpenceMusic but you can go there by using the address of www.bilbomusic.co.uk As I said previously, this will have a huge amount of old articles and pictures of Brian's old band and will include a video of them performing live in a television studio.

7th February 2007

Happy Birthday: Best wishes go to Brian who becomes age 54 today.

Dusty Springfield: Whilst searching the Internet and, specifically YouTube, I discovered someone had placed a copy of Dusty Springfield's video to Reputation, written by Brian. Those of you wanting to see this can do so by going to the Other Artists page or by clicking the following link. Go To Dusty.

The Last Laugh: Hot on the heels of Picnic At Hanging Rock, where Brian has written the music and lyrics for a play directed by Bob Tomson, comes another play also directed by Bob Tomson. This time it is called "The Last Laugh" and the music is by someone called Brian Spence. This show, which stars Martin Freeman (The Office, Hitch-hikers Guide To The Galaxy) and Roger Lloyd-Pack (Vicar of Dibley and Only Fools and Horses) is a comedy by Richard Harris adapted from an original play by Koki Mitani. The play is about a comedy troupe writer walking a fine line with a government censor who also wants to write.

The play is on a brief tour of England visiting Windsor, Cheltenham, Milton Ketnes, Richmond and Newcastle. Unlike Picnic At Hanging Rock this is not a musical but it has music in, which is written by Brian. If you can get to see it you should. You can get more information by visiting the What's On Stage website or by clicking on the folllowing link. The Last Laugh

12th January 2007

BilboMusic: Over the last couple of years I have been working with Ritchie Finney, a fan of Bilbo Baggins - Brian's old band from the 1970's, to produce a website celebrating that time. The wait is nearly over.

This was a large project, much larger than I initially thought, and one which would never have developed into the website it has (let alone got off the ground) if it was not for Ritchie's patience and commitment to the long haul task of sorting through mounds of cuttings, photographs and information that she has stored for around 3 decades. If that doesn't make Brian and the other members of Bilbo Baggins (plus Ritchie) feel old nothing will.

In the photograph shown above Brian and the other members of Bilbo Baggins can be seen in a group hug. But which one is Brian? There are no major prizes for guessing correctly, however, I will issue a SpenceMusic certificate to anyone who emails me the correct answer by the end of March.

New Album and Tour for Danny: Danny Litchfield, sometime writing partner of Brian's has a new album coming out soon. Danny and Brian previously wrote the track "River To Heaven" which Danny sang for the Search For A Song section of last year's UK for Eurovision Song Contest. On the new album there are a number of songs that Brian and Danny have written between them. In addition, Danny will be out on the road promoting the new album by supporting Westlife at a number of dates.

River To Heaven: Talking about this Brian Spence and Danny Litchfield track as I was in the above article you can now listen to it on SpenceMusic by visiting the Download page.

The Boland Show: As I reported back in September of last year Brian and Danny Litchfield were regulars on The Boland Show on the Sky Overseas Property TV channel. The show was cancelled after about 12 programmes were recorded. So, if you got a chance to see any, well done you did better than me. The show's cancellation did allow Brian to concentrate on writing the music for Picnic At Hanging Rock.

Picnic At Hanging Rock Film Showing: In the last update I mentioned that the 1975 film of Picnic At Hanging Rock was being shown that night. Fortunately, it is being shown again on Film4, this time on 16th January at 18.50. The film was based on the same book that Brian's music is based on for the stage show being performed in Chichester in late February.

Site Update: I normally revise the look of the website about this time every year. Not this year. I am thinking of a revision to the website, however, I am no where near ready to implement this due to other factors.

10th January 2007

Happy New Year: Firstly, Happy New Year to everyone. I hope you all had a good time over the last year and that the new year brings you happiness above everything else.

Picnic At Hanging Rock: For those of you who are signed up to the mailing list this will not be news. However, for those of you NOT signed up, shame on you (see the navigation bar on the left to change that), this is BIG News. A new musical will be treading the boards of the Chichester Minerva Theatre in West Sussex, England in late February based on the novel, written in 1967, by Joan Lindsay called Picnic At Hanging Rock. The musical has been adapted to the stage by Robert Johns with music and lyrics have been written by Brian Spence.

The book follows the story of the disappearance of 3 school girls and a teacher from a beauty spot in Australia during 1900. The book was made into a film 1975 which won a BAFTA Film Award and will be shown, for those of you who have access to Freeview, Sky, NTL and Telewest, on Film4 on Wednesday 10th January at 6.50 pm GMT. That's TONIGHT at the time of writing this (if you were on the mailing list you would have had more notice).

Picnic At Hanging Rock will be at the Chichester Minerva Theatre from 23rd February to 3rd March with tickets being £15. The show is being presented by the West Sussex County Youth Theatre - talented young people from West Sussex schools and colleges, they are aged between 16 and 25, the cast numbers over 40.

This is a rare opportunity to see and hear new Brian Spence music on stage and should not be missed. For those wanting more information please visit the Chichester Festival Theatre website at http://www.cft.org.uk/cft-productions_details.asp?pid=67 The West Sussex County Youth Theatre have a national and international reputation for producing high quality theatre.

I will be creating a new SpenceMusic page to cover this important event soon.

Page Last Updated: 4th March 2010

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