Julia Fordham

XMAS IN LONDON

// December 12th, 2011 // No Comments »

I had the best time ever in London singing at the Judith Owen and Harry Shearer Christmas Sing-A-Long.

KATARINA GLEICHER

// November 21st, 2011 // No Comments »

On Friday night at Genghis Cohen in LA, I joined the lovely singer songwriter Katarina Gleicher on 2 of my songs: “Happy Ever After” & “Stay” and a Joni Mitchell classic “Big Yellow Taxi”.

MY FRIEND VONDA SHEPARD

// October 17th, 2011 // No Comments »

I had a wonderful time with lovely singer songwriter Vonda Shepard singing the Crowded House song “Don’t Dream It’s Over” at our friends birthday party. Vonda has some gigs coming up, she is a knock out live. Check her out here.

JUDITH OWEN in LONDON

// September 16th, 2011 // No Comments »

Giant talent, Judith Owen my sensational singing and songwriting fellow Brit pal, has a 3 month residency coming up at the Pheasantry in London, starting Oct 3rd. Jude is also starring with Ruby Wax in the west end  hit show “Losing It”.

MARI WILSON

// September 6th, 2011 // No Comments »

When I was 18 or 19, somewhere back there in the late teens, I remember me and Dad were watching the telly one night, a variety show of some sorts, and on came this knock out band and singer called Mari Wilson and The Wilsations. Quite the blast of eye and ear candy, they were fantastic. My Dad said, “now THAT is the band you should be in, that is exactly what you should be doing, you should be one of those girls there.” At that time I was working at Radio Victory, a station in Portsmouth broadcasting to the south coast of England. I was looking for a full time singing job as I was working on my own songs to try and get my own record deal. I used to race down to the corner shop and grab the weekly music papers that arrived 2 days later than when they hit the stands in London, and I would frantically flick through the pages looking for gigs. Believe it or not, and I swear this is absolutely true, the VERY MORNING after Mari’s TV show performance, there in black and white leaping out of the page right at me was a big ad that said, “We are looking for 2 girl singers for a Kid Creole and the Coconuts style band”. I rang the #, and guess what, it was Mari’s manager saying they were auditioning that very day! I will never forget the kindness of the folks at Radio Victory who scrambled to help me make the train to the audition in North London. We missed it, but charged on to the next station where I managed to run flat out from the car driven at high speed, I leapt out while it was still running and legged it to the platform, grabbing the door handle of the train, just as the chap was blowing that hurry up you are out of time whistle. So I managed to get to Waterloo, sprint to the tube, then a bus and a taxi later I finally make it to the hall in Muswell Hill just in time to see the door closing and a sign going up saying they had called it day! Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! I explained to the lone remaining record company exec that I had come all this way and just could NOT go back home and face the troops in the office without even having had a chance to try out for the band. After some deliberation, as all the musicians and Mari had left and they thought they had found the new girls, it was agreed that if I showed up at 10 am the next morning, he would arrange for one of the guys in the band to meet me at that spot and pick me up and take me on his motor bike and take me to his house and I could try out there which I did! So my Dad was right, I WAS meant to be in that band with Mari and we had the time of our lives travelling all over Europe and America in a fun touring bus. Those really were the days. Mari is a great singer and performer. She has gone on to star as Dusty Springfield in the West End Show. and plays the prestigious Ronnie Scott’s regularly. Her new project is going to be an album of covers. She also has tons of her splendid memorabilia available http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/mariwilson.

THOUGHTS ABOUT MY SUMMER TOUR

// August 22nd, 2011 // No Comments »

The best part of the whole tourlett for me … well that would be my Dad, “Road Warrior Roy” as we have been calling him. 82 years young and wow what a sense of adventure he has. I was worried he wouldn’t be able to keep the pace of the hectic travel schedule but instead he loved every second and carried guitars and dress bags!

Here’s Road Warrior Roy keeping up with the rest of us on the tour! He had the BEST time. He was up late after the Birchmere gig (weren’t we all) but he still managed to be bright and breezy for the early morning train to NY!

We managed to squeeze in a show in NY, the fabulous Jersey Boys. We couldn’t find an empty cab so the plucky old devil hopped in a carriage hauled by a cyclist and we bounced and bobbed at a great pace back to the hotel.

His favourite part of the trip was the day after Bimbo’s in San Fran, we went to the enchanted Muir Forest and were at one with the Redwoods.

Here he is hanging with me back stage at The Roxy, Rock and Roller that he is.

My partner in chime, the multi-talented Mr. Mad About YOU, Paul Reiser. He seems to have loved the tour and great for him to flex his symbols for facebook” title=”music symbols for facebook”>musical muscles and not just his comedy chops. What a splendid and talented fellow he is.

We were truly honoured to have the military let us have their leading trumpet player Staff Sergeant Kevin Gebo join us for Unsung Hero for our shows in DC, NY and LA. Who can resist such an amazing symbols for facebook” title=”music symbols for facebook”>musician and in uniform to boot, so we kept him on for STAY and STOLEN KISS.

I remember years ago, driving along in my old home town of London and on the radio comes this blindingly brilliant song and voice – Mark Cohn singing “Walking In Memphis.” I remember being clean blown away, nearly crashing the car, as my jaw was on the floor and my foot was on the brake. I just loved it. I have been a fan ever since and finally got to see Mark, at the same venue I was playing in Virginia Alexandria, The Birchmere, the night before our show there. We literally got off the plane, raced to the hotel and bolted down to the gig and still managed to miss most of it. But we were there in time enough to witness Mark making the crowd laugh out loud with his charming and hilarious stories and singing song after gorgeous song. He had a killer band with him, including guitarist extraordinaire Wayne Fontaine.

Ellie Goulding is quite the hot sensation in the UK at the mo, and I can see and hear why. Not only was she THE guest singer at THE recent royal wedding of Prince William and the Lovely Kate Middleton, she went straight in at #1 in the charts at home. Paul and I bumped into the delightful creature at a TV show in Washington. I got to hear a little bit of her singing live when I poked my head around the studio door and she sounded fantastic. It was also nice to chat with someone who has an accent like mine while on the road in the US of A.

Paul & I were on Fox Morning News in DC. You can watch the interview here.

This girl is going to be President one day – she really is a worthy candidate! Charming and elegant and articulate and she had some great questions for me and Paul backstage at our show in NY. Not only is she training as a ballet dancer but has her own radio show! What a talent! Here’s the interview she did for The Observer.

(Us with Pavlina)

More photos from the tour can be found in the Photo Section. And video of some performances can be found in the Video Section.

MY SUMMER TOUR WITH PAUL REISER

// July 14th, 2011 // 1 Comment »

Hey All,
I’m looking forward to the gigs and have a wonderful ensemble – Paul on piano, Colin Ryan on guitar & bass, (we were first in a band together approximately 100 years ago having the best time ever touring with UK singing sensation Mari Wilson) and drummer/percussionist Jason Smith, an incredibly gifted symbols for facebook” title=”music symbols for facebook”>musician who also has his own splendid critically acclaimed jazz trio – Jason Smith/Gary Husband/Dave Carpenter.

Colin is currently touring with the utterly brilliant Boogie Woogie pianist and singer Dona Oxford and Jason is also on the road at the moment with Albert Lee.

Joining us for the Santa Barbara show is the sparking and delightful singer songwriter Celia Chavez and in NY & DC, drummer/percussionist Alex Alexander .

We have 6 shows: Santa Barbara, San Juan Capistrano, Washington, NY, San Francisco and Los Angeles.  Hope to see you back out there in the next couple of weeks.
Julia x

CLAIRE’S BLOG

// July 13th, 2011 // No Comments »

My sister Claire blogs about our father in today’s Huffington Post.
Read it here.

JUDITH OWEN in LONDON

// May 23rd, 2011 // No Comments »

Check out the ever fabulous Judith Owen, who is not only starring in the smash hit show “Losing It” with comedian Ruby Wax, but she will also be doing her own gig at the Chocolate Factory in London, Sun 12th June at 6.30pm.

HAPPY EASTER!

// April 24th, 2011 // No Comments »

OOoooooo, how I love America. We did not have a hunt for eggs or treasures back in the day in the UK. We did however, get ONE, delicious Cadbury’s milk chocolate egg each after breakfast. I can see that purple sparkly wrapping paper now, what a treat!
Love and Eastery glad tidings to you all.
Julia x