HergaKitty as Lady of the Night? Radio 4

Subject: HergaKitty as Lady of the Night? Radio 4
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 07 Dec 05 - 04:16 PM

Fame and fortune having eluded her till now, is Herga Kitty trying infamy as the next angle?

Next Monday (12th December), at 8:30pm, on BBC Radio4 (accessible also over the internet), Herga Kitty's voice is to grace a revamped version of Denis Mitchell's celebrated 1955 documentary "Night in the City", in which he took one of the new portable tape recorders out onto the streets of British cities after dark to record the voices of the people he found. The programme shows how radically our patterns of life have changed over the last 50 years.

Herga Kitty will be singing Ewan McColl's "Dirty old town" on the programme - having sailed through the X-Folktor audition at Herga 5 weeks ago, beating Johnny Collins, Mike Sparks and El Greko on the way (I blame the Y-Factor myself).

Herga members are trembling with anticipation; as it takes place right in the middle of our weekly meet (it's Chris Flegg as guest, by the way), I believe the secretary is dusting down the bakelite on an old Telefunken radiogramme so that we can all have a listen in!

Subject: RE: HergaKitty as Lady of the Night? Radio 4
From: dermod in salisbury
Date: 07 Dec 05 - 04:30 PM

Denis Mitchell's documentary programmes were powerful wake-up calls for anyone who may have lost sight of modern realities in the age of affluence. I look forward to Herga Kitty singing McColl's excellent song. But I am not sure it is the right horse for the course. Dirty old town was, I understand, all about industrial slums. Denis Mitchell's programmes were about indifference and the misery and sleeze it cab creates, which are not necessarily legacy commodities related to the industrial revolution.

Subject: RE: HergaKitty as Lady of the Night? Radio 4
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 07 Dec 05 - 05:36 PM

Dermod

You're probably right about the original idea (which I thought was about the need for a radical redevelopment of Salford and other places), but Ewan's original intention was reinterpreted a long time ago. Dirty Old Town has for many years been turned into an Irish sentimental song. I don't normally sing it, but we were asked by Samantha McAlister to record it at Herga. We thought, at the time, that we were being recorded for a Law in Action programme on the change in licensing laws.

However, it seems that this time the song has been used for a programme about a different kind of sleaze

Sam McAlister recorded Mike Sparks, El Greko, Zorg (not Johnny Collins, who wasn't there) and myself at Herga, singing Dirty Old Town, in turn.

We certainly had no idea, until I read next week's Radio Times today, that this was an update of Denis Mitchell's 1955 project "to record the voices of the people he found: the vagrants and criminals, the hopeful and the hopeless." RT says, "Fifty years later, here is an update. Some of the stories have an eerie familiarity. Others, such as those of call-centre staff, rent boys and nuns living through the London bombings, show how radically our patterns of life have changed over the period."

It's an RT choice of the day and the Choices write-up says:

"The voice you'll hear throughout this compelling portrait of life in
Britain's cities after dark is that of documentary-maker Denis Mitchell. He interviewed people on the streets in 1955 and now producer Samantha McAlister has done the same thing in 2005. The modern voices are easily identifiable from the words they use or the mention of such events as the London bombings, but many of the stories told connect across the 50-year gap, be they the voices of the homeless or the sex workers. This is often weird but undoubtedly wonderful radio."

So I think my singing is just being used as background for testimony from sex workers and homeless people. Given that I provided the harmony for Les Sullivan's Lady of the Night song on his Echoes of Mingulay CD, it's rather ironic.

Kitty

Subject: RE: HergaKitty as Lady of the Night? Radio 4
From: dermod in salisbury
Date: 07 Dec 05 - 05:45 PM

Greatly look forward to listening in. Thanks for the background.

Subject: RE: HergaKitty as Lady of the Night? Radio 4
From: Micca
Date: 07 Dec 05 - 06:44 PM

Queen of the Night, at least, Kitty (cf W.A.Mozart, Magic Flute!!!)

Subject: RE: HergaKitty as Lady of the Night? Radio 4
From: Tyke
Date: 07 Dec 05 - 08:05 PM

Oh I got to listen to this! Brill! I'll be able to tell all my friends that I know Red Light Kitty :-)

Subject: RE: HergaKitty as Lady of the Night? Radio 4
From: Leadfingers
Date: 07 Dec 05 - 09:59 PM

And I would hope that the Listen Again Facility on the net will mean that all the afficiaonados of good music who are at the Art Centre
will be able to hear it over the net any way !

Subject: RE: HergaKitty as Lady of the Night? Radio 4
From: MBSLynne
Date: 08 Dec 05 - 02:48 AM

Ooooh! Another Middle Bar singer on TV and radio! Aren't we getting high profile!

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: HergaKitty as Lady of the Night? Radio 4
From: SussexCarole
Date: 08 Dec 05 - 05:41 PM

Nice one Kitty - we'll be listening on Monday.

Subject: RE: HergaKitty as Lady of the Night? Radio 4
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 08 Dec 05 - 06:36 PM

Thanks,guys, but I think it's just wallpaper incidental music for the documentary...

Tyke - Mike Sparks has written a song about the red light district nurse. Just don't mention traffic lights.

Kitty

Subject: RE: HergaKitty as Lady of the Night? Radio 4
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 08 Dec 05 - 07:07 PM

Well done Kitty! Can you mange the top F required of the "Queen of the Night"? I could when I was 14 in my bath: since then things have dropped a bit!!
TB (Trish)

Subject: RE: HergaKitty as Lady of the Night? Radio 4
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 08 Dec 05 - 07:16 PM

Trish - almost certainly not top F. Andy Cutting's mum (with whom I danced in Flowers of May) recruited me for the Stanmore Choral Society as a 2nd soprano about 20 years ago, but in the second season I decided to revert to the altos (I think a top A in something by Bruckner was the deciding factor.)

Kitty

Subject: RE: HergaKitty as Lady of the Night? Radio 4
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 08 Dec 05 - 07:19 PM

EH?

Subject: RE: HergaKitty as Lady of the Night? Radio 4
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 08 Dec 05 - 07:21 PM

P.S. Can you get me a dance with Andy Cutting? Never mind his Mum! We could have an intellectual discussion re buttonboxes/melodeons!
TB

Subject: RE: HergaKitty as Lady of the Night? Radio 4
From: Surreysinger
Date: 08 Dec 05 - 07:52 PM

But then if you're singing alto in Belshazzar's Feast you still have to hit a top A Kitty - I remember having to do it at the Royal Albert Hall in 1989 as part of the semi-chorus .... whether I can still do it is another matter!! (:-(

Subject: RE: HergaKitty as Lady of the Night? Radio 4
From: GUEST, Hamish
Date: 09 Dec 05 - 08:49 AM

Woof woof!

Subject: RE: HergaKitty as Lady of the Night? Radio 4
From: Tyke
Date: 09 Dec 05 - 11:08 AM

Hello Kitty,
I'm getting a bit worried about you comeing home from work and singing songs about Trafic Lights. I think you need a week off up in Whitby Singing, Drinking, Beer and relaxing.
Love George x

Subject: RE: HergaKitty as Lady of the Night? Radio 4
From: GUEST, Topsie
Date: 12 Dec 05 - 02:07 PM

Just a remimder

Subject: RE: HergaKitty as Lady of the Night? Radio 4
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 12 Dec 05 - 04:34 PM

Well, having heard the programme, I now realise that Sam only used my unpractised version because it was in roughly the same key as Ewan's, which enabled her to segue from his recording to mine at the end. Bit incongruous though.

Kitty

Subject: RE: HergaKitty as Lady of the Night? Radio 4
From: dermod in salisbury
Date: 13 Dec 05 - 08:59 AM

Well done, though. Powerful, ringing voice just right for the song, and very much in the McColl style. No wonder the morphing worked. Mish mash of a programme, sadly. And how incongruous was that jazz guitar from the original archive. All flash and no mood. Unlike the song without accompaniment.

Subject: RE: HergaKitty as Lady of the Night? Radio 4
From: GUEST,vectis
Date: 13 Dec 05 - 03:31 PM

It was great to hear you on the beeb Kitty. The last bit when they had you and Ewan singing together was rather eerie. Beautifully sung as ever.

Subject: RE: HergaKitty as Lady of the Night? Radio 4
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 13 Dec 05 - 07:45 PM

Vectis

The bit where they had me and Ewan singing together was very eerie indeed, because I hadn't listened to Ewan's version before I sang it - it was entirely a coincidence that my key and timing more or less coincided with his original recording. I bet they get more practice than that on "I'm sorry I haven't a clue"!

Kitty

Subject: RE: HergaKitty as Lady of the Night? Radio 4
From: Leadfingers
Date: 13 Dec 05 - 07:55 PM

Fooled 'em again Kitty ? Thats the way to do it !!!