I am delighted to confirm I will be performing on Cunard’s new Queen Elizabeth for her maiden Christmas voyage. Beginning in Madeira and sailing to the Caribbean islands it promises to be a very special voyage indeed, reliving in modern glamour high society events of the 1930s and 1940s with ornate rooms whose rich décor recalls the halcyon days when the first Queen Elizabeth ruled the waves. Click here for more information.

Passing a simple shop front brimming with coconuts in Brazil today, I used my rudimentary Portuguese to ask for some coconut water. The woman said yes, handed me some toilet paper and directed me to the back of the store. We stared at each other for a moment, until a friend realised that instead of saying “I’d like a coconut water please” (eu gostaria de um coco de aqua por favor”, I’d just asked for “cocõ” which in Brazil means “poo poo”. I’d stood there and asked the woman for a poo poo. Please. Bless her for giving me the paper. (Read more…)

I was just struck by a line in Isherwood’s “A Single Man”: “George is like a man trying to sell a real diamond for a nickel on the street. The diamond is protected from all but the tiniest few, because the great hurrying majority can never stop to dare to believe that it could conceivably be real.” It reminded me of doing a PR gig for Carlsburg Lager years ago, dressed up like Sinatra in Canary Wharf at 7am singing “They All Laughed” while pretty girls tried to give out free Sinatra CDs that were being sold in the shop for a tenner. Try as we might, no one wanted a free CD. For a slightly more rarefied example of diamonds on the street, read this. (Read more…)

As I type this we are about to go back to Sibelius Hall for our third and final concert of Swingin’ on Broadway with the Lahti Sinfonia and Big Band in Finland. I think this is my fifth time here with the wonderful orchestra and it’s great to be with conductor Rod Dunk and singer Emma Kershaw for this concert – the orchestral version of the album I recorded a couple of years ago. It’s a real treat to hear some of those arrangements on the CD expanded for full orchestra, like Always Look on the Bright Side of Life and Surrey With A Fringe On Top. You can watch and listen to the whole concert from 17th February till 10th March - just click here. (Read more…)

BBC Radio 2’s David Jacobs, as generous as ever, played “You’re Sensational” from Alone Together last Sunday night, saying “If you’re a regular listener you’ll know that I am devoted to the work of the John Wilson Orchestra and to the voice of Gary Williams. When they’re together, it’s a double treat.” You can listen again until Sunday 14th February here.