“ WE ARE SUCH STUFF AS DREAMS ARE MADE ON …”
“ WE ARE SUCH STUFF AS DREAMS ARE MADE ON …”
Born on the Wirral, Open Hand Productions Artistic Director, Dr David Crilly, talks about living the dream and bringing a new Pink Floyd show to the Floral Pavilion.
Who or what is Open Hand Productions? The Company has been in operation since 1988 and our main annual event is The Cambridge Shakespeare Festival, which produces eight fully-staged Shakespeare productions in the gardens of the Cambridge University Colleges each July and August. Throughout the rest of the year we produce a number of music shows, including MOTHERSHIP – Led Zeppelin tribute, COURT AND SPARK – the Joni Mitchell Songbook, and our current production, ECLIPSE – the Pink Floyd Experience.
What is the focus of the Company? Well there are two answers to that question. On the one hand – quite simply- we strive to produce the best quality performances we can. The Shakespeare Festival was listed fourth in the Independent on Sunday’ s‘ Top 50 UK Arts Festivals’ and our music events pay enormous attention to detail. We have a fantastic team of musicians and our standards are second to none. When people come to our shows they know they’ ll be getting as close as possible to the sound world of the original artists we cover. The Company has a charitable focus, too, and we’ ve raised( so far) £ 97,400 for St John’ s Hospice on the Wirral and the Children’ s Hospice in Cambridge. The real answer to the question, though, is that we do what we do because we really enjoy it – and that’ s something that is very obvious in performance. In the seventies( when I was a teenager) I would go and see and listen to Led Zeppelin, Joni Mitchell and Pink Floyd. Now I get to live the dream and get up on fantastic stages like that at the Floral Pavilion and play the music of my youth. It’ s fantastic fun!
Pink Floyd and Shakespeare seem miles apart. How did that happen? I was born in Birkenhead and grew up on the Wirral, but ended up at the University of Oxford taking a D. Phil in Music before spending twenty six years as a university lecturer in Cambridge – coincidentally at the same college that Pink Floyd’ s Dave Gilmour and Syd Barratt attended as Art students in the sixties. As a teenager I was a rock / blues player on the local scene, but moved South and spent a quarter of a
century lecturing on twentieth-century classical music before returning to my roots and the local music scene. It’ s been quite a journey going full circle, and I left academia a few years ago to concentrate on performance.
Where do the performers come from? All the players in ECLIPSE – the Pink Floyd Experience will be wellknown to your readers. Jade Thunder, Vicky Abban-Laybourne and Frank Ryan( on vocals and guitar) front the show. They’ re all great singers and their voices blend wonderfully. Jade has been performing around the North-West for many years with artists including Captain Beefheart’ s Magic Band, The Undertakers, The Christians and Connie Lush. Vicky’ s background is funk and rock and she was formally singer with Freak Out! Frank is multi-talented and plays in several bands, including Dr Strangelove. The driving force of the band is its rhythm section, made up of Martin Byrne on bass( and vocals) and Daz Jones on drums. Martin has probably played with every major artist in the North West and Daz is an exceptional talent. The signature sound of Pink Floyd, though, is undoubtedly its myriad keyboard sounds, and Toni Hughes has researched each one meticulously to reproduce them exactly. At times it’ s hard to distinguish what the band are playing from the original recordings! The line-up is completed by myself on guitar and backing vocals and the excellent Steve Riley on sax.
What can your audience expect at the Floral Pavilion in October? Our Pink Floyd show is about as spectacular as it comes! The light show promises to be stunning, and that is supported by a full laser show and projection onto the ubiquitous large, circular screen. Musically the performance will include classics from The Wall, Wish You Were Here and Division Bell. My favourite part of the show is the second half, in which we celebrate 45 years of the Dark Side of the Moon by playing the album in full.
Where can readers get more details? Tickets range between £ 19.50 and £ 15.50( concessions) and are available through the Pavilion website: www. floralpavilion. com or by phone on 0151 666 0000. The band website is www. eclipsefloyd. com and we welcome people to join us on Facebook. wirrallife. com 25