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August 9th, 2011 by Cliff

Hi All!

Once again I am in sunny climes! I must say Portugal really suits me. I come here (as you know) every summer and although I’m always “learning” something – a new CD or an up-coming tour, I can feel the peace of this old farm house, especially as it’s now surrounded by vines. In this pressurised world that we all live in, it’s great having a place that lets me get away from it all. I hope you have a little corner on the planet that you feel you can escape to?

“Soulicious” the album is ready to go! I’m listening to it as I write this. I am planning to sing 6 or 7 songs on the tour and though “Soulicious” is where I am at this moment in time, I can never forget (nor do I want to) how I got to this point in my career, so I’ll be singing loads of songs that paved the way for me. There’ll be new faces for you to look out for this time. (eight backing vocals – 4 guys and 4 girls, 3 brass players, and a 6 member dance troupe).

Among the faces to look out for are 4 of the singers who dueted with me on “Soulicious”:

Freda Payne – of “Band of Gold“ and the song we will sing is “Saving a Life“.

Percy Sledge – who doesn’t remember “When a Man Loves a Woman“? We are singing “I’m Your Puppet” – one of the four ”oldies” on the album.

Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr., who were known as the 5th Dimension (Aquarius, Let the Sunshine In) and we are doing a lesser known oldie called “Oh How Happy“.

Lamont Dozier, who produced 11 of the 15 Soulicious tracks, will sing one of his own songs. In case you didn’t know, he wrote with the “Brothers Holland” and between them, notched up 54 number 1′s and something like 120 top 10 hits. We will sing “She Looked Good” (which he wrote for me!)

I am also looking forward to performing with James Ingram “Just Once” who joins the line up of US guests and finally, Britain’s own Jaki Graham “Could it Be I’m Falling in Love” completes the line up.

So, look out…here we come!!

I am heading back to the US in September as I have once again been invited to the American Open. Who’s a lucky boy?? I am always so grateful when my invitation arrives, and feel very privileged to be there.

Before I sign off, I want to say thank you to all who came to the charity evening I performed at here in Portugal. I appreciate you being so supportive and allowing me to sit amongst you all and be part of the event. That rarely happens, and I really enjoyed it. I hope you did too? The evening was in aid of an orphanage and also hospice care, so basically what we did was to make it possible for some children to have a happy start to life and some folks to exit life with love and dignity. Many thanks!

Have a great summer and see you in October!

Love Ya!
 

February 18, 2011 by Cliff

Yep…. I did make the gravy – and Christmas was terrific.   I had some of the family staying, my sister Joan, nieces and nephews – and even the great nieces and nephews!  Christmas isn’t just for kids, but it was great having them around. 

Having finished the German Prom Tour, I suddenly got a cold and horrific cough.  Why do we do it?  Why do tours in Europe always seem to be in the winter?  What didn’t help was getting caught up in the airport snow delays.  When flying to come home at the end of the tour, I was told that Düsseldorf airport was closed and that the delay would be at least 24 hours (and there was no guarantee even after that).  Fortunately, the hotel I was in was very nice, so I thought to myself; I’ll have a nice meal with Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Boy George, and Charlie Siem (the young violin virtuoso), go to bed and have a late call with a hopeful flight home….. However, it was not to be.  The show organisers called and said we had a better chance of catching a flight out of Antwerp, Belgium!  They had their office and staff there who would be able to help.  We had two choices, we could be driven home to London from Düsseldorf, or try to fly back from Belgium.  I decided to try to fly home.  At midnight a car came for me and a minibus for the others who had decided to drive back to the UK.  We said our goodbyes, and I was driven through the snow and about 4 ½ hours later arrived in Antwerp.  There was a message waiting for me at the hotel saying there was a possible flight at midday, so after a very short night’s sleep, I headed to the airport.  Sure enough, there was a plane leaving, and would you believe, it had propellers!  Anyway, I was given one of the last seats and it flew me home safely, even though I coughed and spluttered all the way back.  Show-biz is so glamorous!!

So here I am once again in Barbados!  The winter here is the “high season” which is why people pack the place from Christmas through to Easter.  It is high season because it does not rain during this time of year….. wrong!  It has rained at some point almost every day up until today.  Of course, it’s always hot here and the rain does not last all day.  In fact, I quite like it cooling the place down.  The rain would stop and the sun would shine for a couple of hours and everyone would rush poolside or to the beach until it rained again.  Anyway, the last two days haven’t rained, so maybe the dry season has finally started. The weather hasn’t changed the fact that friends throw wonderful parities and I’ve been to a few of them.  Cilla’s here, and I usually pick her up in my Ford F150 truck and we make “grand entrances” together.  These parties are never late “do’s”.  There are so many of them, that most people seem to like getting home a bit early.  I have also attended a few charity events, and am amazed at people’s generosity.  One night recently some folks bid a quite a bit of money to have dinner with Cilla and me at my home, and then someone offered twice as much for me to get up and sing.  I did a few of my old favourites like Move It, Summer Holiday and Living Doll and everyone sang along – it was a lot of fun.

I did mention the David Gest “Soul Album” in my last Blog.  I have been learning the songs, and hopefully we will record them in April in Memphis.  It’s the story of my life – during my holidays I’m usually learning a new stage set or (as in this case) songs for a CD.  I’m not grumbling, just stating a fact.  In fact, if you have to learn songs, there’s no better way of doing it than when you’re sunbathing!

I love my time here because in between meeting up with friends on the island, having friends and family visit from home, learning new songs, there is also my garden!  It is a real tropical paradise that always keeps me very busy.  All the rain has really encouraged the growth, and I’m out there every day clipping away.  I always find gardening very therapeutic and the weather here is only hot, and hot and wet, so the results in the garden are almost spontaneous.

And lastly, let me just say how surprised I was by your response to my Facebook page.  I honestly did not think a lot of you would be into that kind of thing and I am amazed at your response.  It is great fun reading all your comments.  Let’s remember a little courtesy goes a long way in enabling all of us to enjoy the site.  I am slowly learning how it all works…… and will hopefully keep in touch with little things here and there.
;
There should be lots happening in the spring, so watch this space…..

luv Cliff!
 

December 20, 2010 by Cliff

I always seem to start my blog with an apology for the long gap and this one’s no different!   I had hoped to write one between the summer and Christmas, but I’m afraid I was overtaken by my London shows and then, of course, a certain birthday event.

Let me recap on the last few months!   When I last wrote I was into my summer break in Portugal.   I always feel relaxed there, although I did take a couple of weeks out for a cruise.   I was back in Portugal by mid-August and, apart from a handful of brief interviews, continued to have a wonderfully relaxing time with family and friends.  

One interesting meeting during the summer was with the producer and director of the German Night of the Proms.   I got a real surprise when John Miles turned up with them!   John, as you may know, made that iconic record Music (Was My First Love), and he stars in the Proms show every year.   We discussed what I’d be performing on the tour and their enthusiasm got me really excited about the project.   More on this later!

Early September saw me in New York for the US Open Tennis, and I stayed in the States until the last week of the month, when rehearsals for the Royal Albert Hall shows beckoned me back to Europe.   I worked in Portugal with my MD and keyboard player, Keith Hayman, while the band got it together in the UK, then we met up for combined rehearsals shortly before the Royal Albert Hall season opened.

I was really delighted when Michael Omartian (the producer of my Bold As Brass CD) agreed to come over and conduct the orchestra for my shows.   He brought with him three of the musicians who played on the album.   They joined UK musicians to make up the ‘Orchestra de Ville’ and I had a ball working with them all.   It was, I’m told, a bold move to perform the whole of my Bold As Brass album in one go – I do love being bold!!

The Bold As Brass CD was released in the same week that I performed the London shows, and it charted at No 3.   When the DVD of the concerts was released, that went to No 1 in the Music DVD charts.    The word ‘thrilled’ doesn’t even begin to capture how I felt! 

And then of course there was ‘that’ birthday!   There was no concert on 14 October and I spent the evening celebrating with my family at a local curry restaurant.   It had to be fairly low-key as I couldn’t risk over-using my voice smack in the middle of my series of concerts.   The ‘big celebration’ happened a week later when my good friend Surinder Arora hosted a party for me and around 200 guests at his hotel at Heathrow’s Terminal 5.   It was great to have so many of my family and friends all under one roof.   The food was fantastic – another curry of course!   We had two or three wonderful speeches, and the Radio 2 Big Band came along to provide the music and to accompany me on some of my Bold As Brass tracks!   I hadn’t been sure that anything about my  70th birthday would cause me excitement, but this was a night to remember!   My heartfelt thanks go to Surinder and his lovely wife Sunita.

Thanks also to all of you.   I was inundated with cards and gifts, and was particularly touched that several of my fan clubs made donations to charity in lieu of a personal gift to me.   Alzheimer’s charities benefitted, as did a children’s hospice, a hospital’s neonatal unit, and various others.   Your generosity touched me deeply.   Thank you.

After my party, I spent a couple of days in Antwerp, rehearsing for the upcoming Night of the Proms tour, and then went to Barbados for a couple of weeks, where I was greeted by the after-effects of Hurricane Tomas.   The house survived just fine but the gardens were a mess.   I spent a lot of my time helping to clear it all up!

I headed to Germany at the end of November to start the tour.   I haven’t been involved with a multi-artist tour like this for decades – probably not since the early 1960s – and I have to say I’ve loved it!   There was a lot of travelling, but I only had to perform six songs and a finale number.   It was a heck of a lot easier than doing one of my own concerts!   There were some media interviews, but my time was largely my own.   The rest of the performers were great and the whole tour felt like a big family outing!    I really did enjoy working with John Miles, Boy George, and Kid Creole & The Coconuts.   There was also a newcomer you should look out for – a stunning young English violinist named Charlie Siem.   And a group I’d never seen before called Lichtmond (Moonlight).   Plus a 70-piece orchestra, a 25-strong choir, and backing vocalists.   It all made for a wonderfully vibrant show.   The audiences seemed to love it all, and it was a great experience for me. 

It will soon be Christmas now, and I’ll be in the UK with my family – I’m so looking forward to it.   No doubt I’ll be doing the gravy!   It will be my first Christmas in my new apartment and I’ll have only a few days to get it all ready.   I did get the tree up before I left for the tour but I still have a lot of decorating to do.   Fun, fun, fun!

The New Year has the possibility of an exciting project.   I will be in Barbados for some months but there is every chance I will be called to the USA to record.   David Gest (of I’m A Celebrity – Get Me Out Of Here) has come up with the idea of me doing a CD – ‘Cliff Richard Sings Soul’ with various Motown soul artists.   We are working now on the details – songs, artist availability etc.   I don’t know of anyone else who could possibly put this together, so fingers crossed and ‘watch this space’!  

That’s it for now.   Once again, I send you all my thanks for your continuing support and loyalty, and wish you a peaceful and blessed Christmas, followed by a happy and healthy New Year!

Luv Cliff!