It was a busy week of gigs for me last week. Thursday saw me heading down the M6 to Birmingham where I was booked to perform at a corporate function in The Forest of Arden Hotel and Country Club.
What a beautiful venue it was. With an impressive golf course and herds of wild deer roaming around the grounds, you would never imagine it was just a few miles away from Birmingham Airport.
Whenever I sing at a corporate function I always find it fun and interesting because I get to meet and work with other businesses and entertainers, and this was no exception.
I performed my Swing show, and was joined onstage by the beautiful Vegas Show Girls.
They certainly added a touch of glamour to the night, with their glitzy costumes and fabulous dance routines (choreographed by Emma-Jane Ashman).
The Vegas Show Girls in action (Photo courtesy of www.brillpix.com)
They were also lovely and helpful backstage in helping me with my dress, which seemed to have developed a mind of its own!
Even more glamour and showbiz was to be found in the reception area, where a stunning Marilyn Monroe lookalike was onhand to provide drinks, alongside a very convincing Oscar award ‘living statue’, both provided by top corporate event agency www.steppin-out.co.uk.
Jamie Bennion and his team at http://businessav.co.uk/ took expert care of sound and lights.
Steve Brill of Brillpix Photography was busy all night taking photos of all the proceedings.
Northamptonshire-based, Steve specialises in wedding, commercial, and corporate photography. Check out his excellent work here: http://brillpix.com/
A big thanks to Steve for letting me use some of his photographs from the event.
That night I headed straight back up north to Manchester, to break up the journey back to Glasgow. Unfortunately the M6 was not kind to me and I ended up driving for hours due to various road closures – all the while listening to the Scottish referendum results as they came through on the radio.
It was around 3am by the time I reached my hotel – a beautiful little country guest house called Ash Farm in Altrincham.
This was such a charming place in very picturesque surroundings, with very friendly hosts – unfortunately though, I didn’t have much time to enjoy it as I was heading straight back to Glasgow later that morning. Hopefully I will get a chance to return for a longer stay whenever I’m next in the Manchester area.
That night I was singing at a cabaret night at The Columba Club in Barrhead. It was a lovely night, very well-attended, and lots of funds were raised for Mary’s Meals charity.
On Saturday I revisited one of my favourite clubs, The RAFA in Prestwick, for their annual Battle of Britain ball.
I’ve performed at this event for the past few years now and it’s always a pleasure to return and see all the friendly and familiar faces.
As usual, the dancefloor was packed from start to finish with lots of talented and energetic dancers, and lots of fun was had by all.
Check out this video from the RAFA club, it seems that we had a lot of teenagers in that night! 😉
