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Well, here's a very belated entry from me!
 I, like Nick, have been absorbing the memories of last Wednesday and relishing the prospects and implications of where we are now at in our exciting journey.
We had prepared for so long and held much importance in this the last date on our London tour at the famous Hope and Anchor in Islington.
We were sufficiently warmed up, psyched up and raring to go as we arrived at the venue which I don't think I could possibly describe any more accurately than Nick! In fact everything that Nick wrote I ditto and I have to say that for me the intense feeling that remains with me after the gig is one of achievement. Nick and I have worked so hard over the past five years and have survived so many knocks that to find ourselves in this tiny room packed with people who believe in us makes me feel that we've achieved something.
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To think that I was up there singing on a stage with the fabulous Diane Charlemagne whose mindblowing vocals on one of my fave tunes of 1995, 'Inner City Life', made me want to sing into my hairbrush when the thought of being a singer would have seemed unthinkable. That's a great achievement for me. Thank you Diane and thank you fate!
Nick, you were as brilliant as always and I'm really proud of what we did that night.
And of course thank you to all our friends and families who were there once more to cheer us on and make it all worth it.
So till next time...
Much love as always, Harriet xxxxx
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Wednesday was exciting! What a great gig we had and it was the perfect end to our London dates. First off, Harriet and I are so grateful to everyone who came down to the Hope – what a turn out!
 When we arrived there we went down to the venue room (which is effectively a cellar converted to a bar) and it was as dingy and rough and ready as you can get. But what is good enough for U2, Coldplay and The Sex Pistols is certainly good enough for Mama Razzi. The challenge of performing at an unfamiliar venue is to be able get comfy in the space and have some kind of vision of the show beforehand. The Hope has no chairs or tables; the graffiti all over the walls tells the history of practically every soul that has ever been there: it is dark and dank – perfect! This is ‘intimate acoustic gig’ paradise and Elias the sound engineer was fantastic and worked feverishly to get every sound right.
The Mama Massive began to arrive, making a long queue that blocked the stairs and went into the bar. The room was full by 2030 and loads of beaming familiar faces greeted us, then at 2100 the lights went down and cheers rose as we were introduced on stage. I felt an amazing sense of excitement and energy, Harriet was grinning at me, we were about to begin.
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For the opening of ‘Stronger’, Harriet got the whole room clicking fingers in time to the rhythm of my jazzy piano bass line. The first line we sang ‘I’m getting stronger everyday…’ felt justified and true. The show that should have lasted 35 minutes ended up being nearly an hour. After ‘A Little Bit of Summer’, Harriet and I had the honour of introducing on stage Diane Charlemagne (below right). Diane has been a great supporter of Mama Razzi over the years and has done vocal production and backing vocals on both the recordings of ‘Show Me Love’ and ‘As I Kiss You’. Her credentials read like the history of modern pop music: from singing ‘Inner City Life’ on Goldie’s classic ‘Timeless’ album to touring the world with Moby as his main vocalist. However, “tonight, Matthew” Diane was firmly rooted in the Mama Razzi camp. So, after a mic malfunction and a short bit of fabulous improvisation, we were ready to hit the crowd with ‘Don’t Come Back’ during which Harriet and Diane became my backing vocal ‘bitches’ sassy and sexy! This neatly segued into Diane taking the lead for Janet Jackson’s ‘What Have You Done For Me Lately’. It was pure heaven for me and Harriet, (with no further malfunctions especially from the wardrobe department!!). Then, after an unexpected version of ‘Inner City Life’, Harriet hit the crowd with a beautiful intimate performance of our touchstone, ‘Show Me Love’ before we ended the show with one of our favourites, ‘As I Kiss You’.
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Then we unexpectedly found ourselves panicking since ‘Encore!’ was being chanted, so ‘Don’t Come Back’ it was to be. I will never forget this night. It has taken me until today, Sunday, to be able to process the memories. Once again I want to say a huge THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to everyone that came and supported Mama Razzi. You SHOWED US LOVE!!! Diane – your voice and your heart are your biggest assets – and we loved sharing them with you! Harriet, you were beautiful in every way! And do you know what? I think I had a pretty good time myself…… Nickx
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Set list:
- Stronger
- Fly
- Closer
- Chained Man
- A Little Bit of Summer
- Don’t Come Back / What Have You Done for Me Lately
- Inner City Life
- Show Me Love
- As I Kiss You
Encore
- Don’t Come Back
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Hi all! Well, one more gig is now under our belts and we have only ONE MORE GIG LEFT of our current tour so 28th September is your LAST CHANCE to come and support us - please do!! Thank you to all our loyal friends and family who came on Monday night to The Red Rooms in the West End. Extra special thanks to my dad John, bro-in-law Si and my lovely boyfriend Andrew who turned up unexpected at the very last minute - your presence gave me an edge and even more butterflies!!
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The venue is probably the most intimate we've played yet and is indeed very red! Sultry and smokey is how I would describe the Red Room atmosphere and it felt fitting for the mood of our set. Much cheering arose after each song so we must have been doing something right! Each gig feels more self assured than the last and each time we have more support from you lot so thankyou - it really means alot to us and there would be no point to our live performances without you. So, if you haven't managed to make it to a gig yet, PLEASE try and make it to The Hope and Anchor on Wednesday 28th Sept - it's a legendary venue boasting London circuit debuts from the likes of U2, The Sex Pistols, Squeeze and Coldplay - so now Mama R can deservedly join these high ranks! Till then much love and music lovin', Harriet xxxxxx
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It was a great thrill to be invited to perform at Manchester Pride. Harriet and I were treated like VIPs from start to finish and all the organisers, especially our liaison Ian Hyde of the Manchester Pride Charity, were consummate hosts. There is a great sense of ‘pride’ within the Manchester community for this event which shone through as we were enthusiastically welcomed the main stage at 1630 on Sunday by the huge crowd. The fact that the stage was erected in the NCP car park did nothing to detract from the excitement of our debut open air performance. The whole festival was centred around Canal Street, the Gay centre of Manchester and the equivalent of London’s Old Compton Street. There was sparkle, glitz, drag and glamour as far as the eye could see, and the rules? There were no rules!
The introduction of ‘Show Me Love’ boomed out of the sound system and Harriet and I exploded on to the stage to a sea of smiling faces, young, old and from all walks of life. The crowd instantly boogied on down to the sounds of Mama Razzi. Harriet and I glided around the vast stage engaging our audience and igniting our on stage chemistry. Harriet looked gorgeous and sexy and was working the crowd in her magnetic and unique style while I was armed with an acoustic guitar and whole load of retro George Michael moves (circa Faith). |
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Then we hit the crowd with ‘As I Kiss You’ which saw more heads bobbing and hips swaying as the atmosphere moved up another notch. With rousing applause at the end of our set we left the stage and gleefully headed to our dressing room. However, the show was not over – we suddenly found ourselves in the thick of interviews for various radio stations and magazines. We would like to thank Nathan Hamilton of BBC GMR Radio, Neil Sexton of www.gaydarradio.com (who has now asked us to come |
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and do an acoustic session on his Sunday show – we will keep you posted!!), and Matt Miles of AXM Magazine. All of these guys were incredibly generous with their time and enthusiasm for Mama Razzi – we had a blast meeting you all!!
After the work was done – we partied late into the night with the Manchester revellers! It was huge amount of fun that was rounded off with a hearty cooked breakfast at the hotel the next morning – nothing cures a hangover like healthy portion of bacon, sausages, black pudding etc. At 1400 on Monday 29th, we headed back down to London exhausted and triumphant having enjoyed the Manchester Pride experience to the MAX…. |
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Harriet and I would like to thank our three Mama-sketeers; Fabi – forever VIP, Keith – what you can do with a zoom and camera angles is nobody’s business and Archie – instant manager, just add water or whatever is going free at the bar!!! The trip would not have been the same without you.
Finally we want to thank Manny Patel Jnr (in the middle) for booking Mama Razzi at Manchester Pride. You are fabulous and we look forward to sharing the stage, the limelight and the VIP treatment again with you very soon!! Nickxx |
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Hi there everyone! Thankyou to all our fantastic friends who came all the way to Camden on Saturday night for our kick-off gig. Nick and I enjoyed ourselves immensely up on that stage. The atmosphere was really relaxed and I found myself much less nervous than I was at The Bedford. I felt able to truly express Nick's beautiful songs with a spontaneity I don't think I'd ever experienced. Our harmonies felt really tight and yet free and Nick's debut performance of his new solo track 'Chained Man' blew me away so much that it was really hard not shedding a tear. These gigs are doing us good!
If you didn't make Camden, our next two gigs are detailed on this site. It would be great to see as many of you as possible as your support is what makes us happen! If you're feeling really adventurous you could catch a train with us up to Manchester for our Pride debut this Sunday evening!
We're so excited about this one and it means alot to us to be supporting the charity. So, off to get me gladrags on and hope to see you on the 12th or 28th! Loadsaluv, Harriet xxxxx
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Live at The Caernarvon Castle, August 20 |
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When Harriet and I arrived to do our sound check at the Caernarvon Castle on Saturday, I have to admit my first thought was ‘what are we doing here?' Heavy rock music was blaring out of the venue and the customers looked dark, mean and moody. Had we made a gross misjudgement? What would they think of our acoustic, commercial, three minute pop songs? I freaked out a little, just quietly and to myself.
By 7.30pm our Mama Razzi posse had arrived and the first act were starting the set. 8.15 soon arrived and we found ourselves on stage ready to hit the first chord of ‘Stronger’, our opening song. A rousing cheer from the Mama Razzi corner lifted us and we were off.
30 minutes and 7 songs later - it was over, but something new had begun. Mama Razzi moved onto a new level in the last half an hour. As each song went by, from my piano, I saw Harriet elevate her performance to new heights; she captivated the audience with a new found confidence and style that made even me double take a few times whilst trying not to lose place or miss the next harmony.
It was a thrill to hear the audience reaction grow throughout our set initiated from our loyal Mama supporters and then spreading to the far corners of the Caernarvan Castle.
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For me, I would regard this as our first proper gig ever! I left with a genuine sense of pride and excitement. Thanks to everyone that supported us, old (and new!), to Marc Johnson the organiser (we're really looking forward to The Red Room at the Comedy Pub on 12th September!), to Rebecca on the right for snapping the excellent pics and to Fabi and Andrew for filming us. Nickx |
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Hello people - summer is still trying to break through and even if it doesn't..... what the hell, we're here to help, come and kick back at one of our acoustic dates! Harriet and I are preparing a 30 minute set of familiar and new Mama Razzi songs. It's great fun getting back into rehearsal mode, exploring and remodelling some of our tunes to work in the acoustic environment. Taking a song that I originally wrote as a dance tune and giving it a piano accompaniment is a challenge that I enjoy, and it also gives us a chance to work in some interesting harmonies. Well, we look forward to seeing you at one of the gigs through August and September, sun or no sun! Check out the dates on the News page, Nickx |
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Hi everyone - Just a few words this week to tell you that Nick and I are planning to take London by storm with a mini Mama Razzi tour in August and September. We'll let you know the confirmed dates next week. There will be a small door charge this time (probably £5) so don't feel you have to come to all of them! However, we will need to know which gig you can make as we have to let the venues know numbers. So when you receive the dates info, please let us know if and when you can come. With big love and thanks for your support as always, Harriet xxx |
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Hello Y'all! A huge thank you to all of you who came to our gig at The Bedford on Wednesday night. It was a fantastic evening. You probably made up nearly half of the entire audience which was thrilling in quite an intimate room. Nick and I were really excited backstage and I hadn't felt that adrenelin rush for a while, so the performances had an edge to them and were a journey of discovery for me despite my nerves showing at first! We've brought alot of new ideas to the songs so it was really exciting putting them into the mix. I feel we have a renewed confidence in performing live and can't wait to do more gigs over the next few months. Keep you posted! We'll also let you know how our promotional release of 'As I Kiss You' goes in the coming weeks. Thanks again for all your support, Harriet xx
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| Live at The Bedford, June 29 |
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Gig number one of 2005 is done! I had a great night, the Bedford hosted a superb evening of entertainment, Tony Moore - Mr M.C. and former member of the The Cutting....(whaaaa....I just died in your arms tonight...!)...Crew - was the consummate host. Harriet and I were thrilled to see so many of our crew in the audience, a major Mama Razzi Lurve-in! It was great to be back on stage performing after such a long break, and we are already planning more gigs for the summer.
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One minor niggle on the night for me was that the bottom 'C' on the piano was completely missing - oh my gosh - possibly the most essential note for any contemporary pop song - not! I didn't let it fool me though and I deftly guided my left hand away from this void at every opportunity.
As usual the night went by in the blink of an eye. We closed the show with the ballad version of As I Kiss You which was particularly well received. We love performing this song since it takes us on a musical, vocal and lyrical journey that in the heat of the performance moment I find myself completely drawn into, and I just love singing the harmonies with Harriet. Thanks to everyone who came and gave us such rousing support - see you at the next one, it's great to be a 'live' again! Nickx
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| (Click here to read Dawn Gay's review of the Acoustix evening) |
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Welcome all to our new site - we are back on the radar and ready to go! As you may have picked up we are about to release our debut commercial single 'As I Kiss You' which has been produced by the awesome Mac Quayle who has worked for the who's who of pop and dance royalty - including my hero Annie Lennox! Have a listen to the sample of the single on the Music page. It has been an interesting year which has been leading up to the completion and release of 'As I Kiss You'. Harriet and I have been busy working on new songs and now getting ready for more gigs - the first of which is at the Bedford in Balham on 29th June.
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In the recent months I have had the pleasure of putting Harriet in a pair of Danish pastries and playing Han Solo to her Princess Leia in a fabulous MTV film making competition which I won. The prize took me to San Francisco to the Star Wars fan's Mecca - not talking bingo here but George Lucas' house, Skywalker Ranch - to see the new star wars movie 'Revenge of the Sith' in his private cinema with the man himself at the first ever screening of the movie!!! It was a dream come true for an anorak like me. It won't get us a number one single but it certainly made for an excellent adventure.
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But back to the matter at hand - Mama Razzi and our new website - we will be posting all sorts of tit-bits and headlines on the site as they come up and will keep all our subscribers informed. Thanks to Neil Kendall for the photography you see on the site, and to everyone for your support. Nickx |
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Hello everyone! Thanks for your interest in Mama Razzi's new web site. Every other week we'll update you on our latest news. This week and next we're rehearsing our forthcoming gig at the Bedford - see details on the News page. We're really excited about performing live again and this will be our first gig of 2005. We sound in very good shape as we've been training hard this year with our brilliant singing teacher, Natasha Dobie. Come along on the 29th and hear for yourselves! Thankyou for your continuing support and faith. Love, Harriet.
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