Springing forward - what's up next for Down for the Count!
It’s that time of year when we put the clocks forward – which is hard for a swing band that wants to take you back in time. But we suffer for our art, and grudgingly accept the lengthening evenings.
We’ve had a good winter, all told. Following 2024’s Swing Into Christmas tour, we high-kicked into 2025 with our brand new show, Swing That Music, at a couple of venues in London – not only at our beloved Chickenshed in the North, but also a brand new jazz club (Soul Mama) in the trendy East. February then took us to Bedford, Tewkesbury, Bury St Edmunds, East Grinstead, Guildford, Colchester and Letchworth. “PHEW!” you might think, but we decided that wasn’t enough so we threw in a special Motown show at Pizza Express Holborn back in London before swinging back into music yet again with a gig in Bradford on Avon in March.
One of our February highlights: old pal Katie Birtill joined us for one night only, at the Quarry Theatre in Bedford, to blow the roof off the joint.
Now, after a brief respite, we’re heading back on the road with our Spring/Summer performances of Swing That Music! Our first stop is Canterbury, which Chaucer liked enough to set a whole bunch of tales there. We don’t know if he ever wrote about the Gulbenkian Arts Centre, but he should have. We can’t wait to be back there with this new set!
From Canterbury, we’ll be heading to the other historically important city of Lancaster – don’t worry, we know how far that is from Canterbury; we’ve allowed ourselves a few weeks in-between so that the vans don’t get too tired on the journey. We’ll be making merry music at the lovely Lancaster Grand. Interestingly, our show gets a whole new identity in Lancaster and Lancaster only, where it goes by the name A Century of Swing. This is because our venue preferred to keep the name of our last tour, not because we’re hiding from the authorities or anything.
From Lancaster, we’re travelling to York (we may be labouring the historical-importance point a bit now), where we’ll entertain the audiences of the wonderful Joseph Rowntree Theatre. Last time we were in York, we were on our very own island, so it’ll be a treat to be in the centre of this city of cobbled streets with names like Whipmawhopmagate and shops selling porcelain ghosts. Nice as it was to have our own island for a night.
Our “island” in York. A sort of new York.
After York, our Scottish mini-tour begins! We’ll be back in our precious Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh, a city we love so much that band leader Mike ensures it always features prominently in our tour itineraries – almost as much as Tebay Services. Last time we were in Edinburgh (with the orchestra), we enjoyed ghost pubs, ghost walks, hill-walks, broken brollies, snooker, bowling, but sadly no deep-fried Mars bars. That might be dinner sorted for this tour.
From Edinburgh, we’ll be heading to Dundee, another historically important town: the birthplace of The Beano. And marmalade, Google tells us, so we’ll be sure to have some while we’re there. We’ll be jamming (see what we did there?) the night away at the Gardyne Theatre, a performance space that also has its own recording studio.
After that, we’ll be back in Aberdeen, in whose stylish grey surroundings sits the gorgeous, grade-A-listed Tivoli Theatre – another of our regular favourite venues! Back in the day, it hosted such performers as Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel. We reckon they’d have loved a Down for the Count gig. One of our favourite things about Aberdeen is a post-show cocktail in two of our favourite bars - we hope they will be open long enough after the show for a couple of drinks!
The A-grade listed Tivoli Theatre, Aberdeen
From Aberdeen, we’ll be heading to the Eastwood Park Theatre in Giffnock, near Glasgow, and round out our Scottish mini-tour. What a way to end our time there, though: this gig is heading for a sell-out!
For those of you who find swing and jazz are best served with marinara sauce, we’ve got good news for you: we’ll be doing two shows in a single day in May at Pizza Express Jazz Club in Soho! Come and enjoy either lunch or dinner as we try to distract you from your meal with our swinging set. The impeccable vibes and intimacy of the space mean we love performing here, but it does also mean that tickets go quickly – the lunchtime show is almost sold out already.
Well, that’s our Spring Schedule in a nutshell! Of course, that’s not all we’re up to. Not only are there more Swing That Music dates lined up, but we’re also looking ahead to our special mini-tour, Celebrating Sammy Davis Jr, this summer and, of course, our biggest tour of the year: Swing Into Christmas 2025. That’s right: while you’re all banishing any thoughts of Yuletide from your mind till at least November, our elves have been working away at the grotto (Mike in his house) to pull together a whole new batch of dates and venues for a fresh new show (featuring some old favourite tunes and old favourite friends). It’s heartwarming to see so many of you snapping up your tickets already, and making it a tradition to spend a night with us in the festive season – it seems joy is infectious!
About the author
Polis Loizou-Denyer is Down for the Count's marketing and communications officer. Though it's a long time since he played an instrument himself, he likes to keep creative with his own writing, performing, theatre making, filmmaking and oral storytelling.
