January en Rose - what Down for the Count have been up to
It’s fair to say that 2025 ended on a high note for us: our biggest indoor audience ever (at Nottingham’s wonderful Royal Concert Hall), with not one but two standing ovations and a couple of great reviews, followed by an invite to return next December. After a brief Christmas break, where we could rest our aching limbs and our rubber chickens had a chance to restore their squawked-out vocal chords, we were back at it. And 2026 had a lot to live up to.
January delivered. That poor, longest month of all gets a lot of undue bashing but we like to see it as the start of what’s to come, when new things appear on the horizon. And there was indeed something special heading our way. After a pair of shows at PizzaExpress Jazz Club in Soho, where we ate our fill of pizza, we had a sold-out gig at the lovely Number 8 in Pershore. (Thank you to Graham and Maggie Smith, who run Pershore Jazz and the annual festival Pershore Jazz on a Summer’s Day, for their immense support.) And then, the “something special” came…
We love inspiring young people to pick up an instrument and dive into the world of music. So when the music department of Northampton School for Boys got in touch about a collaboration, we jumped at the opportunity. On Sunday 25th January, we travelled to Northampton to meet the talented young musicians and hold workshops, where the various instrumentalists and vocalists of the Down for the Count Swing Orchestra imparted their techniques and wisdom to the rising stars of this school.
This was followed by an afternoon of rehearsals, where conductor-arranger Mike got to tell a whole new generation of musicians to “do it again”! It was truly thrilling to see the boys and girls of NSB blend so comfortably with our experienced orchestra, so we couldn’t wait for the big show that evening.
And what a show it was! The students joined us for the first set, whose setlist combined old favourites such as Luck Be a Lady and Let’s Face the Music and Dance with some of the less-performed tunes in our repertoire, such as Our Love Is Here to Stay and Manhattan, with Lydia Bell and Marvin Muoneké on vocals for those.
But while the second set was just our Swing Orchestra, we weren’t going to keep things that simple… Student Alessia came along to make everyone’s jaws drop with her powerful rendition of Georgia on My Mind, before the student instrumentalists and choir joined us for the rousing finale of Rhythm of Life and New York, New York, in which student Dom joined Marvin at the mic. What a way to cap a sensational day, by reminding us how powerful music can be, and how important it is to nurture talent.
The end of the month saw us return to business as usual, resuming our Swing That Music tour after the earlier London and Pershore gigs, this time in Leeds, Birmingham and Leamington Spa. It had been a couple of years since we’d last been in Leeds but the glamorous gal that is the City Varieties Music Hall was every bit as enchanting and welcoming as we remembered. And what an audience! Can everyone please turn themselves up to 11 like this lot when you come to see us? We certainly felt loved. And love was on the menu, with Marvin giving a swoonsome rendition of La Vie en Rose, with a trumpet solo by Ted Smith. So as to keep people on their toes and not get too soppy, we also had Lydia sing her take on Cry Me a River, a song much requested but never-before performed by us. The moody sax solo by Yorkshireman Chris Adsett sealed it as a firm highlight of the evening.
Next up, we returned to our beloved Birmingham Royal Conservatoire, where a number of our All-Stars studied. We doubt they ever had a chance to get nostalgic about it, as they rehearse and perform at the venue regularly, and even still live in Birmingham so they probably see the building every day as they weave around the city’s daunting roads.
Last time we were in Birmingham, we had the drama of two separate traffic accidents delaying first us and then our audience. This time, you might think, surely nothing else could go wrong. Well, surprise! Drummer Jack Amblin’s drumsticks went straight through a snare. Being unable to do anything about the broken skin in the moment, he had to rustle up a substitute from the venue – thankfully a music school, with instruments aplenty! The night went better for him after that, though; he even got to perform Margie on his washboard, delighting us with his voice as well as the bells and honks of his instrument.
Birmingham also brought us something new: vocalist Arthur Geldard, on his first ever show with Down for the Count! And what a lovely man he was, even indulging the audience with his rendition of the constantly-requested Beyond the Sea, as well as the bombastic Sway, which our band played at an audience member’s wedding.
From Birmingham, it was a short trip to Leamington Spa’s Loft Theatre, a venue we absolutely love going back to every year. This producing theatre doesn’t generally have visiting companies, so it’s a treat and honour for us to perform there – and sell it out to boot! Marvin was back, delighting the full house with songs like The Lady Is a Tramp and Jeepers Creepers, while Lydia brought out Shiny Stockings and the brilliant scatting à la Ella Fitzgerald for Honeysuckle Rose.
Now, we get a few days off before our remaining Swing That Music gigs of the first quarter: in Bury St Edmunds and Letchworth. After that, we have the pleasure of returning to London’s Gala Ball, a three-day celebration of dance that our band have performed at for years.
Then it’s onto more new things…
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.
