News

27th February 2007

Long time no see ... Firstly apologies for the recent outage on the website, I had problems with my host and e-mail reminders not reaching me about renewing my domain name. Anyway - all sorted now and I'm back in business.

Where do I start with the news? So much is happening at the moment that I haven't time to think. December was crazy with lots of great gigs including a residency at 'The Ritz Casino' in London and solo gigs supporting Jack Dee at the Hilton, NEC, Birmingham and New Years Eve at the beautiful Clermont Club in Berkeley Square, London. January was fairly quiet with half a dozen dates, which was good because I had a virus which meant I sounded crap! February was amazingly busy with gigs for Rat Pack's Back, Absolute Swing, PRO, The Big Swing, Acoustic Resonance and my own trio 'The Neil Gordon Swing Band' who debuted on the opening night of the new Grosvenor Casino in Luton. Thanks to all the guys involved: Gary Parkes, Simon Walters, Mark Lloyd, Gareth Huw Davies and Matt Boyles for making it a swinging evening!

March is looking impossibly hectic with SMA Productions UK Ltd. moving from my home to new offices in Highgate, London and the launch of SMA's new show 'OOH James!'. This new James Bond themed show will hit the market at the end of March and hold onto your hats 'cause it's gonna be a good 'un! SMA will be exhibiting at RSVP again (London Business Centre, Islington 28th & 29th March 2007) which is keeping me with my nose to the grindstone in preparation and I've still got to fit in six shows as well. Lol - I'm glutton for punishment.

As I mentioned in my last post there was some excellent footage from the IOM Excellence awards which I've posted on the multimedia page. Please feel free to laugh when I cock up the lyrics to 'My Way'. How many times have I sung that song!!! There are also some new pictures at the bottom of the page if you scroll down.

Neil x

11th December 2006

Hi All. I've been on the road solid since my last post doing 20 dates all over the UK. I started off with a Rat Pack Tribute with Jason Pennycooke and Mark Halliday at the City of Manchester Stadium and it hasn't stopped since. I've been to Burnley, Workington, Douglas IOM, Andover, York, Windsor and loads of London dates. The scary thing is I've still got 8 dates to go in December before I can relax for Christmas. Highlight of the month had to be the Isle of Man Excellence Awards. We had a great time at the Gaiety Theatre and there's some really nice video footage which I'll be posting on the site in the not too distant future. We also performed in the ring before a boxing gala evening at the Midland Hotel in Manchester - some pics from there to follow soon.

06th November 2006

Another month goes by! November's a really busy month this year and all the dates seem to have come from nowhere. The Wentworth gig went well. Unfortunately Michael Parkinson wasn't present but Jane Gates from Sebastian's Action Trust really looked after us. Thank You.

I've quite a few 'Kings of Swing' gigs this month, so if anyone fancies seeing a public gig, check out the diary page to see where I'm playing.

06th October 2006

Hi all, apologies for not updating this page for a while ... It's been a busy September with lots of interesting gigs. We started off with a 'Black & White' party for 'The Rat Pack's Back' (see picture below) and went on to perform at Uttoxeter Racecourse, VISA Offices, London and finally we closed a huge four day birthday party in Cornwall, sharing the stage with legends such as George Melly, Humphrey Littleton, Kenny Ball, Digby Fairweather and the PRO. Quite a line up - eh?

Anyhow folks - must dash, I'm off to a gig at Wentworth Golf Club tonight where I'm told Michael Parkinson is going to be the guest of honour. It'd be great to get a picture and a quote! Watch this space...

15th August 2006

It's been quite steady the last few weeks - but no spectacular news. I'm quietening down during August - getting ready for the enslaught up to Christmas!

18th June 2006

Had a very busy end to the week with rehearsals for the new members of 'The Rat Pack's Back'. There are some really strong performers joining us: Brenden Lovett, Jez Unwin, Paul Darnell, David Karl, Matt Ford and soon to join Loren Geeting. These guys are top notch and I'm really looking forward to getting them on some gigs.

The Rat Pack's Back and The Kings of Swing did a joint venture today near Winchester. A fun gig in beautiful surroundings and amazing weather! I'm quiet now until next weekend, so it's head down and clear the paperwork whilst listening to the P.R.O.

08th June 2006

Horror of horrors! The PRO gig I've accepted clashes with the world cup final! What am I going to doooooooooooooo?

07th June 2006

Good news just in - I'll be filling in for the fantasticDuncan Galloway as vocalist for the Pasedena Roof Orchestra on the 09/07/2006 at Cheaveney Hall, Kent. It's my first gig with the PRO and I'm really looking forward to it! There are lots of new arrangements to learn, so that should fill my spare time for the next couple of weeks...

01st June 2006

I spent five days in New York earlier on in the month. I saw a couple of shows on broadway (The Colour Purple & Hairspray) and visited Birdland. Birdland was a real treat for me, there was a female singer Paula West with a really good four piece band. They were fantastic and the guitarist, Ned Cherry was superb. On arriving back in the UK I had a pretty busy schedule with a charity gig for Jewish Childs Day in London, Kings of Swing in Epsom and a big launch party for the new Kia Magentis in Edinburgh; all in the space of three days! I'm back depping on The Big Swing too with three gigs for them on 27/05; 02/06 & 03/06. So all in all it's pretty busy.

04th May 2006

Haven't had time to report any news recently it's been that busy! April was fairly quiet gig-wise with a couple of 'Kings of Swing' gigs and a nice date to finish the month with 'The Rat Pack's Back' at the Natural History Museum, London. We sang at the arse end of the big skeleton in foyer! I helped Ed O'Driscoll out on the 'Classic Response' gig at the Royal Albert Hall, which seemed to be a big success again. Last year we raised over £150,000 but it'll be difficult to match that this year.

May has kicked off to a good start for RPB with a nice gig for the Police Mutual Assurance Society in Harrogate and we're doing a charity gig tomorrow at The Dorchester on Park Lane, London. Sadly, it's Simon Hyland's last gig with us for the forseeable future as he's going back to Oz. We're all gonna miss him on RPB. Especially me - as he was a big help with teaching choreography to new guys. Take care Hylands' (that's Simon, Emma & Samson) Thank you Simon and keep in touch.

We're holding auditions on Monday in London for new team members and it's very exciting. We've got some really talented people auditioning for us and I hope we're going to make some valuable new additions to the team. I'll keep you posted on this...

01st April 2006

Performed with the 'Kings of Swing' today at the Four Seasons Hotel just outside Hook in Hampshire. The band, led by Simon Walters, were great as always ... the gig was a little flat. I think the staging was too high and there was a huge dance floor between us and the audience which made it difficult too.

31st March 2006

Sadly my Grandad, Robert Taylor, died just after midday today. R.I.P. We'll all miss you very much.

29th - 30th March 2006

Brydon Stace, one of SMA Productions directors came over from Oz and we manned a stall at RSVP in Olympia. This is a trade show for people involved in the Event Management industry. It was a very successful couple of days and a big 'Hello' to everyone we met there.

24th March 2006

After arriving back in the UK at stupid o'clock in the morning Graham had to leave us to go and meet his wife for a scan at the hospital, because they're having a baby ... hoorah! Richard and I travelled up to Old Trafford in Manchester to meet Mark Inscoe for a lunchtime gig. Bear in mind we hadn't been to bed for 38 hours and we had to perform for 500 ladies at a charity 'do'. All in all it went pretty well. The stage was very high so we couldn't get off it for fear of not being able to get back on. This meant we had to limit the chat and jokes to a minimum which I always think short changes crowds a bit - 'cause they normally love it. We used a corporate hospitality box to change in and I used this opportunity to bear my arse to the empty stadium!

21st - 24th March 2006

The Rat Pack's Back hit Taipei, Taiwan. After 16.5 hours on planes, trains and automobiles myself, Graham MacDuff and Richard Lloyd King arrived at the Shangri La Hotel, Taipei. We performed the follwing evening feeling pretty spaced out. The show went really well and the clients Merrill Lynch (Asia Pacific) loved it. We then went out partying with the guests and other performers including a troop of Malaysian 'Ladyboy' dancers.