“People can imagine,” says Jools Holland, sitting in the back of a car on a motorway somewhere between Cardiff and Manchester, “that I am in a kind of tantric calm, preparing like a sumo wrestler for the big competition.” like a blind panic when I try to write down chords I can’t remember.”
This new year marks 30 years. Jules’ annual Hootenanny which first separated from the main line Later… with Jools Holland Just in time for New Year’s Eve 1993 – and the feeling of pleasant chaos had not changed much. It’s a seasonal venue and has been a favorite New Year’s Eve festival for thirty years for music lovers looking to have a good time without the usual bombast and forced fun of the South Bank fireworks displays.
Holland says so hootenanny The team quickly realized that they had stumbled upon a feeling that went back to the past. “Just like today or for another thousand years, families will get together at the beginning of the new year and celebrate events like this,” he says. “I remember we were outside my grandmother’s house and they had a piano and everyone was singing songs, and then everyone went outside and sang “Happy New Year.” hootenanny looks a bit like a giant version of him.
Tonight’s show is much the same as it was in 1993: a countdown to midnight, followed by two hours of music from six or seven musical guests, plus conversation from celebrity guests watching in various states of inebriation, and collaborations between the musicians and Dutch R&B. blues orchestra. This year’s event will feature Sir Rod Stewart, RAYE, neo-soul songwriter Olivia Dean, Mannfred Mann frontman Paul Jones, soul legend PP Arnold, Joss Stone, Sugababes, Irish folk band The Mary Wallopers and 17 -year-old singer. -Songwriter Muirinn Bradley took part. Check.
Oh, and it’s all done live to maintain the illusion that Jules and the cream of the year are actually playing and having fun as the calendar rolls towards the new year. It’s very difficult to get it to work. “If someone told you now in 2023, ‘Oh, we’re doing this show for the first time,’ people would think you’re crazy,” says series producer Alison Howe.
The idea came from BBC producer Michael Jackson (not that one), who called while Holland and his band were on tour in Scotland. “We had a corded phone in the car, and it felt very glamorous,” Holland recalls. They stopped for breakfast near Arbroath, where radio traffic news warned drivers to avoid the town center – it was a memorial service for Andy Stewart, who hosted the BBC’s New Year’s Eve celebrations between 1957 and 1968. It looked like a sign.
“I felt like we literally, almost spiritually, took the baton from beyond the grave to continue into the new year,” Holland says. “And I hope that in a hundred years I can do the same for the next person who takes over.”
Jackson thought “Hootenanny” was a good name, and it stuck. Holland remembers the 1993 debut going well, with Sting, Paul Young, Chaka Demus and Zangen, Sly, Robbie and Courtney Pine on the roster. “But when I entered [to talk to] Chris Evans said: “It’s really great, but it would be even better if the alcohol was real because at the moment we only have auxiliary drinks.” If you see a celebrity in the audience looking pretty refreshed, it’s probably because they are. “They mixed it all up with a giant grandma’s living room vibe,” says Holland. “This is what you are looking for.”
Howe first hootenanny was the sixth edition in 1998. “And honestly,” she says, “I found the whole experience terrifying.” be, notes Howe). She ended up with a typically eclectic group: Kathy Burke, Miranda Richardson, Michael and Jean Eavis, Bella Freud, Kelly Holmes and Arsenal captain Tony Adams, among others.
“When you add music and you add [in] The audience – even the public audience – all these elements combined mean that an hour before filming starts, four or five hundred people are packed into a relatively small studio, and you have to think about where they’re sitting and tell us what they expect. Everything just happens at once.”
It was stressful. “First hootenanny I did it, I told everyone it would be the last hootenanny I did. And here we are in 2023, and I’ve done them all since then.”
The celebrity lineup remains diverse, but there are some constants. “You always get Vic Reeves, I think we agree,” says Howe. “[Not having him would be] like crows leaving the tower or something like that, and we’re always happy to see him.
Putting together a lineup is fun, she says, “but it also gives me a lot of sleepless nights.” Howe starts thinking about this about a week after Glastonbury, in the middle of summer. “Then you will get an idea of who the artists of the year are. So try to figure out who you want to invite and put it on their calendar because it’s a very busy time for a successful pop artist.
It’s not just about finding the right names. “You can book an artist, but then you have to book the songs,” Howe says. “And the songs are very important to the success of the show. This can continue until the end.”
This usually means that the artist creates the big hit of the year, but this hootenanny It’s also a place “where people who are really great artists can just sing a song that their mother might want to hear,” Holland says. In the past, this has meant Florence and the Machine swooning with “My Baby Just Cares For Me” and Amy Winehouse tearing apart Etta Jones’ “Don’t Go to Strangers” with Paul Weller. This year RAYE will be singing Cole Porter songs. That means Holland and his orchestra have a lot of music to learn: about a dozen extra songs. Musicians are ready to make extra efforts hootenanny However, Mile – Joss Stone, for example, toured with the orchestra for several days this month to perfect his contribution.
There is an urban myth that hootenanny filming in mid-autumn, but if we’re talking a few weeks before New Year’s Eve, it’s only been a few days since Holland and Howe were in the studio. “We’ve never filmed this this early,” Howe says. “It’s usually around mid-December.”
Holland creates the atmosphere with performances before recording. “I’ll start by saying that they are all in the same boat. We must live this moment together – and so it will be. Faith is everything.”
Howe agrees. “The room looks fantastic. Almost everyone who has ever played this hootenanny dressed for New Year’s Eve, so they followed this method a little bit: when you walk into the room, you pretend it’s New Year’s Eve. And then when the show starts and Jules says, “Oh, it’s almost midnight,” I think you just let the event wash over you, even if it’s not real.
This atmosphere spreads throughout the studio. “Everyone gets up and dances, and we don’t feel the need to push anyone,” Howe says. “It’s not like it’s just a joke,” she adds. “We don’t take this lightly. It’s a big part of our year, even if it’s just two hours once a year.”
The best viewing figures were achieved on the strange pandemic New Year’s Eve 2020, when the Dutch group performed at a social distance despite everything. “Where we usually occupy an area of 15 meters, it was about 50 meters,” he says. “We have so many people in the group and they all had to be so far away from each other. But the only good thing, the only good thing Boris Johnson did as Prime Minister was when it was New Year’s Eve and he said, “I know it’s New Year’s Day, but I want everyone to stay at home.” might as well have said, “Look at this hootenanny‘, so thank you very much.”
On New Year’s Eve, both Holland and Howe watch. hootenanny Maybe again, for the fourth or fifth time. It’s a different feeling when it finds its way into living rooms across the country when the parties are in full swing.
“But I’m terrible,” Howe says. “It’s like watching a comedy show with someone who knows all the lines and says to the person next to you, ‘You have to watch this part.’ I do this all the time. I have to hold back because it’s not very pleasant for the people watching it with me.”
Holland will watch with his family and monitor the performance of “Auld Lang Syne” in case his relatives think the show’s crescendo is too short or too long. “Everyone will celebrate the New Year with us, I hope so,” he says. “It’s not just people in their 20s, or people in their 50s, or people in their 70s or 10s—hopefully it’s all of us.”
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Source: I News
I am Harvey Rodriguez, an experienced news reporter and author with 24 News Reporters. My main areas of expertise are in entertainment and media. I have a passion for uncovering stories about the people behind the scenes that bring the entertainment world to life. I take pride in providing my readers with timely and accurate information on all aspects of the entertainment industry.