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Last Week The Voice, This Week No Voice

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Last Week I wrote My Sister Wants Me To Go On The Voice and this week, as if a bizarre message has been delivered from ‘The Universe’, I have NO Voice.

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pictures of the larynx and inflamed vocal folds with laryngitisIn over twenty years as a professional singer I am proud and lucky enough to be able to say that I have never cancelled a concert or session because of my voice. There was that one time when I forgot my passport and was deported on the Eurostar by a policeman armed with a machine-gun. This Saturday, my winning streak was over. I’ve had the odd croak at the end of a cold, sometimes due to coughing, but I’ve never completely lost my voice.

It started with a funny feeling on Tuesday Read the rest of this post»

My Big Sister Wants Me To Go On The Voice

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My big sister Nicola wants me to go on the BBC reality/talent show The Voice.

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When I say she ‘wants’ me to go on, I mean she is subjecting me to a Chinese water-torture style drip, drip, drip of persuasive comments.

When she first suggested it, my blood turned cold.
I flatly refused to entertain the idea and even resisted watching the show, but I finally caved in and fired up the iPlayer to see the latest episode, which turned out to be the final blind audition round.
I watched it so that I could check what I had assumed was correct so that I could eloquently explain to her why it was definitely not a good idea for me.

A week ago, I posted a small comment on my Facebook status: “Finally watched The Voice @NicolaCairnX insistence. Only actual technical vocal critique was when Tom Jones said “it was a bit pitchy” hmmmm” Read the rest of this post»

Reviews For At Last The Album – Good And Bad

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Today I got an email from Ray Bonici from www.radiomonitor.com. They supply an excellent service where your song titles are monitored to see if you’ve had any radio play. He sent me this clip of a Radio Ulster programme called Jazz Club presented by Walter Love. Walter had played The Nearness of You on his show 15/04/2012 and in his introduction he says some very kind things: Read the rest of this post»

Making An Album | The Songs | Taking A Chance On Love

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When making an album, I chose to record Taking A Chance On Love because I absolutely love the lyrics.
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Not long after I left the Swingle Singers, I went to a party where I met the jazz bass player Alexander L’Estrange. Alex is married to the soprano Joanna Forbes. Joanna joined the group just before I left and later went on to be the musical director. Alex played bass on the group’s anniversary tour, as well as writing many fine arrangements for them. We had a chat and when he asked me what I was going to do next (I’d been a member for ten years), I told him I had no idea, but would like to rekindle my love of singing jazz. I hadn’t sung in that style since I left The Guildhall some twelve years before.  A week later, I got a call from Alex asking me if I would like to sing at a dinner in an Oxford College with a jazz pianist friend of his called Thomas Pilling. I worked hard to get together a pad with the charts of the songs I knew and headed off to Oxford feeling terrified. Was today the day when I would be discovered as a musical fraud? (I am assured by my colleagues that no matter how successful you are, you will always still feel that fear). Read the rest of this post»

Singing And My Time Management Struggle

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This week I want to talk about singing and the struggle I have with time management.
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Cuenca Old town in the snowLast week I was on the bus from Cuenca in Spain to Madrid Airport, driving through thick snow (!) when I got an email. I was supposed to go on a tour to Moscow leaving on Easter Sunday but the email said the trip was cancelled at the eleventh hour. I’d never been to Russia so I was a bit disappointed – mostly I was concerned as we may not get paid a cancellation fee. Secretly, I was relieved as this past moth has been non-stop.

I’ve not written a blog post for quite a while (much to my sister Nicola Cairncross‘ consternation). I’ve been so busy that I’ve not had a clear space in my head to think of something interesting to write about. Normally I do a singing job that reminds me of an anecdote from a previous tour. Perhaps somebody mentions a place or incident which triggers me into writing. Those of you who have read my blogs before will know that stopping writing once I start is my main problem. Read the rest of this post»

Radio Interview with Joe Talbot on BBC Sussex

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Joe Talbot and Pauline the producer with singer Heather CairncrossOn March 19th, I was lucky enough to be interviewed by my favourite BBC Sussex presenter, Joe Talbot. He was every bit as lovely as he seems on his radio show and he made me feel very welcome and relaxed during the interview. He asked really interesting questions and even showed me a picture of his naughty dog Titch afterwards. Pauline, his long suffering producer was at the helm and we shared a cup of tea and some cake which I’d taken in with me. (Pauline’s husband usually provides the biscuits on Joe’s Sunday gardening programme called ‘Digit’ – which is good fun for both gardeners and people like me who like a chuckle at Joe’s gardening double entendres).

I took this recording from the radio but unfortunately there were a few cracking noises on the playback. I hope that won’t spoil your listening. It runs on at the end, as some emails and calls came in. Just click the pink arrow.

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As always, if you enjoyed this blog and would like to know when I write a new article, don’t forget to add your email address to the VIP list page on the pink navigation bar. You also get an exclusive unreleased track as a reward! Don’t forget to click on the link in the email which you receive to confirm your interest. Your email address is completely confidential. I love to hear your comments as well so please leave me a message below – your email address is private and won’t appear with the comment.

Join Us At The Launch Party!

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To celebrate the album “At Last” getting a full distribution deal, we threw a launch party at our favourite jazz venue in Hove, The Brunswick.  Now, we know that not all of you could make it, so we recorded it and you can watch Heather & David performing some of the songs from the album right here.

If you would like to buy the album, you can do that here and enjoy exclusive bonus tracks.

You can also join in by watching and commenting / sharing on Heather’s page on Facebook.

If the video below doesn’t play, visit our Ustream channel here >>>

Streaming by Ustream

Venezia – Delicious Hot Or Cold

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I recently re-visited Venice and my goodness, it was cold, although it made me remember a time when I’d been very hot there in the blazing heat of August.
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The View of St. Mark's Square from the water

My first view of Venice from the water

Occasionally in the life of a touring singer, there is an opportunity to extend a work trip to include a few days holiday. When I get the preliminary schedule for a tour, the first thing I do is to see if there is a chance to ‘opt out’ of the inevitable London Heathrow flight and book one from Gatwick Airport.

I live in Brighton, so it’s only half an hour on the train to Gatwick whereas Heathrow involves an hour and ten minutes on the train, then a long underground ride – not to mention the struggle down the stairs through the crowds with your suitcase at Victoria Tube station. If it’s one of those hideous, early check-ins (that seem to be the norm now) then it can be almost impossible to get to Heathrow at 7am without staying in London the night before – expensive and awkward. Read the rest of this post»

Return To Tenerife

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map of tenerifeThis week I return to Tenerife for a concert. Remember that I love to read your comments so feel free to comment in the box below this post.
After we’d arrived and as we climbed on board the bus to the hotel, I caught the eye of Andrew Busher and we nodded in silent, slightly disturbed agreement. It was over twenty years ago that we had arrived at a somewhat more dilapidated version of Tenerife airport. We had felt much more exhausted and looked and smelt rather bad. Today we had come from Gatwick on an unusually civilized, midday flight with the Monteverdi Choir. We would also have an evening off to sample the delights of the local cuisine and time for a bus trip to the beach for a seafood lunch – sometimes you have to love this job!

Some twenty years ago, Andy and I had arrived from America, but we’d endured the journey from hell to get there……. Read the rest of this post»

Exclusive Interview For Wayne McConnell’s Jazz Podcast

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The ever excellent Wayne McConnell interviews Heather for his jazz podcast which is really good – I recommend you subscribe.

We talk about how I got started in music and in particular how I started singing jazz before moving on to tell the story of how the album came about and got recorded in the way it did.