Taunton and South Somerset Living Oct - Nov 2021
The Autumn edition is here - filled with amazing goodies. We've got an interview with legendary baker Richard Bertinet, lots of delicious recipes, advice on redecorating the guest bedroom and of course our amazing competition page.
The Autumn edition is here - filled with amazing goodies. We've got an interview with legendary baker Richard Bertinet, lots of delicious recipes, advice on redecorating the guest bedroom and of course our amazing competition page.
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CAN YOU<br />
LEND US A..<br />
Tenor<br />
Ade Hill catches up<br />
with ‘The People’s<br />
Tenor’, Russell<br />
Watson, where he<br />
discusses getting<br />
back out on stage<br />
post p<strong>and</strong>emic, as<br />
well as something we<br />
can all relate to...<br />
the great lockdown<br />
clear-out!<br />
Images by Richard Haughton/Raymond Gubbay Ltd<br />
It sure has been a tough year for<br />
everyone, especially for the performing<br />
arts <strong>and</strong> theatres. How did you<br />
personally find lockdown?<br />
In some respects when it first kicked in<br />
I don’t think anybody in the industry, or<br />
the country for that matter, anticipated<br />
just how long the lockdown would last.<br />
So when we initially thought it was just<br />
going to be a few weeks I thought ‘Well<br />
this could be a good opportunity for me<br />
to rest my voice, rest the infrastructure’.<br />
I also wanted to settle down – I had<br />
been constantly touring for about ten or<br />
eleven years without much of a break.<br />
So it was kind of going to be just a long<br />
lay-off but it didn’t quite work out like<br />
that! I remember when it started to unfold<br />
it was evident that the lockdown was<br />
going to be much longer than we were<br />
anticipating <strong>and</strong> it was then that my wife<br />
presented me with this great big long list<br />
of jobs that I’d been promising to do for<br />
the last eleven years, culminating with the<br />
tidying of the proverbial garden shed. It’s<br />
only a simple 8x6 garden shed, but once<br />
I’d opened the door to it I realised that it<br />
probably had a similar capacity to that<br />
of Dr Who’s Tardis! There was so much<br />
junk in there, I wasn’t able to actually<br />
get through the door. So the first point<br />
was to clear the doorway by emptying<br />
the immediate contents onto the garden<br />
lawn. The first thing I noticed was that<br />
there were about five or six kites in there<br />
that remained unopened. But the most<br />
interesting thing I found was at the back<br />
of the shed lurking were three bikes that I<br />
didn’t even know I owned!<br />
That’s quite a find! Now I hear that<br />
in your lockdown sort-out you found<br />
boxes of old stage gear, including a<br />
suit that you wore to meet the Queen?<br />
Yes, <strong>and</strong> this was all in my shed! It was<br />
all piled up in these plastic containers.<br />
I pulled a lot of it out thinking ‘I thought<br />
this had gone years ago?!’. This beautiful<br />
silk white suit that I had worn when I<br />
received my first Brit Award. All manner<br />
of stuff was in there. It was like Aladdin’s<br />
cave. It’s funny because a lot of the stuff<br />
doesn’t fit anymore, as it is twenty years<br />
on. It is designer stuff, there’s Dolce &<br />
Gabbana <strong>and</strong> Armani <strong>and</strong> all that. So we<br />
bagged it all up <strong>and</strong> took it to the local<br />
homeless facility. It was funny because<br />
the guy rang me up a few days later<br />
<strong>and</strong> said “Russell we’re so grateful for<br />
the clothes, we shouldn’t laugh but all<br />
the guys here are now walking around<br />
in Dolce & Gabbana <strong>and</strong> Armani, it’s<br />
brilliant!”<br />
That’s really brilliant! It is great to<br />
donate.<br />
We’ve attempted to do a lot for homeless<br />
people over the years. I’ve recently been<br />
involved with a big project with The<br />
Big Issue, to try to raise for homeless<br />
people who at the moment are suffering<br />
more than ever. With people not leaving<br />
home because of the p<strong>and</strong>emic it’s been<br />
incredibly difficult for a lot of homeless<br />
people. I am a huge advocate for<br />
supporting the homeless.<br />
Tell us more about your 20th<br />
Anniversary tour. How does it feel to<br />
finally be able to go back to what you<br />
do best?<br />
Well it was the tour that was meant to<br />
happen at the beginning of 2020. Then<br />
it was moved to the middle of 2020.<br />
Then it was moved to the end of 2020.<br />
Now it has ended up in Autumn <strong>2021</strong>.<br />
It’s difficult to know what to put on the<br />
tour poster. ‘The tour that nearly was,<br />
then wasn’t. But then nearly was again,<br />
but wasn’t. But might be, but wasn’t.<br />
But probably could be but we just don’t<br />
know’ tour. December 2019 was my last<br />
concert in front of an audience, <strong>and</strong> so<br />
this Friday (20th July) was my first show<br />
for the best part of eighteen months. It<br />
was an outdoor festival in Hale Barns<br />
<strong>and</strong> it was just wonderful to get back on<br />
stage with all my musician friends <strong>and</strong><br />
deliver a show to an audience that, you<br />
could just tell, were long overdue some<br />
live entertainment. It was such a great,<br />
great night.<br />
14 | www.minervamagazines.co.uk
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