Throwback Thursday - I Will Never Leave You

So this month's Throwback Thursday took me a little while to decide. 

We heard from Amanda last month, about Tuckman - the fans' affectionate name given to Rachel Tucker and Louise Dearman. So I couldn't resist reminding you of  Louise's gig at the Leicester Square theatre back in November of 2010, where Rachel joined Louise on stage to sing the incredibly moving  'I Will Never Leave You' - it's a real 'beaut' of song! ;)

Personally, I think this video just shows how great Tuckman are together and their true friendship really  shines! 

Throwback Thursday - Rely On Me The Lead

So I was meant to do my Throwback Thursday last week, but if i'm honest I just couldn't make my mind up on exactly what I wanted to write about... but tonight whilst doing a bit of a Youtube crawl to find inspiration.. this jumped out at me, as the perfect #ThrowbackThursday.

Rely On Me The Lead - written by Garry Lake for 'So Jest End.'
So Jest End, is basically the Westend's version of Forbidden Broadway, for those newbies/non UK fans, who may not know. So they take the biggest songs from the biggest shows & turn them on their heads & parody them all in 'Jest.' So this is Jest End's take on Defying Gravity from Wicked.

This is the section where I waffle on about why I chose this video, so you've been warned:
This is one of my all time favourite videos of Rachel, it may have something to do with the other half of 'in my personal opinion' the greatest team there's ever been, being in it, but also because it was the video that actually got me hooked on Rachel, Louise & Wicked & i've not looked back since.

I remember the night I discovered this video.. i'd been to see Wicked for the first time a week or so prior & I remember i'd put the CD in & been disappointed it wasn't 'those amazing woman from the show I saw' and kind of put it all aside. Then when I was in Belgium visiting a friend, she started playing the album... which suddenly reminded me just how much i'd loved the show.. so that night, after a night at what is seriously the best ribs place in the world (must get back to Belgium). I finally got on Google & Youtube to do some homework on Wicked & the actresses i'd been fortunate enough to see perform live. I'm pretty sure it was around midnight when I came across the video.. and several watches & many other videos later.. I finally went to sleep at around 4am with a brand new 'passion.' (I was going to say obsession, but it's such a strong & often negative word.) Along with a desperate need to see them together again.. and to think at the time I thought one more time would be impossible... let's just say it wasn't impossible after all & the rest, as they say his history.

I don't know what it is about this video, but seeing Rachel & Louise being Elphaba & Galinda, the roles they then both went on to play, there's just something so special about it. It's like Garry Lake was looking into his crystal ball & predicting the future, not just once but twice with Louise then going on to takeover in the role of Elphaba, after Rachel. It's just perfection, I mean really how is that not incredible? When they performed this song... they really had no idea just how much of an impact 'Wicked' would have on their lives.. though we know Rachel was determined to get in to it. It's like watching the birth of Tuckman (Rachel Tucker & Louise Dearman, as an on stage duo, for those newer to the world of Rachel Tucker.)

I could probably go on about this song & the rest of So Jest End, for a long while... but i'll just leave it here with stating that because of 'Rely On Me The Lead' I don't think i'll ever be able to sing the whole way through Defying Gravity without somewhere magically changing into this song. It's just so much fun & it's wonderful to look back and see just how far both Rachel & Louise have come...

Also.. the line "Why couldn't you have stayed on Broadway a little longer," makes me so proud now, because she really is there now, on Broadway & we know she'll be staying as long as possible. They better appreciate what they've got.

While we're here, I may as well share the full trailer from Garry Lake's 'So Jest End!'

Also i'd like to give a shout out to Garry Lake, you should check out his Youtube channel & find out more about the new show he's working on "Like Me." There's a few songs from it on his channel.

Stage Door - On Demand Musical Theatre Radio Station

So why are we telling you that you need to put this in the diary? Not only is this going to be fantastic anyways & all fans of Musical Theatre should know about it, but because Rachel is going to be one of the presenters for this 'On-Demand' Radio Channel.

So the brains behind bringing this 'On-Demand' station to life are 'production company Wise Buddah and management company Mothership Management.' They set out initially to create a 24/7 radio channel dedicated solely to Musical Theatre…

"Stemming from a conversation between Wise Buddah’s head of content Simon Willis and Rebecca Sichel-Coates, founder of Mothership Management, the pair realised that despite around 14million people attending a West End show last year alone, musical theatre is almost entirely ignored on the radio. They both realised their business ventures and contacts within the realm of musical theatre they could do something to redress the lack… and Stage Door was born!"                           InTheCheapSeats.Co.UK - June 2013

"We're creating Stage Door to bridge the gap between listening to a CD and seeing a show," Simon Willis, of Wise Buddah, told The Stage."It'll offer great songs from the best shows and be presented by the leading men and women of the West End."                                                           BBC News - June 2013

They launched a IndieGoGo page in June last year with the hopes that the Musical Theatre community & beyond would realise how genius their vision was & get on board to help raise the estimated funds required to pull off their first year of programming. There were fabulous perks & rewards up for grabs, but the the campaign failed at that time to reach the pockets it needed to launch with it's original concept. With the companies behind the idea vowing to still make this dream & reality, they went back to plan B to work out how they could still bring this to life... 

"However, Wise Buddah head of content Simon Willis said: “We’ve not hit the target for our Indiegogo campaign but that doesn’t make us feel the idea is any less credible and we remain committed to launching Stage Door. Throughout the process we’ve managed to connect with thousands of people who, like us, believe Stage Door is an amazing idea that needs to be on the air. Crowdfunding an idea like this was always going to be bold and ambitious, but we want to make a musical theatre radio station for fans of the genre, not for shareholders just wanting to make loads of money.”He revealed that there is a “plan B” that should enable the station’s launch, with details to be announced shortly."                                                            The Stage - August 2013

Watch the original launch trailer from June 2013 below.

Now just over a year on it's finally getting on it's feet & hitting the ground running for the airwaves. Over the past week through their Twitter & Facebook pages they've been revealing the exciting line up of presenters they've already got on board, starting of course with  & we frankly couldn't be any more excited with the line up if we tried. Check out them out below.

With the likes of Rachel Tucker, Louise Dearman, Richard Fleeshman, Alistair Brammer, Lauren Samuels, Zoe Tyler, Alex Gaumond, Hadley Fraser, Killian Donnelly & Stephen Ashfield this is sure to be an incredible boost to the musical theatre community. 

According to their MixCloud page, which is where you'll be able to listen to the station (as well as on their Facebook tab) Stage Door is ...

"Stage Door is a brand new shiny on-demand radio service. Here you'll find programmes featuring the biggest songs, from the best shows, all presented by your favourite musical theatre stars."

"The presenters will play tracks from shows they have appeared in, and talk about their experiences working in musicals. Stage Door will launch on January 12, 2015"                                                                                                                          The Stage - Nov 2014

Be sure to follow Stage Door on their Twitter & Facebook pages as well as hitting the follow button on MixCloud to make sure that you don't miss a beat, from what is sure to become your new favourite radio channel fulfilling all your 'Stagey' needs.

They've released a audio trailer of sorts with a small taste of what's to come from their radio channel & it's definitely caught our attention, specially with an interesting bit from Rachel in there. Take a listen below & lock that date in your diaries.

Stage Door: Trailer by Stage Door on Mixcloud