Report & Photos by Matthew Field
Grammy Award winning
composer David Arnold, took to the stage at London’s Royal
Festival on Sunday 6th July, for his concert debut. Looking confident
and
dapper,
Arnold amusingly
introduced himself to the stage setting the tone for the evening,
in which he repeatedly joked with the audience in his self-deprecating
way. But more importantly, his concert showcased the breadth of
his talent as a musician and composer.
Seated behind a keyboard and a MacBook laptop and with a host
of guitars and amplifiers within easy reach, Arnold steered the
orchestra through a perfectly chosen programme conducted by Bond
regular Nicholas Dodd.
The first half consisted of cues from his soundtracks
'Godzilla', 'The Stepford Wives', 'Amazing Grace' and 'Four Brothers'.
Other music
included a suite from his work written especially for the London
2012 Olympics and an exclusive preview from his first stage musical,
Made In Dagenham, which opens in London in October.
David McAlmont, with whom Arnold first worked on his Shaken
and Stirred Bond tribute album, performed Play Dead, which Arnold
wrote for the Icelandic singer Björk back in the early 90s.
He rounded off the first half with a 20-minute suite from his
beautiful score for Roland Emmerich’s Stargate.
Bond fans were in for a treat when Arnold opened
the second half with the superb White Knight from 'Tomorrow
Never Dies'. David
McAlmont was on hand once more to lend his vocals to Surrender
- the haunting end credit song originally performed by K.D Lang.
Arnold too showcased his singing ability, performing both The
World Is Not Enough and the unused Only Myself To Blame written
for the aforementioned movie. Suites were performed from both
'Casino Royale' and 'Quantum of Solace', but the crowed pleaser
was an instrumental of You Know My Name, which Arnold performed
on
electric guitar.
Arnold paid tribute to his own hero John Barry and spoke with
affection of his working relationship with Bond producers Barbara
Broccoli and Michael Wilson.
As the concert neared its finale, Arnold was
joined on stage by Mark Gatiss, co creator and producer of the
TV series Sherlock
and actress Amanda Abbington. Before the orchestra performed
music from the show, Gatiss joked, (in keeping with Arnold’s
humour), “I’m waiting for them to play Skyfall!” Michael
Price, co writer of the Sherlock score, took up the baton for
this one segment.
Before bowing out to a standing ovation Arnold once again picked
up the guitar and with full orchestra, belted out The James Bond
Theme. It’s taken David Arnold twenty years to appear in
concert, lets hope it doesn’t take another twenty to get
him back!
Thanks to Brian Smith and Mark Ashby.
