Very excited that I’ll be back on drums with Jade MayJean and the 20SIXTY band in May this year, headlining the Framlingham Gala Fest on Monday 27th May with Jade’s original songs from the hugely popular 20SIXTY album which came out last year.
The festival is at the Framlingham Castle Meadow over three days from 25th – 27th May, and admission is free for all.
A recent article on the Sistema Europe website has put the spotlight on Sistema In Norwich’s ‘Performance Project’ – a brand new Sistema initiative for 2018-19.
Over the course of 12 concerts and just under a year and a half, Sistema in Norwich will engage with circus groups, the Norwich-based Vagaband, fellow Sistema-influenced groups and established musicians and composers from across Europe.
The project also provides the young musicians involved with the chance to compose for a variety of scenarios and formations, with pieces for soloists, ensembles, brass and wind sections all finding their way into the schedule.
The Sistema Performance Project thus increases Sistema in Norwich’s social impact, provides its students with additional performance time and accelerates their personal development, promoting self-confidence, resilience and leadership – all while building upon Sistema in Norwich’s existing connections both at home and abroad.
Sistema Europe website
The circus performance in collaboration with Lost In Translation – which took place in October of last year – was an exciting and innovative project, expanding our students’ horizons and bringing them into contact with other forms and settings of orchestral performance.
It is always gratifying to gain the recognition of the international Sistema community for our work, and it is an honour to be a part of a global musical movement with the history and pedigree of Sistema.
I am delighted to be able to report another term of exam successes for my students – with candidates taking exams on piano and on drums, ranging from Initial Grade up to Grade 5, with a 100% pass rate once again.
Big congratulations to all my students for their hard work and perseverance, and for their fully-deserved exam success. Now, keep practising – and onto the next exciting new challenge!
Delighted to be back at the King Charles Hotel in Gillingham tonight, to celebrate the legacy of the legendary Excalibur Nightclub – which, in its heyday between 1989 and 1998, hosted artists such as The Prodigy, Salt N Pepa, Rick Astley and Bros, amongst others.
Ultra ’90s will be onstage from half-past-ten, to give the Excalibur Nightclub the send-off it deserves.
A few of the great pictures from three consecutive nights of Ultra ’90s Fresh at the ’90s Weekender at Hunters Quay in Argyll. All photos by Ken Clark.
I am delighted to announce that I’ll be playing percussion in a live orchestral performance for The Pisces Rising – a popular YouTube channel which re-orchestrates well-known theme tunes into large, epic-sounding masterpieces – at this year’s Summer In The City YouTube festival at the ExCel in London.
The performance will be on the main stage at half-past-five this Saturday, 11th August.
I don’t generally make ‘New Years resolutions’ – but one thing I did want to do as of the start of this year was to update this page more, and be more active here. So far, not so good…!
So what has been going on? Lots of work with Sistema in various local schools, which I am still enjoying and finding really rewarding. And lots of gigs with Ultra ’90s – in all it’s various flavours (Original, Fresh and Jam), both on drums/percussion and as a keys player and MD.
And in between all of that, we have had the eleventh annual Keyboard Camp this year, just one week ago. (More on that in a later post…) And I have been trying to get my studio setup and fully functional at my new house!
Having moved house at the end of summer last year, it has taken a little while to move all my gear across and start to get myself familiar with the new studio space. The big plan for this year is to get my recording work properly up-and-running, so I am going to try and start pushing that online a little more as I get everything finalised.
It may have been made eighteen months ago… But the inaugural Jamie Roe Band EP – ‘Reach For The Tide’ – is finally available online!
The four track EP showcases some of the early songwriting work of the band, and was recorded at Tide’s Reach Studios in Lowestoft.
I am contributing piano, organs and backing vocals on all four songs.
Click here to buy ‘Reach For The Tide’ on iTunes. Or listen to the tracks on Spotify, below:
It has been a pleasure to play drums and percussion for Ultra ’90s – the hugely popular, one-of-a-kind ’90s dance tribute show show from PX Productions – for several years now; and when the show expanded in 2015 to include two lineups, I was delighted to be included as the original percussionist for the new incarnation of the show, Ultra ’90s Fresh.
Now, with demand for a good, healthy dose of old-fashioned ’90s dance music still outstripping supply, PXP are expanding the lineups once again…
As well as continuing to gig on drums with Ultra ’90s, and on percussion with Ultra ’90s Fresh, I am proud to say I shall be taking on the running of the third new lineup – which has been dubbed Ultra ’90s Jam – as the musical director, keys player and male vocalist.
I am very excited to have the opportunity to further expand my work with such a highly professional and well-regarded outfit as PXP – and I am always grateful for the chance to develop new skills (such as learning to program DMX lighting in ChamSys MagicQ), to learn to work with new equipment in different environments, and to push myself further as a performer.
The first time I’ve got ’round to sitting down to write about it, even though it was now three weeks ago… (After Keyboard Camp finished, it was straight into four gigs over three days that weekend; an exhausting four-day studio refit; another weekend of gigs right down in the toes of Cornwall; and a day of PA system setup in readiness for new ventures this summer… More on all of that soon enough!) But I am delighted that the tenth anniversary of the (by now) famous NKO Keyboard Camp was such a success!
With music drawn from the material we have learnt as an orchestra over the previous nine residentials (plus some new music thrown in especially for this year) – as well as party games, birthday cake, a nostalgic photo slideshows from Keyboard Camps gone by – and culminating in an evening performance showcasing all the hard work and preparation over the past four days, the tenth Keyboard Camp was a true celebration of what makes it special, and exciting.
I have always been proud to be associated with a residential music course which is always evolving and improving, and where the students keep coming back year after year (for nine years in a row, in some cases!),
