Birthday Boy

Following the success of his 1998 gig at the Royal Albert Hall, Otway decided to record a CD with the Aylesbury Youth Orchestra. The recording took place in April 1999, and the CD itself was first sold on the 17th July, at a "secret" gig during Aylesbury Music Centre's summer event.

Birthday Boy

The first thing I feel compelled to say about this piece - and indeed, about the CD as a whole - is that you should not let the word "youth" put you off. As anyone who was at the RAH gig can attest, they sound exceptionally good live - but does that come across on the CD?

I'm please to say that yes, it does - and in bucketloads! Richard Holgarth (Otway's guitarist, and one of the producers of the CD) apparently said that the orchestra played even better during the recording of the CD than they did at the Royal Albert Hall, and the finished result certainly supports such a claim. The production itself is also extremely good, and the outcome is quite simply that if you didn't know it was a "youth" orchestra, you probably wouldn't be able to guess from the sound of the CD alone.

The piece begins with a roll of the kettle drums, as the brass and strings play the main theme of the song. After this brief introduction, Otway starts to sing, backed by a cascade of flutes set against a solid base of woodwind, reinforcing the ever present brass and strings. Then it all falls away, leaving just Otway to announce the chorus of "Who's a lucky birthday boy?", then, still in ironic solitude, "Everybody's going to sing."

The second verse continues similarly, with the subtle addition of a single tubular bell, marking time until the next chorus. Then, as Otway's words die away, the orchestra bursts into a tremendous fanfare which is repeated, then allowed to fade into the general melée of frantic violins and gentle woodwind.

Otway's voice then reappears, sounding ever more distraught and strained, before the orchestra once again takes over, with the rolling thunder of the kettle drums now at the fore. This carries the song on to an almost comical dance of woodwind, prancing around the scale in a section which would not be out of place in the middle of a Rogers and Hammerstein piece.

From there the music moves back into the familiar tones of another verse and chorus, before breaking away once more into another lavish fanfare. A final verse follows, this time with the brass taking the melody, before the piece culminates in a rapid exchange from the fanfare to the prancing woodwind and back again.

I have to say that Birthday Boy is probably my least favourite song on this CD - but then I've never particularly liked the original, anyway. Nevertheless, the sound of the orchestra is stunning, and certainly provides an interesting counterpoint to Otway's less-than-refined singing style.

The Highwayman

During his "secret" gig at Aylesbury Music Centre's summer event in 1999, Otway commented that he'd always wanted to do a "Peter and the Wolf" style epic piece. I'd say that with this, he's succeeded.

The recording opens with the quiet sounds of night - an owl hooting in the background whilst the wind howls all around. Suddenly the sound of a kettle drum, followed by a brief flutter of flutes and strings, breaks the silence, before giving way to a pre-emptive echo of the main theme, first on the higher pitched instruments, then with the chest thumping growl of the tubas, cellos, et al.

The music dies away, to simmer gently behind Otway's opening lines, before breaking out into a style which is presumably supposed to be reminiscent of a horse's trot as he sings of how "a highwayman came riding, riding, up to the old inn door." This is one of my least favourite parts of the music, as it sounds a little too contrived to my ears.

From there the music bursts into the main theme of the song, then settles back down for the second verse. It continues like this, alternating between subdued support behind the vocals, and the up-front assault of the hook, for several verses, each with its own nuances in the orchestration to further reinforce the lyric. To describe each twist and turn would quickly become boring, but the result is anything but.

Eventually the howling wind and hooting of the owl return as Otway recites several verses with little or no musical backing. This in itself makes the reintroduction of the orchestra all the more potent, and the seriousness of the piece is retained by use of more authentic horse sounds, in place of the coconut husks of the live performance.

This version of the song also sees the reinstatement of several verses and individual lines from the original poem which were omitted from Otway's previous recording of this piece, turning it into more of an epic (an enormous 8 mins 25 secs!)

In my opinion, this is the best piece on the CD. Whilst there is no denying the sheer beauty of Geneva, this piece has the sort of depth, passion and pace that pulls you deeper into the storyline with each twist of the words, or turn of the music. I would have to put this very near the top of my all-time list of Otway favourites, and would reccommend that you buy the CD if only for this track alone.

Geneva

The final track on the CD, Geneva, has been the staple ending of Otway gigs for some time now. Its inclusion here is as a result of Otway's decision, in 1978, to release an orchestrally enhanced version of the song as the follow-up to his punk hit, "Cor Baby That's Really Free". Consequently, when the opportunity of working with an orchestra once again reared its head, Geneva seemed to be an obvious piece to include.

I'm pleased to say that the AYO managed to carry it off very well. The orchestration, whilst owing a lot to the 1978 version, differs enough to clearly mark it as a new version of the song. The start of the song is carried by Richard Holgarth's strumming on an acoustic guitar, reinforced by suitably swooping strings. As the song progresses, the brass section punctuates the gaps between verses, before the drum work of Adam Batterbee makes its entrance, three minutes into the piece. This, in turn, leads into a screaming guitar solo by Richard about a minute later, which gives way to the orchestra, only to return once more, finally giving way to the terminal notes of the violins.

Again, this is an excellent piece, and seems to be the favourite of most of the orchestra themselves (based on my highly unscientific survey). It retains the character of the earlier version, whilst still maintaining its individuality. A worthy addition to the CD.

The members of the orchestra on on this recording are:-

Conductor	Hugh Molloy
Violins	Charlotte Buck Katie Butcher Marian Butland Sarah Cropley Rebecca Davies Sophie Dolman Sarah Garver	Carole Garwood Alicia Henderson Ronan Hodge Tom Hopkins Sarah Hutching Lucy Johnston	Daniel Mace Vazira Moosajee Abi Smith Helen Sturgess Hamish Sutcliffe Emma Thomas
Violas	Daveth Clark Krystina Larkham	Catherine McGinnety	Gareth Shrubsole
Cellos	Eve Arnold Leah Bolton Hannah Dales Joanna Drury	Rosemary Dyson Katie Leigh Sarah Pleeth	Amy Ponter Sarah Rickus Benedict Taylor
Bass	Sophie Lenham
Flutes	Amy Keeper Jane Mitchell	Gilly Taylor	Michelle Taylor
Oboes	Helen Arney	Sarah Busby	Jenny Hird
Clarinets	Paul Brimicombe Katie Deane	Jamie Taylor	Carys Toms
Bassoons	Christopher Banks	Robert Bird
Trumpets	Andrew Ferris	Jan Marchant
Horns	Eleanor Dorman Sebastian Maynard	Thomas Molloy	David Read
Trombones	Duncan Hamilton	Andrew Shilton	Toby Whiffin
Tuba	James Edney
Percussion	Abi Keeper	Gemma Read	Paul Toler