Alan Clayson

Clayson Sings Chanson has been on the road since the beginning of 2011 to tie-in with the most recent edition of his Jacques Brel biography, La Vie Bohème. Recent media coverage has been fulsome with phrases like ‘mesmerising’, ‘a man possessed’, ‘a wonderful evening by a master raconteur at the top of his game’.

As well as works by Jacques Brel, Charles Aznavour, Scott Walker and other chansonniers, Gallic and English, Alan and a keyboard player - venture into curious but connected realms, ranging from an arrangement of French symbolist poet Paul Verlaine’s ‘Un Grand Sommeil Noir’ to Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich’s ‘Last Night In Soho’ - sung absolutely straight and, by contrast, 'Sweeney Todd The Barber' - which he used to do with my group Clayson and the Argonauts, but hadn't unveiled in public for a quarter of a century. Prefaced by an explanatory talk that is as entertaining as it is educational this show will appeal to both chanson devotees and those interested generally in Gallic culture.