Q the Music

New Victoria Theatre, Woking, May 6, 2018

An excellent evening’s entertainment celebrating the music of 007.

Long-term readers of SFB will know that James Bond is as much part of my DNA as Doctor Who – I’ve loved the books, films and assorted other stories for getting on for five decades, to the extent that I’ve written various volumes including The Bond Files (which was spotted on set during Die Another Day), and the recent Bond vs Bond, both of which looked at all aspects of 007. It’s therefore extremely galling to go to events where the history of the franchise is misrepresented in any way – and I’m delighted to say that (bar the odd misprint in the programme), Q The Music’s excellent show celebrating the silver screen incarnation of James Bond gets its 007 right from start to finish.

The Q the Music band comprises a strong five-piece brass section, a saxophone doubling flute, percussion, drums, lead guitar, bass guitar (who also provided strong second vocals), and two keyboard players, one of whom was the string section. You might wonder initially if such a relatively small line up can match the orchestral sounds of the franchise… but after a few minutes, you realise that that’s far from the case. Musical director Warren Ringham’s arrangements play to the strengths of this line up – ironically, a couple of times, he could probably afford to deviate further from the original voicings – and my aide-memoire note on the instrumental-only OHMSS theme was simply “YES!” (Having arranged about a third of the Bond canon for singers over the years, I’m well aware that these pieces are often deceptively simple when you hear them, masking intricate harmonic sequences that need to be recreated correctly for the effect to work.)

The band are joined for the performance by two strong singers. The majority of Bond songs were written for (or in the case of at least one very recent one, best performed by) female singers and Kerry Schultz’s vocals are at the heart of this show. Her Shirley Bassey and Gladys Knight renditions in particular were simply brilliant tonally and in their performance – Licence to Kill was the standout of the show, and if it wasn’t that the choice of encore was the one Bond theme I was disappointed not to see in the programme initially, I’d’ve loved to have heard that reprised. Early Bond had a few male solos, and Matt Walker delivered very impressive versions of all of these, as well as joining Kerry for some nicely handled duets. A number of songs also had a visual addition with a pair of dancers from the Vegas Show Girls – particularly in the second half numbers, their Bond title sequence-esque choreography was very appropriate (and thanks to the audience member who sponsored them).

The whole thing was threaded together by a fun performance by The Spy Who Loved Me’s Caroline Munro whose deviations from the script (and occasional entanglement with wires backstage!) really helped to create a relaxed atmosphere. Her reminiscences of working with the much missed Sir Roger Moore (to whom plenty of tribute was paid across the evening) provided a personal touch that a less connected compere would have lacked.

The show began with a quite fast rendition of Monty Norman’s James Bond Theme (I’m in print, so not going to go down the ‘who wrote that’ rabbithole here!). Lead guitar Jon Wright took centre stage looking a bit nervous (we later learned this was the biggest audience this show has had) but he quickly seemed to relax into the show, and by the time we got to the rock numbers he was having a ball. From Russia With Love brought Matt Walker to the stage for an appropriately slightly restrained rendition (in which he was a little too low in the sound mix), which contrasted nicely with Kerry Schultz’s powerful debut on Goldfinger. Thunderball was sensibly pitched slightly lower than Tom Jones’ rendition, and Matt (the mix problems now sorted) was able to give it the necessary power as well as an impressive long held note at the end. You Only Live Twice uses strings a lot, and was perhaps the only time where the synthesised sound was really obvious – I wonder if the flute could lead the instrumental intro to good effect?

OHMSS’ orchestral theme tune was brilliant, and Warren Ringham came out for the solo sections of We Have All the Time in the World opposite Matt Walker (interestingly, some of the “response” parts of that solo that I was expeting to come from the band weren’t present which worked well). Diamonds are Forever showcased Kerry Schultz’s powerful voice, and she was backed by some… unusual… singers for the start of Live and Let Die. We’d entered the more rock driven era now, and the band dialled things up appropriately as was very clear with Kerry’s rendition of the theme from the 1974 movie The Man with the Golden Gun (at one hell of a lick!). The first of the “surprise” moments – which I suspect will differ from concert to concert – was a band-only performance of John Barry’s 007, a piece he wrote to be his own “Bond theme” but which never really took off to quite the same extent. Moonraker and For Your Eyes Only were both very good, and the first half ended with my personal favourite, Nobody Does It Better from The Spy Who Loved Me. This was quite an upbeat version, taken down to F major – which allowed the trumpets not to totally try to kill themselves before the interval when they hit the top notes at the end – that was a rousing move into the interval.

The second half stayed with The Spy Who Loved Me, with Marvin Hamlisch’s take on Norman’s theme, Bond ’77 (which is basically the music from the ski chase at the start of the film). Once again the band were crisp and enthusiastic (across the whole evening, there was only one time I noted a slightly ropey start). The underrated All Time High (from the equally underrated Octopussy) followed in what felt a slightly fast version, and was followed by A View to A Kill, a fun version of the Duran Duran contribution to the canon.

Moving onto Timothy Dalton’s era provided my two favourite vocal performances of the evening. The Living Daylights was performed to my surprise as a duet by Matt and Kerry, in a very strong arrangement by Warren Ringham. As mentioned, Licence to Kill was the standout of the whole show, and deserved the standing ovation it received. The pitch and vocal timbre required very much suits Kerry’s voice, and it’s helped by another great arrangement – the piano player was given plenty to do that really filled out the scope of the sound.

GoldenEye saw the dancers really channel the spirit of legendary Bond title designer Maurice Binder and Tomorrow Never Dies made me reconsider my opinion of the Sheryl Crow number (to me, it’s always the weaker of the two songs written for the film). Our extra number for the second half was one that I genuinely never expected to hear in such a concert – the unused Only Myself to Blame from what was originally going to be the end credits of The World is Not Enough. This was in part in tribute to another legend of the Bond world, trumpeter Derek Watkins, whose widow and daughter were present. Warren Ringham gave a soulful performance of the trumpet solo opposite Matt’s dialled down performance in probably the one song across the entire evening that the people behind me didn’t try to join in (out of key and time!). I’d hoped initially that slot would be used for the Back Seat Driver piece from Tomorrow Never Dies – which was my initial intro to Q the Music’s output and which they do, from online versions, very well indeed – but this was a highly enjoyable alternative.

Flute and trumpet were well-used in octaves in the main theme from The World is Not Enough, and we jumped from there to Casino Royale. (Die Another Day did get a mention in Caroline Munro’s links but no performance – it’s a difficult one to do and maybe a purely instrumental version might be the way to represent it?) Chris Cornell’s song was performed as a duet by Matt and Kerry in what I suspect was the full single version rather than the movie edit of the song – but no one was complaining at more of this strong piece.

After a duet for a solo piece, we then got a solo for a song originally performed as a duet. Kerry sang Quantum of Solace’s Another Way to Die on her own and then followed those with the two most recent Bond songs, Skyfall and Writing’s on the Wall (which Sam Smith can get away with singing, but from the first time I heard it, I always felt was better suited to a female voice – as Kerry proved). All three were performed with gusto: you really wouldn’t think that she’d been up there for heading for three hours by that stage!

After deserved applause and recognition for all the players involved, the encore was the other piece written for Tomorrow Never Dies – Surrender. It was a fierce and passionate rendition and brought the evening to a strong close.

It was interesting to watch the band relax as the evening progressed and the audience warmly received the music (although I did wonder if the drummer would survive the pace he set himself at the start!). The lighting and effects complemented the singing without competing with them, and bar the odd moment, the sound was very well blended.

Looking ahead, I hope that the band expand into a few more “less well known” pieces from the canon. Missing Die Another Day off the programme meant that there’s not a slavish devotion to performing all the Bond theme tunes, so maybe mix it up a bit? I’d love to hear Kerry perform “Letter to Paris” from the Tomorrow Never Dies videogame score, or indeed some of the songs that didn’t make the cut. Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang isn’t the poor man’s Thunderball you might have thought from some of the comments, and how about Alice Cooper’s The Man with the Golden Gun?

However, whether it’s a repeat of this programme, or one that throws more into the pot, one thing’s for sure: when The James Bond Concert Spectacular returns, I’ll be there.

Verdict: Powerful and passionate performances of over half a century of 007. 9/10

Paul Simpson

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