Neil Brand - news and future projects
* Following an acclaimed tour of Paul Mertons Silent Clowns last autumn (which was seen by 15,000 people) Paul and Neil will be on the road again in April/May 2009
* Neil's score for the silent version of Hitchcock’s ‘Blackmail’ for 60-piece orchestra for the Bologna Film Festival was performed to enormous acclaim on July 1st in the Piazza Maggiore by the Opera House Orchestra of Bologna, conducted by Timothy Brock. Plans are now being discussed for a London premiere in 2009. See separate page.
* Neil is currently scoring ‘The Wrecker’ (1929), directed by Géza von Bolváry for DVD.
* In May 2008, Neil enjoyed a superb collaboration with The Umbilical Brothers in ‘Flicker’ a specially-commissioned show for Cat Laughs Comedy Festival, Kilkenny.
* Neil’s own show in Edinburgh last year – ‘Neil Brand – the Silent Pianist Speaks’ played to critical acclaim and has played since in London, Orkney, Bath Tromso, Bonn, Zurich and in rural touring venues. It will be seen at the Inverness Film Festival and further dates next year. See separate page.
* His new radio play, ‘Seeing it through’ aired on Radio 3 in October 2007 – it is a political drama set against the background of Wellington House, the deeply secret department of propaganda during World War One. See Guardian review.
* He has recently recorded scores for DVD releases ‘Mitchell and Kenyon in Ireland’, ‘The Open Road’ (BFI, both with Gunter Buchwald), Bluebell Railway No 3 (Bluebell/South-East Screen Archive) and The Life Story of David Lloyd George (Welsh Film Archive). The Silent Britain BBC documentary for which he composed the music is now available through Kino in the States.
* Neil’s score for ‘The Cat and the Canary’ was performed to great acclaim at the New Zealand Film Festival in July 2007.
* Neil appeared with Paul Merton on Room 101 in March, defending Charlie Chaplin from the wrath of Ian Hislop. For those who missed it, Charlie didn’t make it into Room 101.
* He has been in studio recording Mitchell and Kenyon – Ireland with the great violinist Guenther Buchwald – this DVD will be released by BFI Film and Video in June 2008.
* BBC Radio 3 has commissioned a 90-minute play from Neil called ‘Seeing it through’ – it is a political drama set against the background of Wellington House, the deeply secret department of propaganda during World War One.
* Paul Merton and Neil will be hitting the road next November with the live show of Paul Merton’s Silent Clowns – details to be confirmed.
* Neil is very proud to have had his radio play ‘Getting the Joke’ shortlisted for the Tinniswood Award, given by the Society of Authors and the Writers Guild for outstanding radio drama. The play concerned the trial for obscenity of 80-year-old postcard king Donald McGill.
* DICKENS BEFORE SOUND, a DVD of Dickens-related silent material held by the NFTVA and featuring the full-length ‘Oliver Twist’ starring Jackie Coogan was released in August 2006 – scored throughout by Neil it also features textual soundtrack work by writer Michael Eaton and the wonderful Ken Campbell.
  The BBC presented a season of films on BBC4 in May on the subject of silent film:
 
*   SILENT BRITAIN, which Neil scored, is a 90-minute overview of British silent cinema, a subject which has never been approached in such detail before. Containing clips, scenes, interviews and anecdotes the film is a fascinating treasure trove of rarely-seen material which will throw some much-needed light on a vanished art form. This has also been released as a BFI DVD.
     
*   PAUL MERTON’S SILENT CLOWNS is an opportunity to hear about the great silent clowns from a comedy expert (and comic legend in his own right) who has grown up knowing and enjoying this material all his life – four one-hour episodes deal with Chaplin, Keaton, Harold Lloyd and Laurel and Hardy and each episode ends with a complete short by that artist, scored by Neil. Chaplin’s ‘Easy Street’ is a live improv accompaniment recorded at Bristol Slapstick with German friends (and world-class improvisers) Gunter Buchwald on violin and Frank Bockius on percussion, Keaton’s ‘The Goat’ and Lloyd’s ‘Never Weaken’ are studio recordings featuring great session musicians including Sonia Slany on violin and finally Laurel and Hardy’s ‘You’re Darn Tootin’ has the 10-piece score commissioned by Paul from Neil for last year’s SLAPSTICK, recorded live at Pordenone Festival featuring Dutch and Italian musicians and the trouser-ripping sound effects of the entire audience!!
     
*   And finally, his TV adaptation of STAN, the Sony-nominated radio play from 2004, aired to huge critical acclaim – Jim Norton and Trevor Cooper played the older Stan and Ollie and Nik Howden and Mike Goodenough played the younger. The director was Jon Sen. The reviews will be on this website soon.
* Neil’s musical, TALKING WITH MR WARNER received its second showcase at the Menier Chocolate Factory with a superb cast in December 2005 after extensive rewrites, again to great critical acclaim. The next stage will be a full production.
* Neil has recently recorded piano accompaniments to Schloss Vogelod (Murnau), Spione (Fritz Lang), The Woman Men Wanted (Dietrich), Die Grosse Sprung (Leni Riefenstahl) and When I was a man (Lubitsch) for the FW Murnau Institute which will be aired on European TV and ultimately receive DVD release. Neil has also recorded a piano accompaniment for the 1925 Charlie Chaplin classic The Gold Rush released on DVD by French TV company MK2, along with the 1934 reissue with Chaplin’s own score. Neil’s score uses melodies from the compilation conductor's score of that first performance.
* Neil’s new jazz score for E A Dupont’s Piccadilly was featured in a sell-out performance at the 2000 seat Barbican Concert Hall to great acclaim, (described by Phillip French in the Observer as ‘the cinemagoing event of the year’) and was performed live in the Piazza Maggiore, Bologna in July. It has now been released as a BFI DVD.
* Neil has scored Paul Leni’s The Cat and the Canary for Photoplay Productions. This spooky house comedy-horror is scored for 12 musicians including Theremin, conducted by maestro Timothy Brock, and received rave reviews as the closing event of the Pordenone Silent Film Festival in October 2004. It has played on Film Four, will play on ARTE and in the States and will eventually be released on DVD.
* His radio play, STAN, about Stan Laurel’s last meeting with stroke victim Oliver Hardy, went out on Radio 4 at 2.15, Friday July 30th 2004, starring Tom Courtenay as Stan Laurel. It was received with great critical acclaim, being Pick of the Day in most broadsheets as well as the Radio Times and featuring prominently on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Pick of the Week’ and ‘Feedback’. See the STAN page on this website. Subsequently nominated for the Sony radio awards.
* Neil appeared in the new BBC2 series ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ in the episode featuring soprano Lesley Garrett’s search for her roots, particularly her grandfather, Colin Wall, who was a silent film musician in Rotherham.
* Neil has also done a day’s filming as a movie pianist for Ken Loach’s new film, The Wind the Shakes the Barley.
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