Sid Peacock sets out with Surge Orchestra – “It’s Challenge Anneka on steroids”
Friday, January 23, 2015
There are easier ways to make music; it doesn’t have to be a jazz orchestra, does it? I’m asking composer and bandleader Sid Peacock about the challenge he has set himself with his latest project, called Surge Orchestra, and its debut outing in a concert at Birmingham’s MAC Theatre on 7 February.
“It's Challenge Anneka on steroids,” he tells me. “You have to raise the cash and do the whole organising thing yourself that big orchestras have a whole team of people doing. You'd think in times of austerity it'd be better to be a solo or duo act,” he agrees, “but that's not how musicians think.”
It’s certainly not how Sid Peacock thinks. Over the past year, in addition to the education and performance work he has been doing as associate artist at the MAC in Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham, Sid has also played in the Peacock Angell Band, the Celtic folk group he co-leads with his partner Ruth Angell, and spent time with the Sichuan Opera Troupe in Chongqing, China, as a British Council musician.
Before all that Sid had been back home in Northern Ireland working with his mentor and fellow composer Brian Irvine on Beyond The March, a project to get Loyalist marching bands playing their music in a cultural context. All those recent influences in his life will be reflected in the music he is currently writing for the Surge Orchestra, an expansion of his Surge Big Band, which was formed in 2003 and has recorded two albums.
“It's going great so far. I've been trying to reconnect with my Celtic influences. It's not exactly Enya though. I'd recommend checking out the novelist Patrick McCabe, who wrote The Butcher Boy and Dead School. It’s something like that. It deals with the darker and delirious side of everyday small town Irish life.” He quickly adds: “There'll be plenty of brighter moments too, though!”
In addition to having added string players, the Surge Orchestra will feature two soloists, drummer Mark Sanders and pianist Steve Tromans.
Sid Peacock and Surge Orchestra with featured soloists Mark Sanders and Steve Tromans will be at the MAC, Birmingham, at 8pm on Saturday 7 February – for full info and tickets go to macbirmingham.co.uk
(Pictured top: Sid Peacock, centre, with featured soloists Steve Tromans, left, and Mark Sanders)
– Peter Bacon