Worbey and Farrell's Blog

Worbey and Farrell Well Strung! Tour Update

worbeyandfarrell — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 11:04:00 +0000

We have now been touring since 4th February and still have a number of places to perform including St Andrews tonight and Aberdeen tomorrow. We used to constantly change our show and were proud of doing this depending where and who we were playing in front of. Then our manager told us if you get the show right don’t change it and it should ‘kill’ everywhere. The most wonderful aspect of doing consecutive nights is you really get to know your material and also nerves don’t play a part so you can just concentrate on the music and the relationship you build with an audience. Obviously things do change from night to night as audiences react differently to different things. For instance you might get a heckler like last night which is always fun. Audiences always love a heckler ,as long as it’s not ruining the performance and interrupting their enjoyment,because they love something that clearly is spontaneous.

We are getting the same enjoyment as we did when we did two months in Vienna at the same theatre six nights a week. A few decades ago it was normal for most acts to do several shows a week and really hone their talents. Unfortunately trends and tastes have changed and it is rare for this to happen anymore so it is a real thrill for us to walk into a theatre in the UK on a regular basis and do what we love the most and our manager was totally right.

WORBEY & FARRELL perform with the Young Musicians symphony Orchestra!

worbeyandfarrell — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 21:51:28 +0000

We will be performing our own arrangment of Saint-Saëns Carnival of the Animals with our very own narration, and also Malcolm Arnold’s Concerto for Two Pianos, Three hands which we have carefully arranged for One Piano, Four hands with kind permission from Faber Music Ltd. The concerto was originally composed for Cyril Smith and Phyllis Sellick (with whom Steven studied piano) and was first performed at the proms in 1969.

WEDNESDAY 23 NOVEMBER 2011 – 7.30pm
Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra
James Blair conductor | Worbey & Farrell piano

Von Suppé Pique Dame Overture
Camille Saint-Saëns Carnival of the Animals (arranged for One piano, Four hands by Worbey & Farrell)
Malcolm Arnold Concerto for Two Pianos, Three hands Op.104 (arranged for One piano, Four hands by Worbey & Farrell)
Mussorgsky arr.Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition

BOOKING OPENS 3 OCTOBER 2011

FringeGuru Gave Us 5 Stars!

worbeyandfarrell — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 15:07:23 +0000

Check out our 5-star review on http://www.fringeguru.com/reviews/edinburgh-2011/worbey-and-farrell-well-strung.html.

We’re delighted!

First Fringe

kevinfarrell — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 09:44:55 +0000

Wednesday was chaos with the opening of our show then rushing across to the Purple Cow to do the press launch with Ruby Wax hosting. We were very honoured to have been amongst the chosen few that were asked to perform.This is really our first fringe and it was always going to be a risk that our first introduction to the press would be at the launch. It was with a sense of relief and delight that the response was great.

It’s only Sunday and already our show has morphed into something quite different to what it was on Wednesday.
Having the 2 previews really helps to find out what works and what doesn’t. It’s a real joy upon the realisation of finding out something new really works. When you are so used to touring one nighters all over the globe you tend to stick with the same material that you know will go down well. The great thing about having a month run is you can really hone new stuff but you really do need to listen to how your audience is reacting. This does mean ditching stuff that you might think is great but the audience are not of the same opinion.
On Friday we put in a new routine that we have often talked about doing and it was wonderful to see it going down a storm.It does beg the question why we have never done it before but it is the fringe that makes you
brave enough to try out new things.We both really look forward to this moment in the show and seeing how we can improve it.
There will be more changes going in today and who knows by next Sunday the show may be different again.

Our first blog…

worbeyandfarrell — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 22:00:57 +0000

There’s a saying that goes something like this,”If you change the name of a ship then it’ll sink”. It was with an immense amount of trepidation that we changed the name of our act. We knew that we were going to have to do so it was a case of bite the lip and get on with it. Neither of us gave into nostalgia on this one and waded through all sorts of suggestions from the banal, insulting, bleeding obvious and ridiculous. When we decided to just use our own surnames it became clear that it was the right decision. Our career seems to really now be taking off. In just the space of a week we have now performed on a major television program exposing our work to millions of people. Offers from around the world including more television appearances began to flood in and Steinway announced they’d like to make us Steinway artists – placing our picture in their hall of fame. So going back to the urban myth perhaps our ship had never been given the correct name in the first place. A bit like being in the right place but just waiting patiently for the right time to come along!