EXCITEMENT is building for this year’s Westbury Festival, especially since the news broke that ‘60s music legends The Bachelors will be performing.
White Horse News caught up with one half of the duo, Dec, ahead of their hotly anticipated show.
Are you looking forward to performing at the Westbury Festival?
Well I’m fresh from my amazing week on ‘Come Dine With Me’ so I think the audience will expect me to cook rather than sing?
Personally, I am looking forward to seeing the performing venue, The Laverton. Con and I have a love of old and venerable buildings. Con lives at New Hall, Elland, built in 1460 and I am fortunate to live at the Duke Of Devonshire’s property, Stanton Prior, which was reputed to have been built for his mistress all those years ago. So we love the old and the venerable – just like ourselves!
What do you enjoy most about performing?
Oh, it’s better than any drug. In fact, Con and I actually feel ill if we don’t perform for a week. The rush we get when we walk on stage to a packed audience is very heady indeed. Strangely, that sort of experience should be bottled and sold to the public. That would sort out most ills that folk suffer from.
Nowadays, particularly, since digital technology took over, the quality of the sound systems and lighting available makes our job so much easier. It is a sheer joy to sing and perform. No effort required, well just a little.
What do you think about events like the Westbury Festival?
I know little of the Festival, but what folk say has me very excited. I love the festival culture. I love the fun for all. I love masses of people getting together.
What songs will you be performing?
We could sing from our first album, or our third or tenth? Or our twenty fifth or sixty seventh? But no, we sing the songs the good folk in the audience have come to hear us sing. We definitely will include some tracks from our latest album, our seventy eight called Bachelors – Stripped Down. We feel it’s out best ever. They locked us in a studio full of the latest Digital recording equipment. Guitars, keyboards to die for and even mouth organs, which we started our career with. Not a drummer in sight and we got to play every note of music ourselves. Just the two of us. The results are spectacular.
If people aren’t familiar with your music, is it still an event they would enjoy?
We are so lucky. When folk come to see us or are dragged to see us by wives, girlfriends, grandparents, they always say afterwards, “I didn’t know what to expect but that was sensational. I really enjoyed it. I even remembered the songs.”
Why do you think the Bachelors have been so successful over the years?
Most music people will tell you that the reason for our longevity in Show Business is the fact that we adore what we do. We embrace every latest bit of technology that will improve what we do. We simply can’t wait to get on stage and ‘do our thing’.
We tell young kids trying to come into this business that you have to be prepared for the ups and downs, and the merry go rounds. Be prepared for the knock backs and the disasters. Be prepared to sleep on railways stations benches, which we did. The starving is no fun. And most of all be prepared for the huge success when it comes. We didn’t prepare. We were simply working and touring too hard so we didn’t stop ‘to smell the roses’. I can’t even remember what it was like to see us The Bachelors at Number One, and that is sad.
So I always say to would be Superstars to pace yourself. Take the holidays and the breaks. I am so pleased to see Stars of today actually doing that.
What have been your highlights?
Oh, I could fill a book with the highlights. Being the warm up act for The Pope at York Racecourse to 250,000 people, now that was something. When the sound system broke down for him and I stepped in to rescue the situation. I ended up operating the entire sound system, saved the day and now I can say in my CV that I was sound engineer to The Pope!
But the love of my later life is my ‘Serious Writers Guild’ at www.makehits. c om which has helped so many attain success in the music business. Now in 52 countries and I make myself fully available to every one of the members to help with their queries and worries. Yes, that is the best highlight.
And my awards for speaking. I joined Toastmasters international ten years ago helped to start two speaking clubs in Sussex. I have now had the highest awards from the organisation. Every job or profession, nowadays, will include the requirement to speak in public, to three people, thirty people, maybe three hundred? So it makes sense to join your local speaking club associated with Toastmasters International and learn to do it properly. You never know when you have to deliver a speech at a wedding? A Funeral?
And finally, my speaking workshops that I conduct all over Sussex for Princes Trust, now that makes me sleep well at night. Helping those less fortunate than ourselves. What a joy.
And there is my Come dine With Me cooking? Go to Channel 4 Catchup. Have a giggle watching me cook and entertain.
• The Bachelors perform at the Westbury Festival on Friday 6th October. Tickets are available from www.westburyfestival.org.uk. See more details of the Festival on pages 3 & 12.
