Musicians to live-stream concert in honour of former band leader

A big band is holding a live-streamed concert on March 20 at Abbey Road studios in honour of their former band leader who died in January.

The Len Phillips Big Band has hired out the iconic studio to record a new album funded via Kickstarter – but will also give listeners a chance to tune in to a live concert through their Facebook page and YouTube channel.

Singer Matt Ford will join the band to perform swing and jazz classics by Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett, and even a Beatles track.

Saxophonist Len Phillips started the band in the Sidcup area in the mid-1980s and passed away earlier in the year.

Band leader Joe Pettitt, from Croydon, said: “The concert and the CD will be a tribute to Len. I thought we’ve got to do something – we’ve got to mark his passing, we’ve got to do something good. Usually we’d do a great big concert.

“We can’t really do that, but I thought this is probably the most famous studio in the world, I think he’d like that.”

The Kickstarter campaign offers rewards such as having a dedication in the sleeve notes or a private concert in your home.

The fundraising campaign has already raised almost three times the initial goal, with the extra funds going towards producing more CDs and extra promotion.

Like many performers, the Len Phillips Big Band has been hit hard by the pandemic, but they have tried their best to keep connected to audiences.

Mr Pettitt said: “In the various stages of the lockdown, every time there’s been a window of opportunity we’ve been jumping on it.

“We started doing live-streams in June last year, since you could have six people in a garden. I thought we could get a quintet and a cameraman into a garden and we could do a gig.”

The band has also performed at a socially-distanced beer garden and managed two indoor concerts which were also live-streamed.

Mr Pettitt said: “It’s been a really good way of helping isolated people as well, because it’s live.”

The concert has an honesty box, where people can pay what they can afford using a Paypal link.

Mr Pettitt said: “We want people who might not know whether they’ll like it or not to dip in and not feel like they’ve got to buy a £15 ticket. We want to open up people’s eyes and ears to big band music.”

But the band are hoping people will be generous if they enjoy the show.”

The concert will be streamed on the Len Phillips Big Band Facebook page and on their YouTube channel at 2.30pm on Saturday March 20 and will last for 90 minutes.