Carols by Candlelight 2020 - A Festive Evening from Studio One on 17 December

Carols by Candlelight 2020 - A Festive Evening from Studio One on 17 December

12th December 2020

This Year's Carols by Candlelight Service from Abbey Road Studios

Carols by Candlelight has become a yuletide highlight in the calendar for many people in London and beyond. However, for the first time in its history, this year’s service will be streamed online on Thursday 17 December at 7pm.

Luke Martineau, who has once again organised the event, wasn’t going to allow Covid-19 to get in the way of the 18th consecutive service and the chance to raise vital funds for the Alice Martineau Appeal for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, in memory of his sister Alice. 

The service was filmed and recorded at St Luke’s Church in Chelsea as well as at Abbey Road Studios in Studio One with 17 singers and two accompanists from the Winchester College Chapel Choir. The recording of the service was very much a family affair, Luke and Alice’s uncle, Tom Allom, made a departure away from his usual rock roots to help out on the project, and Tom’s colleague and long-time friend of the studios, Nigel Heath, was on hand as part of the production team, alongside our own Gordon Davidson who engineered on the day.
 

Luke Martineau, Tom Allom and Nigel Heath talk to Abbey Road


We caught up with Luke, Tom and Nigel who explained more about the project, the experience of recording at Abbey Road and the reason for doing this, in aid of the Alice Martineau Appeal for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust.

 

Luke - Hi Luke, can you please introduce yourself and give us an introduction to the project? 

Hi, I’m Luke Martineau and I am a London-based portrait and landscape painter, also an amateur musician and Beatles' fan.

My sister Alice, a singer-songwriter, died in 2003 from cystic fibrosis, a life-threatening condition that affects around 10,000 people in the UK. She was just 30 years old and had had just released her debut album Daydreams having signed to Sony the previous summer.

Cystic fibrosis is really horrible disease: it is genetically inherited and it affects the lungs and digestive system. In Alice’s case, as in so many case of the illness, her lungs were shot to pieces from repeated infections and by her mid twenties she went everywhere with an oxygen cylinder and had just 25% of her lung capacity left. All the more remarkable that this young woman managed to write, record and release an album. But then Alice was quite exceptional: beautiful, funny, irreverent, great fun to be with.
 
Luke Martineau with Jenny Agutter, credit Suzanne Gielgud

Luke Martineau with Jenny Agutter, credit Suzanne Gielgud

Alice Martineau

Alice Martineau

 

LukeCan you explain more about the Alice Martineau Appeal?

After Alice’s death, we set up the Alice Martineau Appeal, and through it we have raised over £1.5 million for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. The main fundraiser for this is Carols by Candlelight which is held annually at St Luke’s church in Sydney Street, Chelsea, within sight of the windows of the Royal Brompton Hospital where Alice spent so much of her time. The Winchester College Chapel Choir provide the music and we have readings from celebrities including Jenny Agutter and Jane Asher.

As her family we wanted to make a difference for other people and their families, and to make sense of our loss, to turn Alice’s suffering into something really positive. All the money we raise through the Appeal goes to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust who fund research into treatments for the disease. This year the new wonder drug Kaftrio is being prescribed for the first time for almost all those with CF.
 

LukeYou’ve mentioned that this is very much a family project - who is involved and how has that affected the overall outcome?

This year, because of Covid, we have been forced to think differently. My uncle Tom Allom, producer of Judas Priest, and his friend and colleague Nigel Heath, known for his work on the soundtrack to many movies and TV shows including Killing Eve and Downton Abbey. It’s a real family project: not only has Tom produced the Abbey Road session, my cousin Camilla Wallace also sits on our committee and her firm Wedlake Bell provide sponsorship. Another cousin, Rev Pat Allerton, (aka ‘the Portable Priest’) reads our Bible reading and is our very own ‘hot priest’! All the other people involved in this are close friends of Alice and of my mum’s. So it a very close-knit group of family and friends who drive this event.
 
Luke's Uncle, Tom Allom, with Abbey Road's Gordon Davidson

Luke's Uncle, Tom Allom, with Abbey Road's Gordon Davidson

 

Luke - With it being your first time working at Abbey Road, how has the experience been?

I was in awe of coming to Abbey Road. As a young boy I was introduced to all the Beatles’ records by my mother, and spent ages trying to learn the drum parts to Sgt. Pepper and Abbey Road, using kitchen implements and cardboard boxes! That dry, deadened tom-tom sound on Come Together, the extraordinary mish-mash of sounds on Good Morning, Good Morning, all of it fascinated me. To come to the place where it was all made! We tend to think of churches as holy places, but for anyone who is passionate about music, Abbey Road is hallowed turf. In fact, I was surprised by how friendly and inviting the whole place was - despite the massive size of Studio One it really feels like a comfortable place to be. It was a treat not just to witness the session in the live room but to get a glimpse of the recording process and see how a group of professionals worked together so seamlessly to get the job done.
 

Tom - Tom, you are known for your work on some of the greatest rock albums of the '70s and '80s, but how did you approach recording this project?

I knew that the main difference between working with a rock band and with the Winchester College Chapel Choir would be that with the Choir I would have virtually no work to do! No pre-production, no arguing over material, over arrangements, over why the bass player shouldn’t sing the rock ballad even though he wrote the damn thing, no agonising over which studio to use, what hours to work and how to keep the band away from the mixes. No. Just book Abbey Road Studio One and turn up. No need to make decisions about studio set-up and spend hours on the snare drum sound – no drums! Just let Gordon Davidson and his crew do what they do supremely well and sit back and relax. Along the way make a few simple choices on takes but otherwise let the well-oiled Abbey Road machine do all the work.
 
 

Nigel - Can you explain your role in the project and how you approached mixing it?

Well, this project has been entirely mixed by Tom at his home studio. I guess my main role was to be a part of organising the recording and putting together a team that could film the day at Abbey Road and then look after the subsequent post production and the streaming premiere. My relationship with Abbey Road goes back decades and it's still always a thrill to go through 'that' front door!

We recorded on the eve of the second UK lockdown, obviously, safety and Covid compliance were paramount, Studio Manager Fiona and the entire team at Abbey Road were incredible in taking care of the details concerning that. Tom, Luke and the family have become good friends of mine over the years and I'm proud and happy to have been a part of this project and to help bring awareness of the charity to a wider audience in this very tricky year.
 

Nigel - Your final thoughts on the recording?

Personally, I love the sound of the recording, it feels 'real' and just like a live carol service. The sound of Studio One helps the voices soar when they need to and yet is intimate in the softer pieces too, its like you're experiencing 'acoustic magic' - the room itself is magic.... but no one needs me to say that!
 
 

 How To Buy Tickets for Carols by Candlelight?


A Pay to View ticket to an exclusive behind-the-scenes show, including bonus material and messages costs £10 in support of the charity. You can purchase your ticket here here.

The main show will premiere on YouTube at 19:00 GMT on 17 December - visit https://www.cysticfibrosis.org.uk/ for details and for information on the charity.

On the night, Dame Judi Dench will begin proceedings, followed by readings from Jenny Agutter, Jane Asher, Damian Lewis and David Haig, and a message from Katie Melua. Proceeds of every ticket sold will raise vital funds for the Alice Martineau Appeal for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust.

 
 

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