HAIRSPRAY

We are delighted and very excited to announce that Michael will be starring at Edna Turnblad in the forthcoming musical “Hairspray”.  The show opens in London’s West End at the Shaftesbury Theatre on Tuesday 30 October 2007 with previews from Thursday 11 October.  Tickets, with a top price of £60, are on sale and can be obtained from:

 

Telephone Bookings: 0207 379 5399

Online: www.keithprowse.com 

www.ticketmaster.co.uk

A £2 Booking Fee applies

 

 

Michael will be performing at 8 shows a week (barring unforeseen circumstances) and his contract runs for 6 months from the first preview on 11 October.  He will be taking leave between 22 December and 5 January. 

The official website can be found at http://hairspraythemusical.com

Michael will be guest presenting ITV1's "This Morning" on Tuesday 19 and Wednesday 20 June 2007.

Michael will be pushing the buttons on the National Lottery draw on BBC1 on Saturdays 21 and 28 April, and 5 and 12 May.

Michael will be appearing as a judge on the ITV1 programme "Soapstar Superstar".  The new series commences on 5 January 2007.

 

Michael will be "pushing the buttons" on the National Lottery show on BBC1 on 27 and 30 December.

One of BBC Radio 2's auctions for this year's Children in Need is the chance to sing on stage with Michael.  Full details can be found at the BBC website:

 

 

One Voice (Barry Manilow, 1979)
Barry Manilow’s such a great writer; he absolutely gets his melodies and lyrics to move an audience and as such has inspired a lifelong devoted following.  I completely agree with this too – that music brings people together – and when I was thinking of a concept and title for this album, this song sprang out at me.  I loved the idea of tracking my voice and making a choir out of it – the song has huge range which starts off a capella before the full orchestra sweeps in.  It’s about metaphorical harmony, about how we all need to live in harmony and that’s something else I totally believe in.

 

Hero (Mariah Carey 1993)
After the July 7 bombs in London last year I was watching footage of all the people who’d put their lives at risk, real people who got stuck straight in trying to help in any way they could; a friend of mine was on the Kings Cross train, she took some footage on her mobile which was used on a news programme and over it they played this beautiful song by Mariah Carey.  Listening to the lyrics it just struck me as a life affirming, powerful song – simple but meaningful.

 

The Living Years (Mike and the Mechanics 1988)
This has always been a favourite song of mine – it was written by BA Robertson and Mike Rutherford and sung by the fantastic Paul Carrack.  It’s a song that everyone can relate to – we’ve all been in conflict with our parents, we’ve all made mistakes, argued, slammed the door and then regretted it afterwards.  And although there will always be a generational gulf, once they’re gone it’s too late to try and build bridges.  It’s brilliantly written and expresses sadness as well as hope.

 

Where Do I Begin (Andy Williams 1970)
This song is just beautiful from an equally beautiful film that I love and makes me cry every time.  It’s such a romantic song – just imagine someone singing it about you.

 

Since You’ve Been Gone (Rainbow 1979)
I always look for songs that make people say, ‘no way has he covered that!’.  This is outstanding, theatrical, bombastic rock; I loved the idea of doing it by keeping the heavy rock element but bringing in a string section so that there’s a tongue-in-cheek opening with the string section doing a sort of Bach opening before it goes into all-out rock mode.  I want everyone to join in the chorus… and I do like surprising people and hopefully getting away with it!

 

I Don’t Wanna Talk About It (Rod Stewart, 1975)
Rod Stewart did this on his ‘Atlantic Crossing’ album and then it was done by Everything But the Girl in 1988; it’s a classic pop song and I wanted to make it small and intimate and heartfelt.

 

I Don’t’ Want To Miss A Thing (Aerosmith 1998)
I love the old power ballads and the thought of covering an Aerosmith song.  This is very much my kind of song – written by Diane Warren it’s big, powerful and shoots straight from the heart.  Love it.

 

If You’re Not The One (Daniel Bedingfield 2002)
I really think this is a classic of its generation – it’s one of the best written pop songs I’ve ever heard, brilliantly crafted and arranged.  I thought Daniel Bedingfield’s original performance of it was wonderful and I couldn’t resist trying it with my voice.  His voice is very high and very different from mine – in recording it for this album I used my falsetto which I don’t do very often.

 

Lyin’ Eyes (The Eagles 1975)
I love the Eagles; I recorded ‘Desperado’ on my last album (‘Music’). This was Tim Rice’s idea – I ran into him just after we’d both bought tickets to the Eagles show at Twickenham and mentioned that I was thinking of doing another Eagles song – he said ‘you’ve got to do Lyin’ Eyes, it’s a great story about heading for the cheatin’ side of town!’ so I did… they played it at the gig, which was absolutely amazing, so here it is.

 

Everybody Hurts (REM 1992)
This is the one I was most nervous about recording because how do you do an REM song and do something different.  We all hit times in our lives when we’re very low and we think we’re the only ones feeling pain and we just can’t go on.  Then we realise that everyone feels like that at some stage and that we can help each other.  I’ve known people I love who’ve been in that place and I’ve tried to help them and to be honest, I’ve been there myself.  I just wanted to do my version of it because it means so much to me.

 

Home (Michael Buble 2005)
I was in the US for so long last year and I was lonely – it’s so well written for someone who does this job – we’re absolutely blessed, travelling, meeting people, seeing the world – but there are times when you just want to be at home.  When you’re away for a long time you get lonely, you feel insecure, you don’t belong and you don’t feel rooted – you start to feel it’s all going on at home and you can’t be part of it.  But it makes the going home so much better!  And I hate the telephone; I’d rather see people in person and can’t bear emails – they’re useful but they have no emotion.  It’s the nuances in a conversation that are more important that the words themselves.

Following Michael’s appearance on GMTV on Monday 30 October, he will be taking part in a webcast at the GMTV website – www.gm.tv.  The webcast will take place at 9.30 am and the full interview should be online later that day.  Please check the GMTV website for further details.

 

OCTOBER 27  RICHARD ALLINSON (usually Steve Wright) Radio 2 -  www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/wright/

OCTOBER 29  MAGIC FM with Steve Priestly www.magic.fm

OCTOBER 30  GMTV - ITV1 www.gm.tv

NOVEMBER 1 MATTHEW WRIGHT – CHANNEL 5 - www.five.tv/programmes/thewrightstuff/

NOVEMBER 13 THIS MORNING – ITV1 www.itv-thismorning.co.uk/

NOVEMBER 18 JONATHAN ROSS SHOW – BBC Radio 2 - www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/ross/

NOVEMBER 26 HEAVEN AND EARTH SHOW – BBC1  - www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/heavenandearth/

End of November  TRACKS OF MY YEARS – KEN BRUCE, Radio 2  - www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/bruce/

Michael will be hosting the Johnnie Walker Show on Radio 2 from Sunday, November 12 until the end of the year.

The Anthony Newley tribute show, recorded last night at Hackney Empire, will be broadcast as a special "Friday Night Is Music Night" on BBC Radio 2 on Friday 29 September 2006.

Michael will be taking part in this year’s BBC Proms in the Park in Singleton Park, Swansea. Tickets are available from the BBC Call NOW Line on 08700 13 1812 and in person or by phone from the Grand Theatre, Singleton Street, Swansea (01792 475715)

£7.50 in advance
£10 on the night
12 and unders go free when accompanied by an adult.

 

Laura Michelle Kelly, Jon Owen Jones, Caroline Sheen and Celia Graham have been added to the line-up at the Princes Trust concert at Dyffryn Gardens.

Michael will be doing a five minute telephone interview with Chris Evans tomorrow (26 April) at 5.30pm. You can listen live at:

Chris Evans Show

Michael has been advised that he must give his voice a prolonged rest. There is no doubt that he will soon be restored to complete health but the price of this would seem to be that he will not be able to return to the show before it closes on 19 February.

 

We know you will all join us in wishing Michael a speedy recovery - there are plenty of good times ahead.

We are pleased to report that the fan club Infoline is now in full working order.

Thanks to our firends at Discount Music Connection, we can now give you the track listing for the new compilation CD "Seasons of Love" which we understand is due for release on 2 January 2006. If you require any more information Dee and Paul will be happy to give it to you Discount Music Connection

 

Disk 1
· 1.Seasons Of Love
· 2.Have I Told You Lately
· 3.No Matter What
· 4.A Song For You
· 5.Loving You
· 6.All I Ask Of You
· 7.The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
· 8.Show Me
· 9.Everybody's Talkin'
· 10.If Tomorrow Never Comes
· 11.My Heart Will Go On
· 12.I Don't Want A Lover
· 13.Because You Loved Me
· 14.Cry Me A River
· 15.Stormy Weather
· 16.The Way We Were
· 17.You Don't Have To Say You Love Me
· 18.The Wind Beneath My Wings

Disk 2
· 1.Love Changes Everything
· 2.Always On My Mind
· 3.Can You Feel The Love Tonight?
· 4.A House Is Not A Home
· 5.How Deep Is Your Love
· 6.I Believe I Can Fly
· 7.Losing My Mind
· 8.Against All Odds
· 9.Love On The Rocks
· 10.Memory
· 11.Someone To Watch Over Me
· 12.Tell Me On A Sunday
· 13.Never Coming Back
· 14.Tell Me There's A Heaven
· 15.If I Can Dream
· 16.Something's Coming
· 17.You Made Me Love You
· 18.We Have All The Time In The World

The Trustees of one of Michael's charities, ROC, have decided to discontinue fundraising from the end of the year.  Their office will no longer be functioning after Christmas and they have asked that we pass this information on to you as they will not require your donations in lieu of Christmas presents for Michael.  Here is a message from John McGowan, Chairman of ROC:

After fourteen years of hard work, total commitment and results that went beyond our wildest expectations, on December 31st 2005, ROC will be closing down.

When we started all those years ago, medical research teams in desperate need of funding to find a way to beat this 'silent killer', often abandoned their projects because their chances of attracting sufficient funding was almost zero. Equally, it was quite a shock to discover how little the general public knew about the disease which devastates the lives of so many women and their families.

ROC can proudly claim to have reversed a truly significant portion of those twin dilemmas, but only because you all rallied and gave us one hundred per cent support in our work. Not knowing what to expect to help raise funds, we reached out to hundreds of people across the country, people like you who had the same sense of commitment, people who had lost very loved women to this dreadful disease - women like Angela McGowan and Pamela Cullen who were the inspiration for establishing ROC - and wanted to make sense of such a terrible loss. Together we achieved something memorable.

Initially we raised money to ensure that the ovarian cancer screening unit at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London, on the point of closure when we came along, were able to stay open and subsequently with our support attracted an unprecedented donation of £22 million from the Medical Research Council to allow them to continue their work. Currently we have just completed a two year commitment to fund the vitally important research work of Dr. Ian Hampson at St.Mary's Hospital in Manchester.

Equally importantly, in an intensive media campaign, talking to women's groups across the country and at endless fundraising events so many of you organised, we raised public awareness of a then little discussed disease.

We now feel it is time to let others take the lead in the fight against ovarian cancer, proud to have been at the forefront for so many years and proud to have been part of ROC.

Any donations received after the 31st December 2005 will continue to be forwarded to Dr. Ian Hampson's very worthwhile project at St. Mary's Hospital in Manchester.

Our very grateful thanks to all of you and a special, most sincere thanks to our patron, Michael Ball, who from day one gave one hundred per cent support to our work, and raised thousands of pounds on ROC's behalf.

We hope, like us, you will continue to support other groups in their work to defeat ovarian cancer and that ROC will always be remembered as an innovative, independent and determined charity, who proved that with the right army behind them, anyone can make a difference. And we are proud to say with your help, we did.

With warmest good wishes on behalf of everyone at ROC, and again our thanks.

John McGowan, Chairman

Michael continues to support The Royal Theatrical Fund.

Michael has opened to great acclaim in The Woman In White on Broadway in New York.  The opening night was a grand affair and fan club members will be able to read more about it in the next issue of On The Ball which is due out in December.

 

You can now order the 2006 calendar and other items at the new Michael Ball Merchandise website www.michaelballmerchandise.com.

 

 

Michael and Maria Friedman will be appearing on A&E Network's Breakfast with the Arts on Sunday 20 November.

www.aetv.com/breakfast

 

News about American TV appearances is sometimes slow to filter through so if anyone hears about any please let us know so we can check and confirm them here.

 

Michael's special edition of Ball Over Broadway to mark the arrival of the Country Music Awards in New York is being aired on BBC Radio 2 tomorrow (11 November) at 7.00 pm.

 

Well, we can heave a big sigh of relief that all went well with the launch of the new website.  We know some of you will have queries regarding our new membership system but don't worry we'll explain it all as we go along.

 

We know some of you are still having difficulties viewing the Forum.  We are trying to sort this out with Invision (the makers of the program) and we'll keep you informed of progress.  The problem does seem to lie with the kind of browser you use.

 

We are delighted to launch our new website today.  We hope there won't be too many teething problems but all new babies ne