Dale, Forty and Xposed Club
Xposed Club is the monthly live music club at Pittville Studios at the University of Gloucestershire. The venue is run by Stuart Wilding and Mark Unsworth and it features all types of music, but is active in promoting alternative and experimental music. The Xposed venue also offers students on the new Popular Music Degree a space and opportunity to showcase their music, so when their piano suffered a mishap and became impossible to use, they were left with a problem:
Xposed had been chosen as one of the venues for this year’s Cheltenham Jazz Festival and the visiting pianists, Alexander Hawkins (The Convergence Quartet) and Pete Robson required a piano. Unwilling to compromise with a digital substitute, and unable to hire a suitable instrument in time for the concert, Xposed organiser Stuart Wilding and Dale, Forty jointly sponsored the purchase of a brand new Tivoli 111m which was supplied in record time by Cheltenham Piano Centre. The piano was fitted with safety castors, delivered, tuned and prepared within 24 hours, and immediately received glowing praise from all the artists who played it. One reviewer from the US Jazz publication “DownBeat” proclaimed the concert to be his highlight of the Festival this year.
The photographs show the Dale, Forty Tivoli at an Xposed Club improvised jazz concert in the University’s Atrium. The Cellist is the world famous Ernst Reijsegar, and at the piano is Pete Robson.
When not in use by Stuart and the Xposed Club, the piano will reside in the recording studio at the University, where it will be put to good creative use by the Popular Music Degree students. We also understand that University Studio Technician Andrew Lansley is so impressed, he is already saving hard to buy a Dale, Forty of his own!
For more information about Xposed: http://xposedclub.co.uk/
