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Barb Jungr
Biography:
In a widely admired career that has defied categorization, musician, writer, composer, lyricist, Barb Jungr, has been critically lauded for her insightful and passionate interpretive style, described as “revelatory” by the New York Times. Her deconstruction/reconstruction of popular songs and unusual and beautiful musical arrangements are characteristics that allow the listener new insights into familiar music. In recent years, Jungr has brought her singular talents to the songbooks of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Nina Simone, Jacques Brel and more, creating the genre of the New American Songbook. In her 45 year recording career alongside many collaborations she has released 18 solo albums, many for Linn Records, receiving outstanding reviews worldwide and winning many awards. Jungr and McDaniel’s collaboration has now produced two recordings. In 2011, Jungr received the New York Nightlife Award for Outstanding Cabaret Vocalist, the Backstage Bistro Award for Best International Artist, and Time Out New York's #1 Top Live Cabaret Act for 2011.
Glam Adelaide said of Barb Jungr, “It’s as if Edith Piaf and Nick Cave had a lovechild who was adopted by Carmen McCrae!” Her powerful singing style reaches across musical boundaries and defies easy categorization.
Beginning as a singer and performer on the alternative cabaret circuit, Barb earned numerous awards, including a Perrier. Never one to sit still, physically or artistically, she has evolved through the years into one of the UK’s finest and most distinctive singers. Her exhilarating vocal style fuses her sense of jazz, blues and soul with elements of everything from musical theatre to African and Iranian folk singing.
“Bob Dylan, jazz, northern soul, Nina Simone and continental Europe’s cabaret music perform a subtle dance in Jungr’s consciousness.” The Guardian
Born in Rochdale to Czech and German parents, Barb sang in folk clubs at school and in jazz and blues bands at college and in London. She began recording for CBS in the late 1970s and toured with Kid Creole, Alexie Sayle, and Julian Clary, among others. Over four decades, she has never ceased performing, locally and internationally on stage, as well as appearing regularly on radio and television.
“The brilliant jazz singer on world-beating form. Barb Jungr proves she’s a genuine jazz marvel….A true musical alchemist. She is truly a marvel, who should not be missed” **** 4 stars The Telegraph
Last year Barb appeared all over the UK and in Europe promoting the re-release of her Bob Dylan “cult classic” Every Grain of Sand. She appeared in the USA in New York, Ancram, New Hope and Connecticut, premiering two new collections of Sting’s repertoire with John McDaniel “Float Like a Butterfly - the Sting Project”, and a collection of 1970’s material “Peaceful Easy Feeling”.
Jungr co-adapted and wrote songs and music for Michael Rosen’s Chocolate Cake with director Peter Glanville for Polka Children's Theatre. Liver Birds Flying Home, for which she co-wrote the book and the songs (with Mike Lindup of Level 42) had a 5 week run at Liverpool’s iconic Royal Court Theatre in spring 2018.
In 2016, Barb undertook a sellout Australian tour, playing Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Byron Bay, and the Adelaide and Brisbane Cabaret Festivals. She visited the US several times, appearing as a featured artist in the Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series in NYC, as part of James Gavin’s celebration of Peggy Lee. She also performed at the McCallum Theater in Palm Springs, California as part of Michael Childer’s annual One Night Only gala, this one focusing on the work of Stephen Sondheim with John McDaniel MD. Meanwhile, on US television Barb was interviewed for her own episode of The Kate, a nationally broadcast six-part music and performance series on PBS, presenting ‘bold performers with something to say’. As well as the interview, Barb’s episode featured a filmed live performance of her collaboration with Grammy winning jazz virtuoso Lawrence Hobgood, Shelter from the Storm.
Alongside her solo work, 2016 saw Barb write music and lyrics for Peter Glanville’s new adaptation of Helen Stephens’ How to Hide a Lion, a show for ages 3-6 which ran at Polka Theatre for four months. It transferred to the Oxford Playhouse and the Little Angel Theatre in 2017 and tours the UK in autumn 2018.
With a devoted following in the UK, Barb has also built a major fan base in the USA and earned many awards there for her CDs and performances (Broadway World award for Hard Rain in 2014, the Time Out New York Cabaret Nightlife Award for Outstanding Vocalist and Backstage Award for Best International Artist, to name just a few). The Village Voice opined: “One of the best interpreters of Jacques Brel and Bob Dylan anywhere on this angst-ridden planet today.” Time Out New York called Barb “One of the best nightclub singers in the world.” The New York Times said Jungr “is a fearless iconoclast who dives into the deepest waters of popular song to wrest exotic treasure from the ocean floor.” The Wall Street Journal considered her Bob Dylan album Every Grain of Sand, now regarded as a cult classic album, “the most significant vocal album of the 21st century thus far”.
Barb has worked with many of the finest musicians and composers of the UK. With Mark-Anthony Turnage, she wrote About Water, which she sang at the reopening of the Southbank with the London Sinfonietta. Recently she was a featured artist in collaboration with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Corby musicians and singers in the Deep Roots Tall Trees project, of which she is artistic director and for which she continues to work.
Barb’s extensive radio and TV appearances in the UK include BBC Radio 4 Start The Week, A Good Read, Saturday Review, Front Row, and Saturday Live. On BBC4 TV she has appeared as an expert on Piaf and Nina Simone and on the singing voice. She was featured in the special Bob Dylan concert filmed at The Barbican Concert Hall for both BBC4 TV and BBC 2. In the USA she is currently featured in an hour-long performance for the nationally shown TV series, The Kate.
“Brings the same creativity for reinterpretation and re-examination that Ella Fitzgerald brought to Cole Porter.” Wall Street Journal.
Links:
- BBC Radio 4 Saturday Review: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bkpjx3
- BBC Radio 3 Alyn Shipton Jazz Requests, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0000n7h
- Gregory Porter’s Great Voices on BBC4, Barb spoke about Dylan and Cohen
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09gvqj9/gregory-porters-popular-voices-series-1-3-truth-tellers
- BarbJungr.co.uk
@BarbJungr
Current Projects
Anne Perry
Anne’s publishing career began with The Cater Street Hangman. Published in 1979, this was the first book in the series to feature the Victorian policeman Thomas Pitt and his well-born wife Charlotte. This is arguably the longest sustained crime series by a living writer. Murder on the Serpentine is the latest (32nd) in the series. She has now started a series featuring their son Daniel, beginning with 21 Days (2017).
In 1990, Anne started a second series of detective novels with The Face of a Stranger. These are set about 35 years before and features the private detective William Monk and volatile nurse Hester Latterly. The most recent of these (23rd in the series) is An Echo of Murder.
Anne won an Edgar award in 2000 with her short story "Heroes". The main character in the story features in an ambitious five-book series set during the First World War, which were published between 2003 and 2007. Anne is now working on more titles in the Pitt and Monk series, both of which are under option.
None of her books has ever been out of print, and they have received critical acclaim and huge popular success: over 20 million books are in print world-wide. Her books have appeared on bestseller lists in a number of foreign countries, where she has also had excellent reviews. Her books regularly appear in the New York Times bestseller list, and have also been bestsellers in France, Germany and Canada. The Times selected her as one of the "100 Masters of Crime", and in 2015 she was awarded the Premio de Honor Aragón Negro.
Moving into a different area, Anne has responded to requests for workshops and teaching by producing her first 'how to write' instructional DVD "Put Your Heart On The Page: An Introduction To Writing" and her much-loved tote bags which also carry that slogan. Both items are now available to buy direct from her website. "Developing Your Characters" is the third instalment in Anne's instructional films and is available here.
Wuthering Heights - The Music Of Kate Bush UK tour 2018
Wuthering Heights - The music of Kate Bush is a tribute show in the pure sense of the word. This spectacular show captures not only the magic of Kate Bush's work from albums such as The Kick Inside (which celebrates its 40th anniversary year of release), through to Aerial. It also faithfully tries to recreate the atmosphere and ethereal qualities which surround much of Kate's stunning composition. Featuring the exceptional vocals of Rachel Sinnetta and supported by a five piece ensemble of multi instrumentalists...The Rubber Band.
Nathan Carter
Soon after returning from his hugely successful US debut tour September 2017, Nathan was back on UK soil presenting the second leg of his successful “Livin’ The Dream” tour to sold-out venues, including a five-night sold-out stint at the Eden Court theatre, Inverness. Already tickets for his London Palladium date on the 17 March 2018 are scarce.
Annie Machon
Annie Machon is a former MI5 intelligence officer, media pundit, international public speaker and writer. She is frequently seen on domestic and international television news channels.
In addition she is a writer and political campaigner with a rare perspective on the inner workings of governments, intelligence agencies and the media. As well as a profound respect for all things geek Annie is passionate about the need to protect digital freedoms.
In early 2017 Annie was invited to submit a written statement during the government led initiative consultation of the Law Commission’s review of the Official Secrets Act (OSA). This is designed to treat whistleblowers, journalists and publishers as traitors, facing a 14 jail sentence, up two years on the 1898 OSA.
Indeed, Annie was an intelligence officer for MI5, the UK Security Service, before resigning to help her former partner and colleague David Shayler, blow the whistle on the crimes, incompetence and lack of accountability of the spies. The story made headlines around the world in the late 1990s. They had to go on the run around Europe, face arrest and prison, and live in exile in France for 3 years.
From 2012 to 2016 Annie was the European Director of LEAP, a global group of serving and former police officers, lawyers, judges, intelligence officers, prison governors, customs officers and former drug czars. LEAP speakers have worked on the front line of the failed “war on drugs” policy, recognise this abject failure, and as a result campaign for the end to drug prohibition.
In the role she helped initiate new national LEAP groups in the UK and Germany, has spoken in a number of European parliaments, international conferences, and festivals, met with government ministers, government advisers and drug czars across Europe, represented LEAP four times at the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs annual event in Vienna, and even appeared in the occasional film - most notably in The Culture High.
Annie is proud to be on the organising committee of the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence, as well as a member of Veterans for Peace UK and the Campaign for Press & Broadcasting Freedom.
She is currently on the board of The Freedom Index Foundation, and also on the advisory board of the Courage Foundation, supporting key whistleblowers such as Edward Snowden. She has also given evidence to both the European Parliament and the UK Parliament about surveillance in the wake of the Snowden disclosures.
Annie has an MA (Hons) in Classics from Cambridge University and is an international public speaker and lecturer, and has delivered keynote speeches at conferences and universities around the world on a variety of issues.
Links:
- US raid of Russian diplomatic sites, 02/09/2017: https://www.rt.com/op-edge/401858-us-search-russian-diplomatic-missions/
- Giving evidence to the EU Parliament: https://anniemachon.ch/annie_machon/2013/10/libe-whistleblower-hearing-at-the-european-parliament.html
- GMB Interview re "Dirty Dossier": https://vimeo.com/199850677
- Feature film, "Digital Dissidents":
- https://vimeo.com/ondemand/digitaldissidents/146223582
- The story, whistleblowing, privacy & more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7U-lv0uAbY
- Keynote at New Zealand conference: https://vimeo.com/187481691
- US Leaks info on Manchester attacks …https://youtu.be/xCdYK_4zuac
- Exonerating Russia of election hacking: https://vimeo.com/220464482
- www.anniemachon.ch
Anna Brocklebank
Film Producer, Songwriter, Lawyer and Doctor
Anna is the Malvern educated socialite who along with her great friend Dr Emily Mabonga, has founded A&E Films to release its debut feature film Malevolent Shadows.
Shot entirely in Corsica, ‘The Undiscovered Jewel of the Mediterranean” Anna and Emily employ the use of long lingering shots as metaphors to enhance and reinforce the emotions explored. Anna laughs wryly as she admits “much of the film is a metaphor of my own life but we hope others may use it as a vehicle to question their own relationships and moral values. Betrayal, love, ethics and whom you trust are the over arching themes set against the backdrop of the world of international Art.
The film’s provenance was in response to those whose advice she sought telling Anne ‘it’s impossible’, but that word does not feature in her lexicon. “the challenge gives me a real buzz. Anyone can do anything if they really want to. Perhaps not to the highest level, but you will never know what you can achieve if you don’t at least try!” Anna adds.
Although made with limited funds, and on location, Anna called on her friends to play themselves. “True friendship is tested when you ask those close to you to participate and to give up their valuable time. I’ve been quite lucky they supported this and the film was made in two weeks.”
In addition Anna has written the film’s theme song “Golden Girl” sung by 14 year old Siena-Leigh.
This is not the first time Anna has persuaded others to join her outside their comfort zones. With the help of an eclectic group of friends, she made a Christian song album which managed to raise sufficient finance for the charity "street child" run by Tom Dannat to build several schools for the children living on the streets of Sierra Leone.
Some have called her a polymath..."Oh no!...merely a Jack of a few things ,but sadly Master of none” Anna says. We shall have to wait and see.
Notes For Editors:
Anna, a retired doctor also qualified in law, psychology and acupuncture, has many other interests. A prolific song writer, she paints, dances, shoots and practices martial arts, particularly Kung Fu.
She is a former socialite who frequently "graced" the pages of the tabloids with her flamboyant antics. More recently, she was a judge on ITV’s "Ladettes to Ladies" and a winner of Channel 4’s "Come Dine With Me”.
She found it a hard blow when forced to take early retirement from her defining career as a doctor as a result of a debilitating auto immune disease. Brought up in a medical family she says that medicine was the very oxygen she breathed from an early age.
However, with typical determination, she decided to embark on a new career using whatever other talents she had at her disposal.
In the past she has organised charity balls including being chairman of "the Harley St Ball", fashion shows in aid of the church and has been a model "Even a cover girl for Viola!" she laughs as she recalls the magazine folded after 6 months.
Amanda C Raymond
Son of Sherlock
Epiphany Mill Publishing
Release date: 11th May 2018
When thirteen-year-old Jonathan Eaton discovers that he is really the son of Sherlock Holmes, he sets out on an investigation of his own to find out who his real mother was, what happened to her, and why his identity has been kept a secret.
“Had Doyle himself written Holmes a son, it would have been Jonathan. A mystery and adventure well worth investigating.” Mitch Cullin, author of A Slight Trick of the Mind.
“Sherlock Holmes, the next generation - and what a generation he is! Author Amanda C Raymond makes a stunning debut by creating an enthrallingly astute young protagonist who is every bit worthy of his celebrated lineage. Add to that a beautifully realised Victorian and world, engaging characters and an enticing mystery which will keep readers turning the pages. A must for fans of the Canon, or any lovers of wonderful books which a reader simply can’t put down.” Brooks Wachtel, Emmy award winning writer and author of ‘Lady Sherlock: Circle of the Smiling Dead.’”
Testimonials
Amanda Cable, Femail, Daily Mail
Diane helped us pull a huge exclusive interview out of the bag – setting up the deal in hours. It made a double page spread in the Daily Mail, complete with the agreed plug for the book. Thanks for being so efficient and honest.
John Stanley, Author
For more than a decade I have been represented by Diane Hinds with extraordinary energy and a stunning level of intuition. Her skills at interfacing with book publishers, major record companies and broadcasters has always meant I gained maximum benefits – as an example two of my books she has represented have entered the Sunday Times Best Seller’s list and I am now published in 10 languages and 14 nations.
Anne Perry
"Diane Hinds has helped my career for over five years, and proved to be diligent in her activities and advice. She has secured editorial coverage for me throughout the UK, US, part of of Europe, Canada and Australia. I value her loyalty and friendship."
Events
14th July 2018 - How To Promote Your Book! Morrab Library, Penzance, Cornwall.
Learn PR skills to help promote you and your book!
24 September 2018 - How To Promote Your Book, talk. London Library
Exclusive to members of The London Library, Diane Hinds will deliver her popular book PR talk.
4th October - City Business Library, London. How To Be 'On-Message' When Promoting Your Business!
Learn secrets of a cost-effective campaign to help promote you and your business ....
5th October 2018 - How To Promote Your Book talk, Upton Library
2:30pm - 4pm
Upton Library, 63 Ford Road, Birkenhead, Wirral, CH49 0TB. To book, contact elainewilson@wirral.gov.uk.