UNITED KINGDOM: GERMAN BAND LEADER JAMES LAST PERFORMS WITH HIS ORCHESTRA AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL

Record ID: 633609

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: GERMAN BAND LEADER JAMES LAST PERFORMS WITH HIS ORCHESTRA AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL
  • Date: 3rd November 2001
  • Summary: (REUTERS) (PERFORMANCE CLEARANCE FOR RESALE) THE JAMES LAST BAND PERFORMING AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL
  • Embargoed: 18th November 2001 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LONDON, UK
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Reuters ID: LVACYWK6BUG4EQ7IO2N1G3DA0LU9
  • Story Text: He's first, he's Last, he's everything. Tucked in your granddad's metal record rack, you'll probably find a James Last LP. He has been first for 55 years, with a unique sound, made by turning pop classics into orchestral ones.
    At 72, James Last is still going strong - his two concerts at London's Royal Albert Hall this month were sold-out and next year he's embarking on a big German and European tour.
    72-year-old German megastar James Last returned to London's Royal Albert Hall earlier this month for two sold-out concerts.
    He has worldwide record sales, including 17 platinum and more than 200 gold discs and one of the strongest and most faithful fanbases around the world.
    93% of all Germans know James Last. His music is popular in 150 countries and fans from everywhere flew to London to see the master at work - and it was an opportunity for him to come back to the Royal Albert Hall, which he loves: "If you have friends in England, they are real friends.
    We've been coming here for more than thirty years. We started to realize that we had nearly 60 concerts at the Albert Hall, nobody had this before, no one and people still come. It's like a big family. Over a thousand people in the Hall and the band on stage. That's a meeting and some people come from Canada, South Africa, from Singapore, France, from everywhere.
    Norway, Denmark, from everywhere - the meeting place is at the Albert Hall."
    James Last is the most successful bandleader of the world and during the past 30 years he has remained as popular as ever, going with the flow and incorporation the latest technology in his music: "I don't like to call what I do 'work'. I need a lot of time, for the past ten years I've done everything with the computer. A lot of people who don't know how this works, thinks it should be quicker this way, but they don't know enough about this. Every little beat, every dynamic has to be put into the computer first. When you then print it out for the musicians, you have to mark every single one of the voices and that takes up a lot of time. But it's not work for me because I enjoy it so much when I see the result. I believe God has given me the talent to turn my emotions into music and millions of people feel that and understand the atmosphere."
    Music is his life and always has been since his first piano lesson in 1939.
    "It means everything to me. I can't get away from it.
    Perhaps young people today manage to get away from it more easily, but I studied music, music's been all around me since my childhood, I know what music can do and what it can communicate. You can tell whether whoever is playing is a 'seasoned' musician or only just starting out. When you play music for 30-40 years like me, you're really right in the middle of it."
    James Last has no intention of retiring any time soon.
    Next year, for his 73rd birthday, he will embark on a big German and European tour. As he says himself, it's touring that keeps him young at heart: "Hm. Maybe I'll be back for my 80th birthday. I am very fit, I feel very fit. Sometimes people think touring is very exhausting for me, but but I'd say it's more like they go to a spa or a retreat and I go on tour."
    --
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: Audio restrictions: This clip's Audio includes copyrighted material. User is responsible for obtaining additional clearances before publishing the audio contained in this clip.
Register