Lady Georgianna

let the festivities commence!

Allegra — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 17:35:51 +0000

Here is a pic of us rocking the Festive Gift Fair at the NEC last weekend. One day, I’ll have a tree like that…

Shoes (nicey-nicey)

Allegra — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 15:33:55 +0000

I’m not one of these women that goes gaga over shoes. In fact, I find it rather hard to get excited about shoes. But I do get excited about these ones…18th century-tastic shoes by American Duchess, a small shoemaking company based in the US. I think that the ladies of Lady Georgianna need a few more well paid gigs so that we could buy some….we could even start a shoes fund…I’m gonna stop writing now and look at the shoes….mmmmm

Live at the Manor

Allegra — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 07:27:30 +0000

If you’re feeling somewhat peckish on 24th August and you fancy a little pleasure gardens entertainment thrown in, we will be playing at Sulgrave Manor, ancestral home of the Washingtons (as in George)

Ticket includes three course meal

All things baroque dance

Allegra — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 21:15:43 +0000

I met the lovely Jane Gingell at a networking event in Bristol earlier this week, she put me on to www.early-dance.de, a German site that aims to bring together lovers of early dance, seemingly across Europe!

Some of the events look amazing, it would be great to perform in one of those beautiful venues…

The hunt for a baroque guitar instructor withing striking distance of Chepstow goes on, however, I may have found one…in Monmouth!

Mask of Joy video from the Museum of London

Allegra — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 09:14:50 +0000

The very fab Stuart Wood (mask of joy) sent us a link to this video, made by a friend of his at the Pleasure Garden Valentine’s day event at the Museum of London. The eagle eyed among you might be able to spot us in action!

Return of the Pleasure gardens….

Allegra — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 10:39:52 +0000

After a wonderful event at the Museum of London on Valentine’s day with the Covent Garden Minuet company and The Mask of Joy, I now hear from Stuart Wood that the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens have re-opened in a 21st century incarnation! Read the story here

Happy Valentine’s day!

Allegra — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:27:50 +0000

Come join us, one and all, for the Pleasure Gardens Ball on Valentine’s day at the Museum of London. Enjoy a night of Georgian Decadence, decorate a mask, learn how to dance, 18th century style with the Covent Garden Minuet company, watch actors and poets, and sing along with us!

I’m very excited to hear that there will be performances by actors from “the Mask of Joy” a new musical set in a Pleasure Garden.

Be there, or be a bracket-faced muckworm!

Victorian Christmas music

Allegra — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 18:50:44 +0000

Yes, I know, it’s only September, but we’re dusting off the bustles and bonnets for Victorian Christmas shenanigans! After the success of last year’s tour of Christmas markets, we’re trying to get some more, although some indoors with a blazing fire would be nice too, mmmm. For those of you that haven’t heard it, we also have a Christmas Cd, “All Corseted up for Christmas” available from our shop.

Allegra — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 20:00:15 +0000

We had a somewhat interesting gig last night. It should have been an elegant and genteel experience after the somewhat surreal nature of our tour gigs so far. It was for a book launch at the Foundling Museum in London which, from the outside, looks like a rather nondescript telephone exchange, but once through the door, a tardis-like vision of baroque splendour.

The book, Vauxhall Gardens is a weighty, gorgeous looking tome about the famous pleasure gardens at Vauxhall. It looks lovely, and the authors, David Coke and Alan Borg were very nice themselves.

Things went wrong when Miss Wrighten opened her case to find the tailpiece, bridge and soundpost of her cello rattling around, unattached. Sig. Storace heroically held the fort with some harpshichord solos while Isabella and I frantically called around to find a replacement instrument. In the end, although we found someone willing to help us out, we couldn’t have got it to the gig in time.

I introduced the set with a reading from the epitaph of Johnathan Tyers, a famous manager of the gardens, I made Isabella’s apologies too, the audience thought I was joking and laughed, which is never a bad thing.

After politely listening to the first song, the audience then started talking and socialising. It was nice, in an informal, pleasure gardens way, but somewhat tricky in a I-can’t hear-the-harpsichord-or-even-myself kind of way. Isabella, meanwhile, worked the room like a pro.

Despite the fact that we were barely audible, the audience seemed to enjoy it, hopefully we’ll see some of them at our next performance in London on August 16th. It should have been a really tough gig, all things considered, but everyone was so nice and the atmosphere so sociable, that I rather enjoyed myself.

As an added bonus, I saw Sarah-Jane Downing, author of The English Pleasure Garden 1660-1860 on the train home. We had a lovely chat, and I bought her latest book, Fashion in the Time of Jane Austen, which she very kindly signed, and to which I look forward to reading tonight.

revamped website, and lots of other stuff!

Allegra — Fri, 27 May 2011 18:34:32 +0000

We’ve been busy busy bunnies, over at Lady G towers! We had a lovely time at the beautiful Sudeley Castle on Wednesday and are very much looking forward to our appearance at Birmingham Pride this Sunday. We’ve got bonnets, new frocks, and a new website too. Looks pretty much like the old one, but works better, hurrah!

Not only has our site had an overhaul, we now have a shop, where you can buy CDs, and golden masquerade masks as well. In our ongoing attempt to link the 18th century with the 21st, we’ve also joined reverbnation, and will be managing our mailing list from there, so watch out for exclusive mailing-list only downloads.

You can also join us on facebook and twitter, keep up with all the latest….