David Arnold – The Songs: Live (2023)

DAVID ARNOLD – THE SONGS: LIVE
Music composed by David Arnold
Performed by David Arnold & band
November 19, 2023
Lafayette
London, England

PART 1: CONCERT REPORT

(this report was originally written on Nov. 20, 2023 – just after the concert)

While I’d been to many orchestral concerts in large concert halls, I’d never been to a small venue set up for a six-piece band with standing room only.

But there I was in London last night, standing beer in hand among a captivated crowd enjoying a very special night out with David Arnold and his band.

I had always wanted to see David Arnold do a song concert after seeing him perform with Michael Giacchino at the Royal Albert Hall a few years ago. At that concert, he performed one unforgettable song (among many orchestral hits) with his smooth as velvet vocals. It truly left me wanting for more.

When this special “The Songs: Live” concert was announced I was ecstatic – not just because I had always wanted this kind of concert to happen, but also because it was one day after the Patrick Doyle “Music from the Movies” concert in Glasgow- perfect timing to see both!

The Lafayette music venue in London is a classy live venue within walking distance of King’s Cross station. It is here that Arnold performed a selection of songs from his impressive back catalogue of film, TV, musicals, and other projects.

There were so many highlights during the night, with my favourites being the poignant songs from MADE IN DAGENHAM, the Bondian title song from RANDALL & HOPKIRK, and “You know my name” from CASINO ROYALE, which truly brought the house down.

I adored his performance of “As God is my witness,” a beautiful song originally written for Shirley Bassey. To be honest, I much prefer this stripped-down version with Arnold on vocals to the Bassey version. In fact, I would love to hear a whole album (or two) of Arnold’s songs performed by the great man himself.

In any case, I was disappointed to not hear “No good about goodbye,” my favourite track on Shirley Bassey’s “The Performance” album. Maybe next time (please 😊)

Arnold also got the audience involved with two songs from children’s projects that he had written including THE TIGER WHO CAME TO TEA and MOG’S CHRISTMAS. Asked to lend our singing voices during certain moments of each song, this was great fun and only made me love these songs even more. The wonderfully infectious “As long as I belong” from MOG’S CHRISTMAS will no doubt become a Christmas favourite for many!

The encore was “Surrender,” the song that should have opened TOMORROW NEVER DIES but was instead relegated to the end credits. This was another great performance with slightly different phrasing from the original.

It was a great way to cap off a fantastic evening with the band!

PART 2: MEETING DAVID ARNOLD and DON BLACK

When the concert ended, a small horde of fans stuck around to try catch Arnold for an autograph and photo. While we were waiting, a familiar and most welcome face appeared among the waiting fans: Don Black. For those that don’t know Don Black, he is one of the greatest lyricists ever. His lyrics are always clever, perfectly hug the melodies they’re written for, and make you truly understand the feelings of the person singing. He’s truly unmatched in the songwriting world.

Anyway, before approaching Black, I was able to meet David Arnold himself! After kindly signing my INDEPENDENCE DAY album jacket, we got a nice photo together:

By this time Don Black had already gone upstairs and started to leave, so I quickly made my dash upstairs to fulfill a dream I’ve had for the last seventeen years: have him sign my copy of ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND, which was signed by John Barry on September 28, 2006 when I met him outside the Royal Albert Hall.

I never thought I would meet Black, let alone have a chance to take a photo with him AND have him complete the missing autograph on my precious ALICE album jacket… but dreams do come true!!

PART 3: CONCERT MERCH

Another cherry on top for the evening was finding a handful of score sheets signed by David Arnold for sale at the venue. These were quite limited with the signed scores for “You Know My Name” selling out by the end of the night. I was extremely lucky to get a copy of each score on sale that night: “You Know My Name,” “The World is Not Enough,” and “Good Omens.”

Despite some payment issues on my end, a very friendly and helpful staff member sorted me out – thank you so much again (you know who you are 😊)

PART 4: OVER TO YOU

Did you also go to this concert? How did you like it?

And what did you think of my report? Feel free to comment below or reach out to me directly in the “Contact Me” section.