Friday 28th January 2011
Celebrities come together in kazoo band for BBC
Radio 3 Red Nose Show
Royal Albert Hall – Monday 14 March 2011, 7.30pm
Personalities from the worlds of comedy and entertainment to form kazoo band for
Radio 3’s first Red Nose Day event – The Big Red Nose Show - at the Royal Albert Hall
Audience invited to come and join celebrity kazoo band as Radio 3 attempt to break
the official Guinness World Record for largest Kazoo ensemble.
Celebrities including Miranda Hart, Jenny Eclair, Stephen Mangan, Emma Kennedy, Tracy AnnOberman and many more will be forming a special kazoo band as part of Radio 3’s Big Red Nose
show – a special event featuring classical music and comedy at the Royal Albert Hall.
The kazoo band, featuring over fifty celebrities, will perform alongside the BBC Concert
Orchestra and, along with the rest of the audience attempt to break the official Guinness World
Record for the largest kazoo ensemble on the planet. They will be joined by kazoo group
Masters of the Kazooniverse as they pick up their instruments and ‘buzz’ their way through
classics including the Dambusters March and Ride of the Valkyries.
Multi-award-winning comedienne Miranda Hart, who recently picked up three gongs at the
British Comedy Awards, says she’s looking forward to the event:
'It's fantastic how many people are taking part in this brilliant fundraising event. It’s going to be
a real spectacle. I just need to work out what a Kazoo actually is, and then work out how to play
it. It’s fun even saying 'Kazoo' so I can't wait.' – Miranda Hart
A number of media personalities will also be joining the kazoo band including journalist Boyd
Hilton, columnist Caitlin Moran and news presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy.
In the run up to the event, an online kazoo tutorial starring Katie Derham and Basil Brush
alongside Masters of the Kazooniverse will be available to view on
bbc.co.uk/rednoseday/radio3. This will feature a useful and entertaining step-by-step guide on
how to play the pieces for the kazoo world record attempt and general instructions on how to
get the most from your kazoo!
The kazoo extravaganza forms the finale of the evening which includes performances by violinist
Nicola Benedetti, cellist Julian Lloyd Webber, Shuna Scott Sendall (winner of the 2010 BBC Radio
2 Kiri Prize) and comedians Tim Vine and Marcus Brigstocke. Sue Perkins, winner of BBC Two
series Maestro will also be raising her baton to conduct the BBC Concert Orchestra all to raise
money for Comic Relief. The evening will be hosted by BBC Radio 3 presenter Katie Derham with
help from her mischievous fox side-kick, Basil Brush.
Several of the celebrity participants have already expressed their excitement and enthusiasm for
being part of the kazoo band:
"The thought of standing on stage at the Royal Albert Hall with the BBC Concert Orchestra and
playing a kazoo is SO thrilling I might actually spontaneously combust." – Emma Kennedy
“I’m looking forward to being part of an event that combines classical music, comedy and
kazoos – a great idea to raise money for Comic Relief.” - Krishnan Guru-Murthy
“Thousands of kazoos in the Royal Albert Hall…if that isn’t funny I don’t know what is.” – Jenny
Eclair
“What could be more fun than playing in a Kazoo band for Comic Relief? It will be hilarious!” –
Richard Bacon
The event will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Friday 18th March at 7pm
CREDIT: FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE BIG RED NOSE SHOW AND HOW TO PURCHASE
TICKETS VISIT www.bbc.co.uk/rednoseday/radio3
Event and Ticket information
Tickets £5-£40 (includes free kazoo)
95% of ticket purchase price goes to Comic Relief
To purchase tickets please go to the Royal Albert Hall box office
0845 401 5045 / www.royalalberthall.com or bbc.co.uk/rednoseday/radio3
For Further information please contact Reetu Kabra
Publicist, BBC Radio 3, 020 7765 4934 / [email protected]
- ENDS Notes to editors
About Comic Relief
Red Nose Day 2011 is heading your way on Friday 18th March when the great British
public will once again be asked to Do Something Funny for Money.
To join in the fun go to www.rednoseday.com and find out how you can get involved.
By raising cash this Red Nose Day, you’re helping to change lives forever. That’s
because Comic Relief spends all the money raised by the public to give extremely
vulnerable and disadvantaged people in the UK and Africa a helping hand to turn their
lives around.
Comic Relief was launched on Christmas Day in 1985, live on BBC One. At that time, a
devastating famine was crippling Ethiopia and something had to be done. That
something was Comic Relief. The idea was simple – Comic Relief would make the public
laugh while they raised money to help people in desperate need. Before too long, Red
Nose Day was created and the first ever event in 1988 raised a staggering £15m. To
date, twelve Red Nose Days have raised more than £500m. That money has helped, and
is helping, to support people and communities in dire need both in the UK and Africa.
Comic Relief, registered charity 326568 (England/Wales); SC039730 (Scotland)
Kazoo Fact-File:
The kazoo is a wind instrument which adds a ‘buzzing’ timbral quality to a player’s voice
as they sing or speak into the instrument. The device modifies the sound of a person’s
voice by way of a vibrating membrane.
The instrument is tube shaped, with one flattened end and a circular membrane.
By fully or partially covering the membrane hole a huge variety of sounds can be
created.
The kazoo can be made out of plastic or metal.
The kazoo is based on an ancient wooden African instrument used in sacred ceremonies
as a voice disguisers.
The first kazoo as we now know it was invented in the 19 century by an African
American named Alabama Vest in Georgia, United States.
The kazoo is technically a member of the membranophone family, which other than the
kazoo, is a group made up entirely of drums.
The first recording ever to feature a kazoo was the Arkensas Blues by the Mound City
Blowers. It sold over a million copies.
Since then Bowling for Soup, Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, Pink Floyd and Leonard
Bernstein have all been unlikely champions of the instrument.
Eric Clapton uses the kazoo on his cover version of "San Francisco Bay Blues" taken from
his "Unplugged" record from 1991
The current Guinness World Record for largest kazoo ensemble is 3,861, and was
achieved by St. George Bank at WIN Jubilee Oval, Kogarth, in Sydney, Australia, on 29
March 2009.
The event is the culmination of a six-week campaign from BBC Radio 3 and its six performing
groups as they ‘do something funny for money’ and will be broadcast on Radio 3 on Friday 18
March at 7pm. Further details to be announced in due course.