16th December 2010
BBC Radio 3 announces first
Big Red Nose Show for Comic Relief

Tickets now available for Radio 3’s Big Red Nose Show, staring violinist Nicola
Benedetti, cellist Julian Lloyd Webber and featuring comedians Sue Perkins,
Tim Vine, Marcus Brigstocke, the BBC Concert Orchestra and host Katie
Derham.

BBC Radio 3 invites people to come and join the attempt to break the official
Guinness World Record for largest Kazoo ensemble.
Royal Albert Hall – Monday 14 March 2011, 7.30pm
BBC Radio 3, the home of classical music, is orchestrating a very special Red Nose Day
event for the first time. Tickets today went on sale for Radio 3's Big Red Nose Show, taking
place at the Royal Albert Hall on Monday 14 March. The spectacular live event will bring
together stars from the worlds of classical music and comedy, all to raise serious money for
Comic Relief. Audience members will be supplied with kazoos and invited to participate in an
official Guinness World Record attempt to create the largest kazoo ensemble on the planet!
Radio 3’s Big Red Nose Show will be hosted by BBC Radio 3 presenter Katie Derham, with a
little help from the most mischievous fox around, side-kick Basil Brush. The evening will
feature a host of talent including violinist Nicola Benedetti, cellist Julian Lloyd Webber,
comedians Sue Perkins, Tim Vine and Marcus Brigstocke, Masters of the Kazooniverse and
the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Johnnes Wildners. Further special guests are to be
announced.
The show ends with an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for largest Kazoo
ensemble, as BBC Radio 3 invites the entire audience to join Masters of the Kazooniverse as
they pick up their instruments and ‘buzz’ their way through classics including the Dambusters
March.
Roger Wright, Controller BBC Radio 3 & Director of the BBC Proms said: ‘I am delighted that
Radio 3 is supporting Red Nose Day for the very first time in 2011. Radio 3’s Big Red Nose
Show, provides a fantastic opportunity for the public to enjoy an evening of comedy, classical
music and entertainment while raising money for a worth-while cause.
16th December 2010
Kevin Cahill, CEO, Comic Relief said: “I am thrilled that Radio 3 is going to be hosting such a
spectacular event this Red Nose Day. Radio 3’s Big Red Nose Show will help us raise
enthusiasm, awareness and most importantly cash for the Red Nose Day 2011 campaign.’
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
bbc.co.uk/radio3
For further info about Radio 3's Big Red Nose Show please go to bbc.co.uk/radio3
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
Talia Hull - Acting Head of Communications BBC Radio 3
020 7765 5887
[email protected]
- ENDS -
Notes to editors
Tickets
Tickets £5-£40 (includes free kazoo)
95% of ticket purchase price goes to Comic Relief
About Comic Relief

th
Red Nose Day 2011 is heading your way on Friday 18 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.
16th December 2010

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 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.