AJB Interviews Warren Ringham (Q The Music)
Barbel
ScotlandPosts: 37,854Chief of Staff
After a long gap, the AJB Interview series is back.
The Interview
AJB Interviews Warren Ringham (Q The Music) — ajb007
Who is Warren Ringham?
Most of us are familiar with leading Bond tribute band Q The Music
If you want to know more, here's their website- Q The Music Show - James Bond Tribute Band
Our guest is their leader, Warren Ringham
He's kindly agreed to answer questions from us. As well as his work with Q The Music, he's also involved with podcasts such as "Scorey Time" Scorey Time on Apple Podcasts
Please post your questions below, then I'll submit them to Mr Ringham. As ever, no personal questions and all guests reserve the right to not answer questions as they see fit.
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Another coup Barbel - congratulations! 🍸
I haven't had the pleasure of seeing Q the Music live yet, but couple of questions from me:
It must have been a bold decision to take the first step to a full-time Bond tribute band. Did he meet any resistance?
what's most challenging aspect of putting on a large show?
what's Warren's favourite 007 soundtrack?
what are Warren's plans for new shows/tracks once lockdown is over?
Thanks, C&D.
Obviously the keys of vocal numbers have to suit the vocalist, but are all the instrumentals in the original key and if not, is there a reason for this?
Which John Barry piece do you find most satisfying to play?
As a trumpet player, what is the song or cue that you have been most excited to perform?
What is it like listening a new Bond theme when it comes out, knowing that it is a song that you will have to arrange and perform as Q The Music?
And following on from that, what are the characteristics that would make you really happy with a new Bond theme, from the point of view of playing it as Q The Music?
Which piece of music is best received by an audience - or does it differ from location to location?
Is there a piece of music you regularly get asked to perform but haven’t yet?
What is your favourite non-John Barry piece to perform.
Warren, what was the defining moment or turning point when you decided to take your love of Bond to this level by starting Q The Music?
Also, when you performed at the Sir Roger Moore tribute, an incredibly poignant event, was it hard for you and the band to keep it together?
Thank you, everyone, I'll give it till later today to allow for any last-minute posts then do some editing and send it off. Mr Ringham is a quick replier, but naturally he will respond in his own time.
Questions sent. Thanks everyone, and I'll post the answers when they arrive.
Sorry I missed this thread till now, but all the questions fielded above are excellent. Very much looking forward to the interview!
I reviewed one of these amazing concerts in this forum a couple of years ago: https://www.ajb007.co.uk/discussion/comment/942047#Comment_942047
Warren Ringham has responded (told you he was quick!) and that's below. I'd like to thank him on behalf of us all and I trust you will enjoy his very detailed answers.
Hi everyone, firstly before I get into answering the questions, I wanted to say huge thank you to AJB for inviting me to do this. I’m genuinely incredibly flattered! It’s also somewhat of a relief to have received some questions so a huge thank you to you all for stopping by to ask them. If you knew the journey and the struggle QTM has had over the years, you’d know how chuffed I am to be here and doing this for proper fans! I’ve definitely posted on the old board, so I’ll have to get stuck in to the new one a bit more.
1- What was the defining moment or turning point when you decided to take your love of Bond to the next level by starting Q The Music?
Well, it was nearly 20 years ago now….I was a big Bond fan as a child (especially the Roger Moore films), but it was the 00 Heaven season on ITV around 2000 that really took me into the “fanatic” status. As each movie played out every week here in the UK (Wednesday nights I think) and started from the beginning going all the way through, I recorded them each week on VHS. This was all whilst I was at the Royal College of Music studying a music degree, and in the student’s bar there - they had a CD of the Bond Themes literally on loop.
In 1999 I had started a covers function band and around 4 or 5 years into its life, and with my passion for Bond (and Bond music in particular) reaching feverish levels, I remember the exact moment I had the idea. I was stationary in traffic on the M25 (UK motorway) with only my Bond CD for company and I had that “eureka” moment: to start the world’s first James Bond Tribute Band. The thing was finding a way to take these massive epic pieces and songs (largely orchestrated for pop/rock band and orchestra) and make it portable whilst retaining the sound and quality. That was the challenge, and I knew it would require a large band (bigger than the standard function band line up of normally around 10). I dabbled a bit before eventually settling on 13. The trouble with that is you make what is already a very niche market even more so. We often found ourselves too small to be taken seriously by Bond fans (for many, many years) but too big for events who had a budget for maybe 5-10 musicians.
Eventually, it was the video demos for the events (posted on YouTube) that really started to get us awareness around the world with Bond fans. In 2013, we decided to turn it into a proper concert for theatres so that people could attend and after a very very slow and bruising start, from there things really took off.
2- When you performed at the Sir Roger Moore tribute, an incredibly poignant event, was it hard for you and the band to keep it together?
I think all the band found it nerve-wracking, but for me I really was panicking once the event started. I had this moment as we stood on the stage waiting to do our bit – looking out in front of me there was Barbara and Michael, Sir Roger’s family, A-list celebrities like Dame Joan Collins, Sir Michael Caine, David Walliams, Steven Fry and then a whole load of faces from the Bond series including All Time High lyricist Sir Tim Rice and Bond Theme composer Monty Norman.
I was so proud – so so proud – and it really felt at that moment like all the hard slog had been worth it, here I was playing my part in paying tribute to the Bond who was the one who was always on the TV in my childhood. He was a hero for me, and here I was presenting something I created in front of all this incredible people. I think somewhere amongst all those feelings of pride and joy, as well as sadness of what the occasion was, it suddenly hit me: if this goes wrong it’s all my fault – at least ultimately the buck stops with me. The pressure in that moment felt INSANE. I also realised that for all the preparation and meticulous detail I go to with my band, right now I was utterly powerless to affect the outcome (or how they performed). For the only time in my life I felt a real tightness come across my chest and I genuinely thought – this is what it must be like in the lead up to a heart attack! It really took all my experience and years as a professional musician to get a grip of myself and come back out of that pit. It really was a case of turning the outside world off for a bit – turning off the fan in me and focusing on the trumpet player/band leader professional. I literally went through that thought process.
As it happens, I need not have worried, the band were magnificent. It’s strange – and QTM fans who follow the band and my interviews closely will know I always say this: the more pressure I put the band under, the better they seem to perform. Whether it was that event, or OHMSS50 (at Piz Gloria with George Lazenby) or in the West End (in the UK) – the guys just seem to rise to the occasion and take things up another level. Amazing musicians I suppose!
3- Which piece of music is best received by an audience, or does it vary from location to location?
Well, the standout is always Licence To Kill – because that’s really Kerry’s moment and you can’t help but be sucked in by her amazing performance - full of emotion and adrenaline. The roar that goes up at the end of the song is always goose-bump time! It’s a feeling you can’t bottle and you spend your whole life waiting for the next one to experience it again.
There have been so many other moments – notably the first time we performed Writing’s On The Wall in front of a load of the Bond Community the night before the Premiere – but the main one was the 20 minute medley of cues we did from OHMSS live at Piz Gloria. There were literally tears and dumbfound jaws-on-the-floor that we pulled it off. Steven Saltzman was stood about 6 feet in front of me, and I was watching his jaw dropping further and further to the floor – it was so funny. At the end, in a moment of pure spontaneity he grabbed the mic from me to declare “you did my Dad proud”. The roof nearly came off. It was just amazing – the whole weekend was just the best weekend of my life!
4- Is there a piece of music you regularly get asked to perform, but haven’t yet?
Well, the short answer is no! There’s lots of odds and ends left now and they get the odd random request, but we’ve done over 100 cues and songs and covered all the big ones. It becomes difficult as it starts to get really really niche and our crowd is normally 15% die-hard Bond fans like me and you lot reading this, and then 85% casual fans. We did Flight Into Space at one theatre show, and one guy got up in the middle of it and walked out, and one of the musicians overheard another audience member in the break in the toilet say “great band, but not too keen on the brass-band **** they did at the end”.
I mean firstly, clearly philistines(!) – but it does show you have to be careful. The Bond fans in the room were absolutely in heaven, but those who came to see the songs were like “what is THIS?!”
5- What is your favourite non-John Barry piece to perform?
Ahhhh there’s so many! Song wise, probably Licence To Kill or Surrender I think, cue wise, probably Backseat Driver.
6- As a trumpet player, what is the song or cue you have been most excited to perform?
Well, taking aside our Lockdown Sessions (a series of online concerts we did in 2020 during the pandemic), live, it would again be that OHMSS medley at Piz Gloria. I was soooo excited and it didn’t disappoint. It was cool because the whole 20 minute medley ended up with Gumbold’s Safe – and that finishes with a little Trumpet solo. It’s quite exposed and I had another one of those “oh God” moments when everyone had NAILED the first 19 minutes and I thought – “it’s all come down to this – if I mess this up it’s going to ruin 20 minutes of perfection!” Again - I had to dig deep and detach myself from the fan/emotion of it and turn on the professional switch.
I must also mention the Lockdown Sessions though. We did 4 days of recording and put down 100 cues and songs. Literally every single one was just a lifetime’s realisation of a dream, but the one that I was more excited about than anything was a suite of cues from Thunderball. We did that on day 2 or 3 I think – I did not sleep a wink the night before and I was up at about 5am just clock watching until we started. I just adore that soundtrack and playing it really was a dream come true. My eyes were running non-stop with tears of pure joy over those 4 days I can tell you.
7- What is it like listening to a new Bond theme as it comes out, knowing that it is a song you will have to arrange and perform as Q The Music?
Always nerve-wracking and full of apprehension. You know you are stuck with whatever they come out with and you are going to perform it 1000s of times! Luckily, I’ve loved all the numbers that have come out. It took me a little while to love NTTD, but I really do now. I often hear rejected songs and think “we dodged a bullet there!”
There’s also always an element of “how do we QTM this up?” Usually it ends up with us just adding a bit more energy and oomph to a song live. It’s a very different thing live and people want to go on a journey in a show. We aim to really put the audience through an emotional roller-coaster when they come to our show. It’s not enough to just “knock out” the Bond songs – there’s a million bands and Bond concerts doing that – to me the first question I always start with is: “As a Bond fan, if I was going to this concert, what would I want?” - this has generally worked for us so far!
8- Following on from that, what are the characteristic that would make you really happy with a new Bond theme, from the point of view of performing it as Q The Music?
Honestly, just something from the last point – being able to take it and make it mean something live to the audience member/Bond fan. If it’s an up-tempo number then to be able to really get the hairs up and adrenaline pumping, and if it’s a ballad to be able to connect the audience to it emotionally and tug at the old heart strings. It’s not enough for me/us for someone to say “yeah it was good” – we want every person who comes to go away going “wow, that was the best thing I’ve ever seen”. That’s the aim anyway…
When we were playing NTTD for the very first time in the soundcheck before the show, we’d played it through about 3 times as per the original and it just felt flat live. I quickly realised that it need beefing up in the orchestration, got the brass to play louder and more fully to support Kerry with a bigger platform to sit on, and told her to “Kerry it up”. She looked at me like “huh?” and I said to her to put her emotion into it and take the last third of the songs up a gear. Boy it clicked then.
9- Naturally the key of a vocal piece has to suit the vocalist, but are the instrumentals all in the original keys (and if not, what’s the reason)?
Every instrumental is in the original key for sure, and I think we do the vast majority of songs in the same key bar a couple (we set the keys so long ago I can’t remember specifically!). As you mention, there’s a few we had to drop for the singers, largely so one person can sing all of them (well one male, one female), bearing in mind of course the absolutely vast range of styles and singers that recorded the originals it would be impossible to get one person to do them all in the original keys I think. Even Tom Jones and Shirley Bassey have dropped the keys of their songs as they got older, so that’s good enough for me!
10- Which John Barry piece is the most satisfying to play?
Song wise Diamonds Are Forever I think, cue wise I think probably Flight Into Space – but you know it’s really hard to say. He’s literally never written anything less than 8 or 9 out of 10 so they are all amazing to play. It’s actually the simplest things that can take you by surprise. Last year when we recorded the Lockdown online concerts - Space Laser Battle and 007 and Counting – those two really blew me away when I did them live for the sessions. I had chills in ways I hadn’t had listening to them (don’t get me wrong, there’s always some chills!) but they really took me by surprise when playing them and the sound of the song is wrapped all around you like a blanket.
Another one that did that was Spectre Island from FRWL. Such a short, simple, understated cue but it just really did weird things to me on the day.
11- It must have been a bold decision to take the first step to a full-time Bond tribute band. Did you meet any resistance?
In all honesty it’s been a battle the whole time. Running the show has really been a full-time job for the best part of 6 or 7 years. The reality was, the shows never sold well enough until the end of 2019 to pay for me to do it full time, so I’ve done QTM for free and my full-time wage as a musician allowed me to do that (almost as a c-r-a-z-y hobby). It really meant I was doing 2 full time jobs though. We were just in the position at the start of 2020 where things were changing (and I was going to do the show full-time) and then the Pandemic hit and really wiped us out. We had 40 shows planned in 2020 (and more would have come in) – we ended up doing 4. The trouble was I’d promoted the entire tour up front and all that ads spend went up in smoke. I then gambled on the Lockdown Sessions and lost 5 figures, which has really compounded the problem.
Along the way before that, there’s been the odd underhand tactic by rivals, but nothing that isn’t par for the course I guess. The other main thing was placing the band/show in a market. When we started no one had ever done a James Bond Tribute Band – and every agent told me there wasn’t a need. Also we aren’t strictly a “tribute” though my argument has always been we are – to the James Bond genre. I mean could you even imagine a show that went through Bassey lookalike and soundalike to Tom Jones to everyone else? Horrendous!
I had to persuade them there was a space for live music at Bond events – and that a 13 piece band was worth paying so much for. Eventually we created a market through belligerence and perseverance as well as utter professionalism and quality striving for perfection. Of course, every man and his dog wants to then muscle in on that and do it cheaper, so that’s always hard.
When we eventually started doing the theatre concerts and aiming it at Bond fans specifically it was so so hard to get the community to believe we could deliver on their wishes. The first run of theatre shows lost so much money and nearly cost me and my wife everything. I spent 6 months of sleepless nights expecting every night to have to probably go bankrupt the next day. We had most of those shows with less than 100 people in the audience and one theatre where we didn’t sell a single ticket. Not. One.
At that point even my family and friends were telling me to let it go, but I KNEW that it wasn’t the product, it was getting the message out there. A big factor in that changing was dear Terry Bamber (former production manager of several Bond films) who turned up to one of those shows and loved it. He became a real champion for the band. Along with him, James Bond Radio’s Tom and Chris threw their support behind us too and thanks to an amazingly supportive wife (the like of which I don’t think any other would have been) we bounced back.
12- What’s the most challenging aspect of putting on a large show?
It’s all logistics really. Time, money, equipment, personnel – all are a challenge. The better you get the more it costs (as the standard goes up - so musicians get more expensive) and the audience expect more. The theatre show set up is massive now - it takes a good 5 or 6 hours to set and soundcheck properly. The level of detail we go to means that that side of things is paramount. For example, we play every track to a click – so the speed is 100% right every single time. The difference even a small margin of speed can make to the performance is surprisingly large.
But really, I guess the biggest challenge is just money. The reality is the show costs more to run than it can probably bring in, unless I compromised on the quality - which I’m never prepared to do. I’d just rather pack it in to be honest!
13- What’s your favourite 007 soundtrack?
It always was Thunderball by a mile, but I really fell in love with OHMSS in the 50th anniversary year and all the prep for the OHMSS50 event. That’s now a very close second and one of those things where it could jostle for top spot depending on my mood!
14- What are your plans for new shows/tracks once lockdown is over?
Honestly, at this stage, I just don’t know. Things are really tough for everyone right now and there’s definitely not going to be a “poor me” vibe to this answer if I can help it, but the reality is, the arts sector (aside from venues and the large orchestras) has had no help whatsoever. We are facing an ongoing battle to survive. Just this week I had to sell our van to keep things going and the end is not really in sight. Despite the UK “roadmap” saying we will be back to normal in July, I don’t see our sector until at least 2022 to be frank and even then it will take many years to fully recover. I’ve deliberately not booked any shows in yet, as it would be a disaster to book them in now and then have to cancel again. Even if they went ahead, there will be a lot of people who won’t attend (shielding, fear, shortage of disposable income, isolating, etc) and even a 10% drop in attendance would be massively damaging to us. We are already chronically in debt, so any misstep would definitely be curtains.
I do absolutely think we’ll be back at some point – even if it is was only for one more tour. Don’t forget – I started the band in 1999 and my current Guitarist wasn’t even born then!!
A slightly depressing answer I know, but it’s the reality of where we are right now.
15- What’s your favourite Bond title song?
To play – Licence To Kill, to listen to – Diamonds Are Forever.
16- Who would you like to sing the next one?
This is one of those questions I get asked all the time and it’s such a tricky one to answer as there are two questions that need answering with it really – who would I want and who do I think!?
The realisation I’ve come to is that (rightly or wrongly) our opinion as Bond fans doesn’t matter anymore on this sadly. The reality is, the song is a marketing tool for the film and the decision is made based on maximum reach and with the last two films for sure: diversifying the audience. Putting my business hat on – it makes total sense.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved Billie Eilish and I thought she was a great choice and the two of them are incredible musicians, but I have my doubts that decision was based first and foremost on an artistic level. She was/is the hot property in the business at the moment, with a young following predominantly - and a huge one at that (77m Instagram followers!). I think for that to follow with the next film it’s probably too early to say as it could be 3-5 years before the next one – who knows who will be top of the tree then. However, if it was tomorrow, I’d have thought someone like Dua Lipa or Harry Styles might be a good shout (and I like both of those actually).
My own personal choice would be more retro I think (showing my age!) but I’d really prefer a more classic singer’s singer voice like a Tom, Shirley or Gladys, but we aren’t really producing those at all now. I did wonder if Queen might have been an outside bet for NTTD as they are one who were bafflingly overlooked back in the day…and were due on tour all 2019/20 doing live shows (with a new singer). I did wonder (going completely against my first part of this answer) if they might be a shout, but no.
Whatever we get next, I think it’s time for a belter number as we’ve had a few ballads on the trot now.
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Guys, some really cracking questions in there and once again thank you for having me. Sorry I’ve gone a bit as I do “tend to prattle on in a crisis” (!) but if you have any follow up questions feel free to ask them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer.
Just want to drop a promo in for a brand new podcast I am co-hosting at the moment called “Scorey Time” – and for the next few years we will be making our way through the Bond scores. The idea is to go deeper on them than ever before, we’ve got a cracking team of 3 presenters including a composer and Gergely Hubai – a soundtrack lecturer who knows more about Bond music than any man I’ve ever come across. I guarantee you’ll learn stuff you didn’t already know. Episodes 1 & 2 are out now with more coming monthly. It’s on all major platforms including Spotify.
I hope you are all keeping well and this horrid time had not affected any of you adversely. I really love being a part of the Bond community and contributing to it. I hope you will come and support us in the future – we really need and appreciate it!
Wow! What a fantastic interview- hugely enjoyable and hats off to Warren both for taking the time and trouble to respond so fully, and for clearly being such a die-hard Bond fan too. Probably my favourite interview so far. I will definitely go to see QTM the first chance I get. 🍸🍸🍸
Great answers from Warren, and I'll have to check out Scorey Time. Sounds like a belting podcast.
A terrific interview, and hats off to Warren for his vision and commitment with QTM over the years. There's so much positivity to take from this despite the current difficulties and ongoing uncertainties. When the time is right I'm sure that there will be a huge pent-up demand for live music and arts in any and every niche, including our own, and hopefully Warren and his team will be able to do again, live, what they love doing and re-engage us with the dramatic gamut of emotions that a full Bond concert offers. If anything, in time, our sense of pre- and post-pandemic experience may create cultural markers which boost the market for nostalgia-based concerts.
I'm willing to bet that the vast majority of even casual Bond fans appreciate QTM's mix of suites of instrumental cues alongside the instantly recognisable Bond songs, the suites reactivating the emotional memory of the original impact of the movies even for those who have never bought, let alone treasured, the full soundtrack albums. Certainly the concert I enjoyed in the West End of London, in 2019, offered all of the main title songs to that point (DAD excepted), and some terrific instrumental suites besides.
Meanwhile I'll be delighted to check out Scorey Time.
Thank you, too, to Barbel for arranging this special interview.
fascinating stuff! I like the idea of 20minute medleys of cues from individual films, I definitely would not be the audience member complaining about all the brass!
13 musicians is about the size of Ellington's orchestra, quite respectable, big enough to get all the different tones but small enough to travel by bus.
I think EON should read his bit about arranging the NTtD theme song: he's quite diplomatic there, but he says he needed to beef up the orchestration, add brass, and get his singer to put in more emotion and switch it up a gear for the final verse. EON still has six months to rerecord that new theme song, he's identified exactly what needs to be done.
Agreed, cp, except I think there's a wide difference between the impact of the NTTD track as studio-recorded and what the song may need by way of beefing up for live performance in a concert - so it's not only unlikely that Eon will think to revisit the current arrangement for the film itself but also, imho, unnecessary.
Hey guys, thought you might enjoy this if you haven't already seen it.
Purely for fun we did our own composition for No Time To Die (we did this before Billie was even announced).
Hope you like it:
Also, here is our cover of the Billie Eilish version too:
Thanks, Warren!
Agreed, cp, except that I think that there's a difference between the impact of NTTD as a studio-recorded song for the film and the beefing up it needs for the different context of a live performance in a concert. It's not only highly unlikely that EON will think to revisit the recorded song for the film but also, I'd suggest,, unnecessary.
@Q The Music Show
Thanks so much for sharing these versions of NTTD. Your original is a lot of fun, and the cover performance is fantastic, as ever.
I'm happy to see my questions finding this thread before I did 😆
Thank you to Warren of course, but also Barbel who organised everything. I shudder to think what AJB would have been like in the past few months without his work.
Thank you, N24, very kind of you.
Big thanks to Warren for taking the time to humour us here at AJB and a hearty well done to Barbel for taking the time to continue this amazing series 👏🏻
Much appreciated, Sir M. There may be more....
After reading Warren's responses to our questions I immediately went and listened to the Scorey Time podcast's Dr No (Part 1) episode and thoroughly enjoyed the discussion. It's always nice to listen to knowledgeable people discussion the Bond music in-depth. One of the podcasters is Gergely Hubai who used to be well known on this forum as The Cat. I don't think he's posted here for quite a while though.
The next interview is now posted.
AJB Interview with Aston Martin — ajb007
Agreed, cp, except that I think that there's a difference between the impact of NTTD as a studio-recorded song for the film and the beefing up it needs for the different context of a live performance in a concert. It's not only highly unlikely that EON will think to revisit the recorded song for the film but also, imho, unnecessary.
[Unintentionally repeated post]
@Shady Tree oh I'm sure the version we've heard will be the version in the film. And hopefully you're right and the experience of the song will be different within the context of the film. I actually like the much-maligned Madonna song, because even though it sounds nothing like a traditional Bond song, its gltichy techno groove is appropriate to the transgressive nature of the torture scenes during the credits.
So we will have to see what the mood of the film is going from pre-credits to big song/credits sequence. That moment where the tension breaks and the big song begins is my favourite in the whole film, depending on when they get it right. Bond may be in an introspective downer of a mood when the credits roll, and this could turn out to be exactly the song we need.
speaking of which, I'm with @Q The Music Show : Diamonds are Forever is also my favourite theme song, and that films moment of transition (cat appears with diamond studded necklace and meows) is part of why
@Q The Music Show looking at your website I see you even do Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and the Look of Love! you know your Bond toons!
@caractacus potts That moment of transition with the crash zoom on the baleful eye of the meowing cat followed by the brass stab which marks the beginning of what is now known as the extended version of the title song... If I had to identify the single moment when I became a Bond fan it was right there, in that moment, in 1972!
Although NTTD as recorded lacks the overall dramatic excitement of Barry's classic DAF, it nods to DAF, with (i) a downbeat deconstruction of DAF's sparkling 'diamond motif' lead-in and (ii) Billie Eilish's emo 'moaning' fillers echoing Shirley Bassey's introspective vocal mewing (?) over that lead-in before Bassey sings DAF's title lyric. Forgive my total lack of any musical terminology!
"Diamond motif" is fair enough and a good description. I'd guess that I'm the only member pedantic enough to call it an "ostinato" and that Warren is the only one who'd understand!