An interview with The Puritones
Raphaëla, Rhiannon and Rebecca are The Puritones: a stunning a cappella act whose tightly-crafted vocal harmonies, powerful solos, lively humour and charming personality has enthralled and captivated guests at events of all types and sizes. Their versatility makes them the ideal act for a wide variety of different occasions, from all elements of a wedding day to corporate dinners or public events.
Covering both contemporary pop music and classics and in a style that is either soulful and sensitive or bolder and more provocative, the unique concepts that The Puritones offer include performing as James Bond-style vamps, Christmas Angels or divine wedding singers – the choice is yours!
We caught up with Raphaëla to find out about their bookings for this season, their plans for Christmas and more…
So Raphaëla, Christmas is nearly upon us and you must be getting ready for the party season! Tell us more about The Puritones as Christmas Angels?
Yes! Christmas is nearly here and we’re getting busy! We perform as charming Christmas Angels at both corporate and private events around London and the UK, dressed up in either stunning angel attire or elegant Christmassy evening gowns. Our performance is a cappella, using voices only and no instruments at all. We can also perform accompanying ourselves on piano. We’re modern carol singers if you will, performing a balanced mixture of traditional Christmas carols and modern Christmas hits such as Last Christmas, All I Want For Christmas Is You and – of course – the unconventional Christmas mega-hit Let It Go from Frozen.
Where can we see you perform? Are there any public gigs to look out for?
We’ll be performing at the Westfield Shopping Centre in Shepherd’s Bush on Sunday November 30th, between 12-1pm. We’ll be singing at the most special stage available in London…in the middle of an ice rink! We’d be delighted to see all the readers of this blog skating around us while we perform!
Brilliant! You’re pretty versatile though, aren’t you – what else can we expect from you in addition to the Christmas Angels act?
Yes, we work all year round! During the rest of the year, we sing at receptions – the ceremony, reception, dinner and/or wedding breakfast. We arrange the happy couples’ favourite songs especially for them – this September, for example, we arranged All You Need Is Love in an a cappella Love Actually style. We also do a great medley of Bruno Mars’ Marry You and Just The Way You Are.
We also tempt our guests at James Bond-themed corporate parties and weddings as 007 vamps, dressed up in sexy body-hugging gowns. It goes without saying that we perform all of the best-loved Bond tunes – including the James Bond theme and GoldenEye – all in an a cappella style. We also have a stunning opening act to kick off the event…
James bond Theme
So as Bond girls…what’s your favourite Bond song?
Oh, that’s a tough one! All the Bond songs are brilliant, actually – a lot of great music was composed for these movies. If I have to choose, it would be Skyfall – it’s splendidly sung and composed.
Do you Bond girls like a dry Martini…?
Umm, it’s not my favourite. I’d personally go for a strong Mojito to keep the summer vibe with the current English weather!
You must play for all sorts of interesting clients…do you have any stories to tell?
Last Christmas we performed at the exhibition of an online auction house for string instruments – how amazing it that? I never knew that something like that existed! We sung amongst about 200 violins, cellos, guitars and other instruments I’d never seen before. We warmed up the crowd and had them singing Hark the Herald along with us in the end!
We also once did a winter wedding at an amazingly beautiful castle in the middle of nowhere. There was one narrow road, around 1.5 miles long, that led up to the castle, with steep ditches at both sides and covered with a thick layer of black ice all the way. We almost arrived too late for the ceremony because of that nerve-wracking 1.5 mile ride which we did at about 4 miles per hour as we were so terrified! Fortunately it was really warm and cosy inside, we sang more beautifully than ever before (we survived!!) and we obviously weren’t the only people with a minor delay.
That sounds terrifying! Which clients are you booked with this Christmas?
We’re really excited to be performing in the VIP lounge at the Chelsea stadium before the game on Boxing Day! We’re also booked at several corporate dinners for a law firm, an advertising agency and more, and we’ll hopefully be performing at the St. Albans Christmas Market and other festive markets.
A busy season! After all of your performances, how to you like to spend Christmas?
With our families, relaxing after a busy month! We love to indulge shamelessly in mince pies, gingerbread and chocolates, and always say in January that we’ll never do the same again next Christmas… Oh well, it’s all part of the festivities, which we enjoy to the max!
To find out more about The Puritones and to hear and see samples of their performances, click here.
