IN THE RED the writers

A BRASS BAND MUSICAL BY

MICHAEL BRAND & IAN CHIPPENDALE

a nervous Michael (left) and Ian just before the concert at Her Majesty's Theatre

Michael Brand and Ian Chippendale first met in 1990 when they both attended a Workshop for New Producers run by the Theatre Investment Fund. They sat next to each other at dinner in the Garrick Club but don't recall talking about musicals.

It was the following year when Michael rang Ian (then Business Manager at the Theatre Royal Windsor) to ask if he thought Windsor would be interested in co-producing a musical he was thinking of writing based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald story. The Theatre Royal, although a producing house, has quite a small seating capacity and rarely dabbled in musicals at that time but Ian said he'd like to discuss the project and they met up again.

Michael happened to mention that he was working on a musical based on the Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. This set off alarm bells in Ian's head as, when he was a small boy he had always had his nose stuck in a book and his grandmother had often said to him "You ought to read the Ragged Trousered Philanthropists !" Ian asked to see and hear the work in progress and was further astounded to read Michael's dedication on the script - "To My Grandfather". It turned out that Michael's grandfather had proffered the same advice to young Michael as Ian's grandmother had to him.

Michael agreed to let Ian work on the existing book and lyrics and in time new songs were added and the plot and characters grew. Not all the characters in the novel have made it into the musical and the female characters, Mary and Ruth, are brought centre stage, whereas they remain very much in the background in the book.

a photo taken by the local press in earlier bearded days

The recording of In The Red began in April 1998 at the BBC studios in Manchester when the Williams Fairey Band played the score under the baton of Michael's father, Geoffrey Brand. The vocals were recorded during the course of 1998 and a very exciting (and emotional) experience it was for both writers.