Britannia Music Venues

[pr0t]

Firstly, apologies for my many daft questions, its our first time on Britannia this Saturday, and knowledge is power, as they say! 🙂

 

Do any of the venues feature Jazz or Blues? Preferably somewhere relatively small and intimate...

 

 

[Bedruthen]

There are no specific venues for jazz or blues and definitely not one that would be small or intimate. Live music is around the ship, the atrium and Live lounge in the evenings.

[pete14]

18 minutes ago, Bedruthen said:

There are no specific venues for jazz or blues and definitely not one that would be small or intimate. Live music is around the ship, the atrium and Live lounge in the evenings.

There is also the Limelight Club (with meal at extra cost) but I don’t expect there will be a jazz or blues musician scheduled.

[terrierjohn]

2 hours ago, pr0t said:

Firstly, apologies for my many daft questions, its our first time on Britannia this Saturday, and knowledge is power, as they say! 🙂

 

Do any of the venues feature Jazz or Blues? Preferably somewhere relatively small and intimate...

 

 

I think you need to be on Celebrity for specific jazz or blues musicians, you might be lucky with a live band that focuses on one of those styles, but in the main P&O want their bands to be Jack of all trades, and mainly popular music.

[AchileLauro]

No idea about Britannia but we were fortunate enough to be Aurora some years ago when Caravan had a jazz session in the crows nest one evening. It was absolutely superb and there wasn't a spare space to be had in the room, we were packed in like sardines. One particular musician in the group really stood out (Jesse), boy do I wish that I had talent like that.

 

I then read of another jazz evening on a different ship which by all reports wasn't so successful with large numbers of the audience walking out covering their ears. My thoughts were that the reports were probably exaggerated and the music simply wasn't to the taste of the writer. However two years ago we were again on Aurora and read in horizon that the resident band (not Caravan) would be playing jazz late one evening again in the crows nest lounge. This time it was modern jazz and it wasn't very long before we too were joining the long line of passengers leaving the lounge covering our ears and shaking our heads.

Sometimes P&O get the entertainment right but when they get it wrong they get it very wrong.

[pr0t]

2 hours ago, AchileLauro said:

No idea about Britannia but we were fortunate enough to be Aurora some years ago when Caravan had a jazz session in the crows nest one evening. It was absolutely superb and there wasn't a spare space to be had in the room, we were packed in like sardines. One particular musician in the group really stood out (Jesse), boy do I wish that I had talent like that.

 

I then read of another jazz evening on a different ship which by all reports wasn't so successful with large numbers of the audience walking out covering their ears. My thoughts were that the reports were probably exaggerated and the music simply wasn't to the taste of the writer. However two years ago we were again on Aurora and read in horizon that the resident band (not Caravan) would be playing jazz late one evening again in the crows nest lounge. This time it was modern jazz and it wasn't very long before we too were joining the long line of passengers leaving the lounge covering our ears and shaking our heads.

Sometimes P&O get the entertainment right but when they get it wrong they get it very wrong.

Jazz - hundreds of chords played to 3 or 4 people. Pop - 3 or 4 chords played to hundreds of people 😉

 

[AndyMichelle]

Right, we had a couple of fantastic evenings on Britannia last May watching the brilliant house Jazz band in the Crystal rooms.

Such a relaxing spot on a busy ship.

We absolutely loved it, not being big jazz fans, just enjoyed watching the talented and not so talented dancers perform in front of a live band was a great experience.

They also played sessions in the Crows Nest.

Andy 

 

[pr0t]

Just now, AndyMichelle said:

Right, we had a couple of fantastic evenings on Britannia last May watching the brilliant house Jazz band in the Crystal rooms.

Such a relaxing spot on a busy ship.

We absolutely loved it, not being big jazz fans, just enjoyed watching the talented and not so talented dancers perform in front of a live band was a great experience.

They also played sessions in the Crows Nest.

Andy 

 

Thanks Andy! 🙂

 

[Denarius]

I have cruised with P&O approx 30 times and have never heard blues music performed onboard. Pity, as blues, country and rockabilly are my personal favourites. One year on Ventura the jukebox in the Exchange had a blues section which I took delight in playing until it dissappeared! On enquiring about its dissappearance, I was informed that it had been put on in error and had been removed because passengers were complaining!

I have heard easy listening jazz played by the house band on Oriana but not on my two cruises on Britannia.

Edited September 2, 2019 by Denarius

[AndyMichelle]

17 minutes ago, Denarius said:

I have cruised with P&O approx 30 times and have never heard blues music performed onboard. Pity, as blues, country and rockabilly are my personal favourites. One year on Ventura the jukebox in the Exchange had a blues section which I took delight in playing until it dissappeared! On enquiring about its dissappearance, I was informed that it had been put on in error and had been removed because passengers were complaining!

I have heard easy listening jazz played by the house band on Oriana but not on my two cruises on Britannia.

Ha ha. It was probably me that complained😀

The jazz band was on our Fjord cruise on Britannia last May, it wasn't very popular which made it better for us and gave us some much needed time out in the Crystal rooms.

Andy

[Britboys]

The house bands on board both Oriana and Aurora have often played some Jazz sessions in the past (usually in the Crows Nest) which have been excellent and certainly not (in my personal experience) been modern Jazz.  One instance stands out in my memory when a female passenger asked if she could sing a number with them as she was an amateur Jazz vocalist.  She sang a couple of songs with them that night and they arranged a set the following week when she sang quite a few more.  She was great - had one of those smoky jazz timbres that made her sound like she smoked 40 fags a day 😁.  It was a mark of her - and their - professionalism that it sounded like they had performed together for years!