The 25 November marks the 21st anniversary of the “Night Under the Stars” gala concert for The Passage. This year, the evening at the Royal Festival Hall under conductor Toby Purser will celebrate the magic of Bohemia, featuring works by Dvořák and Mahler as well as a world premier written by Charlotte Harding for Streetwise Opera.
It will be followed by a champagne reception and a colourful auction to raise funds for one of Britain’s leading homeless charities.
The original idea was that of Fr Michael Seed, former ecumenical chaplain to Cardinal Hume. Michael was always having good or crazy ideas. He also loved meeting famous people. I speak in the past tense because poor dear Michael contracted Alzheimer’s disease some years ago. Michael was also a close friend of the Herald, feeding stories and providing contributors.
I first came across Father Michael at a party in Kensington 30 years ago when I was still an Anglican. We became friends. He persuaded me that I would be better off as a Catholic and I was received a year later. I appear in his book between Lord Deben (a longstanding Herald director) and Ann Widdecombe and just after the Duchess of Kent.
It’s really very difficult to convert people. It’s hard enough to persuade people of the existence of God, but Michael was very adept. He processed 500 Anglican priests into the Catholic Church basically by accepting their good faith and their training. In 1999 he had invited my partner Keith and me to look at a house in Pimlico which was converted for use as a halfway house for homeless people. Cardinal Hume was there as well as Sister Briony, director of the Passage, Rory Bremner and the Catholic philanthropist John Studzinski. John was a friend of Hume had been involved with the Passage – working as a volunteer in its soup kitchens – since its earliest days.
We all discussed Michael’s novel idea for a concert to raise money and the profile of the Passage. The meeting was held in an ugly institutional room near Westminster Cathedral before it was converted into the amazing spacious building they have today. We agreed that it would be a musical and comedy event with TV personalities and celebrities performing in St John’s Smith Square in Westminster. We discussed various titles for the concert including “Down and Out in London’. My suggestion was “A Night Under the Stars” and the group endorsed the name and somehow I became chairman.
Michael then asked as many famous people he’d met either to perform or to be guests of honour. It’s quite difficult to refuse a friar a favour. Our committee included Cherie Blair. Soon we had a programme headed up by Rory Bremner with Bird and Fortune. Prince Michael of Kent was our royal guest of honour and there was to be a reception in the splendid state rooms in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office which Baroness Scotland organised for Michael.
We opened up our address books and printed posh stiff invitations. KPMG and Barclays sponsored the concert for £70,000 which covered all our costs. When the big night came, St John’s, Smith Square was packed. Having the concert take place on a cold and wet November evening helped emphasise how terrible life on the street is. Bird and Fortune performed a hilarious sketch about corporate greed in front of our distinguished financial sponsors.
We’d got a brilliant young Oxford musician, Toby Purser – founder of the Orion Orchestra – to put the music programme together with a children’s choir. Streetwise Opera performed as they have at every concert. This is a charity which encourages homeless people to come together to sing. It is always the troupe of homeless people coming on stage which brings a tear to the eye and brings the house down.
Over the next ten years, while I was chairman, the venues moved up from Methodist Central Hall to the Royal Festival Hall where the concert ended up, filling a 3,000-seat hall. We had performers that included Maureen Lipman, Anthony Andrews, Patricia Hodge, Christopher Biggins, Griff Rhys Jones and Sir Roger Moore, who compered for several years. The performances usually have a theme, like “From Russia with Love” or an “Italian Evening”.
Eventually it became clear that a full orchestral concert, hosted by BBC Radio 3’s Petroc Trelawny and Sean Rafferty, would be the most appealing with an audience made up of Passage supporters, RFH supporters and the Catholic world, especially Westminster Cathedral. The concert reception was also an important part of the draw. When performed in Westminster, these were often hosted in Speaker’s House by the then Mr Speaker, Michael Martin. The main reception was held in the grand surroundings of Banqueting House in Whitehall. Princess Michael of Kent has been a great supporter of the concerts.
After ten years, Anthony Orlando took over and now Emma Noble runs the event. The annual gala has given a voice to homeless people particularly through a video often exploring the way the Passage has transformed an individual’s life. Although Fr Michael can no longer appreciate the amazing concert which he instigated, it was down to him that the gala night is celebrating its 21st anniversary.
This article first appeared in the November 2021 issue of the Catholic Herald. Subscribe today.
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