Matthew Floyd Jones to Perform RICHARD CARPENTER IS CLOSE TO YOU at Underbelly Festival
"Richard Carpenter was my very first musical inspiration growing up. It all started with him. And he's the only person who knows more about being the piano player in a duo with a wonderful female singer than me. It's the part I was born to play!" -Matthew Floyd Jones
He used to be on top of the world, looking down on creation, to the left of (and slightly behind) his kid sister, the iconic late superstar Karen Carpenter. Nowadays, "Richard Carpenter is Close to You" sees our hero back on the circuit, and solitaire really is the only game in town. A multi-talented musician, composer, arranger, orchestrater, producer and engineer - the only thing he doesn't usually get to do is sing lead. So... where do we go from here? Well, get yourself a ticket to ride, and buckle the hell up.
In the 1970s, The Carpenters, brother and sister Richard Carpenter and Karen Carpenter, were one of the best-selling music artists of all time.
In the 2010s, Frisky and Mannish, the musical duo comprising of Matthew Floyd Jones and Laura Corcoran, became the most popular seriocomic-mashparodic-bapsbotty-infotainment duo the Edinburgh fringe had ever seen.
Now Matthew Floyd Jones (the guy to the left behind the piano in F&M), combines the two in his first major solo show - Richard Carpenter is Close to You. The first show ever created specifically about Richard, as opposed to Carpenters in general or Karen, this is a piece that's been crying out to be created... but only by Mannish.
THIS PARODY SHOW IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH RICHARD CARPENTER IN ANY WAY. IT IS A WORK OF FICTION INSPIRED BY HIS LEGACY AND INTENDED WITH LOVE. IF BIRDS SUDDENLY APPEAR, THAT'S HONESTLY JUST A COINCIDENCE
Featuring contributions from Charlotte Gittins (Austentatious), Jon Brittain (Margaret Thatcher Queen of Soho) and Victoria Falconer-Pritchard (EastEnd Cabaret); Richard Carpenter is Close to You is an epic concert of hit tunes and harrowing travesties from the smiliest guy in pop-rock history. A bittersweet dark comedy that tells the hilarious, traumatic, imaginary tale of the ultimate piano player.
A character-comedy/theatre/live music hybrid that sprinkles song parodies over a powerfully dramatic narrative - Richard Carpenter is Close to You is like what would happen if Macbeth and Medea gave birth to Gollum, dressed him in yellow polyester and white platforms, taught him to play the piano, and then ... set him free.
Tickets can be purchased here.
Richard Carpenter is Close to You:
Underbelly (George Square)
5.20pm
2 - 27 August
(Not 15)
0844 545 8252
