When you dance, you're charming and you're gentle, 'specially when you do the Continental

Madam Acarti, our friend Al and I are long-term fans of the German bandleader Max Raabe - indeed I first posted a blog about him twelve years ago. At that time, we adored discovering Herr Raabe and his Palast Orchester and their novelty "cod-dance-band" versions of hits by Britney Spears and Tom Jones, but before long our exploration of the man's musical repertoire led us to collect several of his albums, including his collaborations with the faboo Nina Hagen (who nowadays leads a Big Band of her very own).

Imagine our delight when we managed to land tickets for the opening concert of the very first UK tour by the maestro himself, at the swanky Cadogan Hall in Chelsea, no less!

Herr Raabe's is a loving tribute to the music of the Dance Band era of the 1920s and 30s, from both sides of the pond - and we were treated to not only some familiar standards from the golden age of British dance bands and from early Hollywood, but also a portfolio of (sometimes less-than-familiar) music from his native Germany, all interspersed with some dry-as-dust humour from the man himself, and some very amusing interplay between band-members and the audience as they "played-up" the sillier moments of some of the musical arrangements.

It was utterly faboo from beginning to end. Here is just a small selection of the musical numbers we enjoyed:

Max Raabe & Palast Orchester - Singing In The Rain

Max Raabe & Palast Orchester - Dream a Little Dream Of Me

Max Raabe & Palast Orchester - I Won't Dance

Particularly inventive and great fun were these two less familiar numbers:

Max Raabe & Palast Orchester - Dort tanzt Lulu

Max Raabe & Palast Orchester - Salome

Time just flew by in the company of Max Raabe. Getting up and down the myriad staircases at the Cadogan Hall from seats to bar and back again, on the other hand, seemed to take half a lifetime...

The evening was faboo, nonetheless - es war wunderbar, meine Lieben!

For details on the continuing tour visit Max Raabe and Palast Orchester website.