London’s Royal Albert Hall hosts the Teenage Cancer Trust (Alberto Pezzali / Live4ever)
Rufus Wainwright and Baxter Dury are two of the artists to have signed up for the Royal Albert Home sessions.
Starting this week, the venue’s website will be streaming free shows direct from the living rooms of those taking part – a list which also includes tenor Alfie Boe and Idlewild frontman Roddy Woomble.
“When push comes to shove, the Royal Albert Hall is my favourite venue in the UK,” Rufus Wainwright says. “It is the perfect mix of both formal and fun. It is grand and intimate at the same time. Also it is where my mother Kate McGarrigle did her last concert in 2009. I am proud to be one of the first artists to give a Royal Albert Home concert from my home in Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles.”
“I will try to be your ‘Gay Messiah’ in these difficult times, serve you some ‘Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk’, give you hopefully a ‘Peaceful Afternoon’, maybe pray a little ‘Agnus Dei’, hold you virtually ‘In My Arms’, take you to ‘Sanssouci’ in your mind, show you some ‘Pretty Things’ and make your ‘Alone Time’ uplifting, funny, hilarious, beautiful and bearable. In short, I will take you through my repertoire and my life, and preview some of my new material from my upcoming album, ‘Unfollow the Rules’, which we are now releasing on 10 July.”