The Denmark Street Big Band with star vocalist Richard Shelton bring the swinging jazz sounds of the Big Band era for one special night at Hideaway!

The Denmark Street Big Band, with very special guest vocalists Richard Shelton, perform compositions spanning an entire century of music, including standards made famous by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, Bobby Darin and other legends of The American Song Book.

The band's Musical Director Paul Burch has put together a big band that recreates the energy, excitement and style of the greatest big bands of the past era. Paul has handpicked musicians with impeccable reputations and experience. After assembling the musicians and taking its name from the London street that has been the heart of British music scene, The Denmark Street Big Band was born.

Richard Shelton

"No one should take lightly standing on a stage and trying to BE Frank Sinatra. But Richard Shelton, the man who portrays him, is quite simply phenomenal. He captures the essence of the man perfectly. His voice has exactly the right tone; he has that twinkle in his eye; he has that anger that sometimes flowed out of every Sinatra pore." - Mike Young – BBC, ‘Rat Pack Confidential’, London

It was a review which accompanied Shelton’s nomination of ‘BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE in the prestigious British ‘Manchester Evening News Awards’.

As a child, Richard came across a published childhood photograph of Frank Sinatra. He was immediately struck by the facial similarities. The same face, same mouth, those same twinkling blue eyes brimming with ambition and curiosity. And so a lifelong relationship began.It would be 30 years later when as an accomplished actor and jazz singer that Richard would be called on to portray Frank Sinatra in the hard-hitting drama ‘RAT PACK CONFIDENTIAL’. In a no-holes barred story, the lives of Frank, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. were played out in full view of the public on the London stage.

“Sinatra was marvellously played by Richard Shelton, singing the hits with style with a smile that turns on and off like a lightbulb and an edge of near psychotic violence.” – Charles Spencer, The Daily Telegraph.

 

Similarities don’t stop there. When Richard put his hands and feet into the impressions of Frank Sinatra’s on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, he discovered they were identical and were even made on Richard’s birthday. They are the same height, share the same passion for swing music and even the same favourite colour – orange!

But Richard is an actor and holds the legend of Sinatra in the highest esteem. “My job as an actor is to emulate the essence and evoke the spirit of Frank Sinatra. To make people feel that they’ve spent time with him,” says Shelton. “To tell stories through song and move them, persuade them. They should walk away saying “I feel like I’ve just spent an evening with Frank Sinatra.” If they do that, then I have done my job.”

Shelton is preparing to step back into the shiny shoes of Frank Sinatra in ‘SINATRA-THE MAIN EVENT’ touring the UK and London with a view to a future international and U.S. tour.