Wacky duo a hit with Hollywood royalty
RE-BRANDING has brought its pros and cons to piano duo Worbey and Farrell.
A couple of years back, audiences set on an evening enjoying their "two hands, one piano" wizardry might instead have found themselves settling down to a night of Euro-pop.
"We used to be called Katzenjammer, but there was a complication," Kevin Farrell explained.
"We had the European rights to the name, but then there was a Norwegian band that bought the rights in America so we decided to just use our surnames.
"It’s been a lot easier because there’s always been some confusion about Katzenjammer anyway. Some people though it was a German oompah band!"
Name apart, it is business as usual for Farrell and musical partner Steven Worbey.
"We’ve been based in Edinburgh for the last 11 years and Eden Court is always one of our favourite theatres to visit," Farrell said.
"We’re bringing up a mixture of last year’s Edinburgh Festival show and premiering stuff that will go into this year’s show, so we’re very excited about that."
One of the pieces the Inverness audience can look forward to hearing on Friday evening will be Worbey and Farrell’s very own Edinburgh Fringe Piano Concerto, written to be performed with The Edinburgh Symphony Orchestra. Although there might only be two men on stage, the orchestra will still make its contribution to the show thanks to a video link.
That original Worbey and Farrell composition will find itself alongside some exalted and unexpected company, with Tchaikovsky rubbing shoulders with Lady Gaga, Keane and Lily Allen on the programme.
For Worbey and Farrell, it makes perfect sense to mix up pop and classical composers.
"Some of those composers didn’t want to be treated like gods — and their behaviour was worse than Russell Brand’s," Farrell stated.
"It keeps the audience on its toes, so at the point where they think they know where things are going, we have a complete change.
"The whole point of the show is that it’s for all shoe sizes. We particularly like it when people say they hated classical recitals or the wife dragged them out to see us, but they really enjoyed the show."
Video screens do not just let the orchestra play its part in the night’s entertainment, they also allow the audience to appreciate the dazzling fingerwork of Worbey and Farrell on that single keyboard.
"It all happened by accident," Farrell confessed.
"I always wanted to be part of a double act, but wasn’t sure how to go about it. Then one day we got locked in Steven’s flat, drank an awful lot of alcohol and began messing about on the piano."
They soon made their public debut at a charity show headlined by Starsky and Hutch star David Soul.
"When we played, the reaction was huge. That’s when we realised we had stumbled on something," Farrell said.
Their profile was also boosted by a lucky — if not cheeky — bit of marketing.
When they decided to film their own DVD, a contact allowed them to shoot it at London’s famous Royal Opera House.
"So when the DVD arrived and said ‘Katzenjammer — Live at The Royal Opera House’, people though we were already famous," Farrell said.
The pair have certainly become more famous since then, and have picked up famous fans of their own, among them veteran Hollywood star Mickey Rooney, whose career stretched from the silent film era to last year’s Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb.
He was such a fan that he asked them to play at his 89th birthday, and while they were over in Los Angeles for the celebrations, Rooney invited them to join him in seeing his friend Tony Bennett in concert.
"Tony announced to the entire 25,000 audience that Mickey Rooney was in the audience. The next thing, Mickey’s image was on massive screens all around the stadium, and us along with him," Farrell said.
"We were all about the same size, so I think everyone thought we were his family. We had to have a police escort out of there!"
However, Worbey and Farrell also have a more tender memory of the Hollywood legend as he recalled his friend and co-star Judy Garland.
"We had this conversation with him in the limo when he started talking about Judy, who was clearly the love of his life," Farrell said.
"He said to us: ‘We weren’t a couple, we weren’t brother and sister, we weren’t lovers — but what we were, was magic.’ I thought that was a wonderful thing to say.
"We were so honoured to be in this car with such a legend. I’ll never forget that."
• Worbey and Farrell appear at the Empire Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, on Friday at 7.30pm.
