A jazz singer who topped the charts in the 90s and featured on the original soundtrack for The Bodyguard is set to perform in a Kent church next year.
Curtis Stigers will be taking part in the Rainham Piano Festival at St Margaret’s Church in the High Street in May.
The event will be held from May 1 to 5 with other big-name headliners, including Dominic Ferris from the West End, the renowned Julian Joseph, family act The Kanneh-Masons and Sir Tom Jones’ pianist Paddy Milner.
Vicar of the church Reverend Nathan Ward says he hopes the five-day festival will help bring arts and culture to Rainham.
“When you think about Rainham, it’s kind of the forgotten part of Medway – we’ve noticed there is a cultural gap.,” he said. “If you want to see something you have to go to Rochester.
“We trialled some events over the last few years which were mainly tribute acts and they have done really well and we went ‘We’ve tested the waters, let’s see what we can do’.
“I went to Ronnie Scott’s in London and saw Curtis Stigers and thought ‘What would it take to get him here in Rainham’ and I just phoned him up.
“I thought there was no harm in trying and I thought ‘Oh gosh it’s got quite serious quickly’,” he laughed.
Much to his surprise, the Hollywood-born star and saxophone-player signed on and will perform at the church before kicking off his UK tour in May.
It was his appearance on the soundtrack to The Bodyguard which cemented Curtis Stigers’ little place in music history.
His cover of Elvis Costello hit (What’s So Funny ’Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding made a fortune for its songwriter, pub rock legend Nick Lowe.
Speaking to KentOnline in 2012, Stigers said: “The movie was OK but the soundtrack was fantastic. I was so lucky to be asked to do it. No one realised it was going to sell 40 million copies.”
After making more calls, the reverend at Rainham has managed to secure a broad variety of musicians to headline each day of the festival.
He added: “We’ve been working on it for a couple of months now and then I thought ‘if I have to hire a grand piano I might as well do something else with it’.”
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The event will also give an opportunity for a children’s choir to perform with Dominic Ferris – the church will be searching for a group to sing in the new year.
There will also be local pianists invited to play.
On the Saturday it will host a Disney sing-along and on the Sunday morning there will be assembly classics for the community to “relive their childhood”.
Reverend Nathan Ward says to host this level of global talent “is a truly historic moment for our town”.
He said: “I am just excited for Rainham because what more can we have – you’d have to go to some of the top London venues to get this quality of act all over one weekend.”
“Alongside these headline performances, we are delighted to offer a variety of recitals throughout the festival that are ‘pay what you want,’ making music accessible to everyone.
“This festival is a cornerstone of our vision to develop Rainham’s arts and cultural landscape in response to community feedback.”
