Clare Abbott

Clare Abbott

Clare Abbott is the female vocalist for the Velvet Tones. Clare began her music journey learning the violin and singing in choirs through school. She has been fortunate to sing with many bands over the years, from covers and function bands to acoustic duos. She discovered singing jazz in her twenties when her music teacher recruited her to his band.

As a lifelong jazz lover, she took to it straight away and is now living her dream of singing with a big band.

Clare joined the Velvet Tones in 2018 as a guest singer and has never left! She still sings with small jazz bands and often plays the violin in her barn dance and ceilidh band Jubilation. One day she hopes to be able to play jazz violin, but only once the kids are grown and she gets time to practice!

Her favourite song to sing with the band is My Baby Just Cares for Me. Her favourite instrumental is Glenn Miller’s Moonlight Serenade.

 

Richard Francis

Richard Francis

Richard Francis is a semi-professional singer, compère and entertainer for the Velvet Tones who loves to get the audience on board for a great evening’s entertainment. Richard has a history of singing with his family, who are all very musical, and he has been known occasionally to don his Eagle suit for an Elvis tribute medley with the band.

Richard takes on the role of events coordinator for the Velvet Tones and is always looking for the next performance opportunity to get involved in, often having local charities coming along for a fundraising evening. He is married to Janet and is a director of his own building company, which has been trading for 32 years.

His favourite band song is Dean Martin’s “Ain’t That a Kick in the Head”.