News & Events

We recently shipped out a few flightcases full of tuned taxi horns to Australia for this spectacular production of Le Grand Macabre at the Adelaide Festival of Arts. English National Opera and an all-star cast put on an 'elaborate and extravagent theatrical' performance of György Ligeti's anti-opera masterpiece. Check out a clip from the opening night below...

Le Grand Macabre, Australia - Video Clip

Hire Taxi Horns used in Le Grand Macabre

Ibuleve 'Aint No Stopping Us Now' Advert - Video Clip

Hire Drum Kit used in this advert

Halifax 'Reward Horn' Advert - Video Clip

Hire Gong used in this advert

Congratulations to Julia Greenacre who is the lucky winner of this fantastic 7-Piece PDP Drum Kit! Julia bought a shakey egg raffle ticket for £3 and ended up winning an £850 drum kit! Mother of a drummer but with little personal experience playing the drums, she said “I’ve never won anything before in my life! I’m looking forward to learning how to play them.” Commiserations to everyone else who entered but everyone's a winner with a lovely Bellperc Orange Shakey Egg, albeit with a bit of marker pen on!

This was an incredible evening of new music for up to seven pianos – Poul Ruders’ dramatic De Profundis, Jeremy Thurlow’s Prelude, Charlie Piper’s new acoustic arrangements of John Adams’ electronic classic Hoodoo Zephyr, Rolf Hind’s Sunnata, for five pianos and honky tonk, Claudia Molitor’s Tango Two with Rolf Hind and award-winning dancer Jonathan Goddard (with the collaboration of Mark Baldwin from Rambert Dance), and James Crabb performing music for accordion by Piazzolla. Percussionist Joby Burgess accompanied the piano frenzy with a number of our instruments and lots of people tuned in to see the concert broadcast live on the Roundhouse website!

On Tuesday 12th, we launched Bellperc Drum Circles with an in-house session at our premises in Acton. After an ice-breaker, Joel led the group in a Boomwhacker Blues and some recognisable tunes that involved bashing the floor (and those next to you) with tuned plastic piping! This was followed by a more traditional drum circle, which involved African drums and hand percussion in a number of rhythmic explorations aimed to encourage musical learning and team-building. Contact Us if you are interested in being a part of our Drum Circles!

After the success of his Albert Hall performance, Bill Bailey packed out the 02 Arena with his Remarkable Guide to the Orchestra. This time, it was even more ambitious. He not only wanted French Horn implants on his head but he also wanted our 80" Tam Tam suspended above the stage. Bill was joined by Anne Dudley and The BBC Concert Orchestra for a great evening of music and comedy, which went down like a storm... thankfully the gong didn't!

Earlier this month we hosted a cajon workshop by Percussity, which featured three renowned cajon players: Gabriel Nuzzoli, Albert Vila and Nano Gonzales. These superb players (who have played with the likes of Amy Winehouse, Ricky Martin, Courtney Pine and many more) showcased their skills on Duende cajons. The Duende range is available from our Shop!

Congratulations to the London Philharmonic Orchestra for raising almost £2000 for Save The Children at Waterloo Station last week! They filled the cold air with some lovely arrangements of carols and festive favourites for passers-by. We were happy to donate some gear for this event and are always glad to see our instruments spreading some Christmas cheer!

Rob Marshall’s film adaptation of the Broadway musical Nine stars Daniel Day Lewis (as the film director Guido Contini) and a ton a normally leading ladies including Penelope Cruz, Marion Cottilard, Kate Hudson, Nicole Kidman, Sophia Loren, Judi Dench and Fergie! It also stars a ton of Bell Percussion tambourines!

Norah Jones is back in the studio with renowned producer William Orbit working on a new album. We dropped an orchestral bass drum and clash cymbal off at the studio hoping to hear her dulcet voice ringing through ‘The Air’ but the infamous Mr Orbit was probably busy working his musical magic. We are looking forward to hearing the results!

The 1985 BBC mini-series is making its way to the big screen. Mel Gibson stars as a homicide detective for the Boston Police Department who is investigating the death of his activist daughter. The music required some bell plates and taiko drums so we made a drop-off at Abbey Road earlier this month as they prepared to record Howard Shore's epic score. We are looking forward to hearing our instruments in action in another Hollywood thriller!

To celebrate the opening of the new Tokyo-style crossing at Oxford Circus, Westminster decided that Boris Johnson should strike our 80” Symphonic Gong. The Japanese drummers had a few minutes to make some noise before the mayor of London talked about “triumphs in diagonal thinking” and gave our Tam Tam a good thwack. The right decision I think: hitting one of the largest gongs in the world is always going to be a bit more exciting than the snip of cutting ribbon. SEE MORE PHOTOS HERE!

It was a Big Night In not to be missed as Children in Need celebrated its 30th appeal with a star-studded feast of family entertainment. We pulled up to the Television Centre with a load of percussion, half expecting to be greeted by a big cuddly bear. Terry Wogan didn’t show up, though, so we just dropped the gear off for the show and went on our way.

When you want to compose an epic percussive score for a digger advert, there is only one place to start looking for inspiration: Bell’s Hire Studios. It took both our vans fully loaded to get the gear into Pinewood Studios for this recording. Taikos, Gongs and anything else that makes a particularly loud and blockbusteresque crash-bang. Great fun.

…he’s a very naughty boy! This humorous oratorio, based on Monty Python’s Life of Brian, was written for this one-night-only event at the Royal Albert Hall to celebrate 40 years of Monty Python. Creators of Spamalot Eric Idle (starring) and John Du Prez (conducting) lead the BBC Symphony Orchestra & Chorus with bagpipes, some sheep and some Bellperc drums for them to stwike vewy loudwy. With guest appearances from the likes of Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam this night was bound to be a bit funnier than Handel – definitely worth half a shekel!

Jazz pianist and bandleader Jan Gunnar Hoff performed his new composition Electric Blue at Cadogan Hall on October 16th. This piece, commissioned by Nordland Music Festival, brought together an international band including Alex Acuña on drums and percussion. As you may know, Alex has a strict diet of DW drums, Zildjian K Constantinople cymbals and only the best percussion equipment. Bell Percussion was proud to kit him out with the essentials for this gig.

The Spaghetti Western Orchestra appeared on Later with Jools Holland earlier this month. This band has received rave reviews for recreating Ennio Morricone's classic film soundtracks with everything from cornflakes to coat-hangers. Most people would find this sort of thing unusual but this is the stuff of everyday for Bell Percussion’s hire department and no percussive hire request is too ridiculous. However, we can’t provide the white makeup to make you look this scary!

Did you know that Simon ‘Cowbell’ Cowell was a percussion virtuoso? Okay, so that’s probably not true (although I reckon he would be a mean boomwhackerer) but that’s not to say that we don’t get the odd call from X-Factor when the backing band needs a marimba. I suppose Simon is more likely to hire an air raid siren or lions roar. One day.

Yo-Yo Ma brings his innovative and cross-cultural Silk Road Ensemble to the stage at the Albert Hall for a cornucopian Late Night Prom. We all love Yo-Yo Ma at Bell but perhaps we are a bit biased seen as this ensemble makes good use of our five-octave marimba, Japanese kodo drums and Chinese opera gongs! This East-meets-West performance was inspired by the ancient trading route between China and Europe. Brilliant.

Amedia cymbals are now at Bell! We are the first to stock Amedia Cymbals in the UK and have just received our first batch of these quality Turkish cymbals. Amedia are a traditionally crafted and innovative cymbal brand with some of the most competitive prices around. These uniquely styled cymbals have some interesting models, including one which has been dipped in acid! Check out the Ameida range now by clicking HERE!

The conversation could have gone something like this:
Bell Hire Dept.: “Good morning.”
Dame Edna Everage: “Hello, Possums! Dame Edna here!”
BHD: “G’day, Sheila! Need some more digiridoos?”
DEE: “No. Actually, I will be performing at the Last Night of the Poms with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and we need the following...”
“…a glock, a xylo, some vibes, some wood and temple blocks, tambourines, whistles, a bell tree, a ratchet, a washboard, a bull roarer, some car horns, sand paper blocks, a guiro, flexatone, vibraslap, whip, some cymbals, gongs, tenor drums and a bass drum.”
“BHD: “Call us old fashioned but don’t you want any shrimps on the barbie?”
“DEE: “Nope, we have plenty of those! Thanks!”

In August, we were asked to build a gongspiel for the BBC NOW's concert featuring a piece called Ceremonial by Australian composer Brett Dean. We had our suspicions as to what this was - the name implies a series of pitched gongs - but we weren't sure quite what form it should take. After some research, we decided the most useful kind of gongspiel for this piece would be a circular frame with an octave of suspended Thai gongs. It was 'just what the doctor ordered' according to the principal percussionist of the NOW, so it was worth all the blood, sweat and tears!

We at Bell have a good understanding of natural selection and have our own little big bang theory: lion roars and bull roarers are generally more successful than cowbells and duck calls at Darwin-inspired extravaganzas for kids! This is why the BBC Concert Orchestra called on us when they realised how many large percussive creatures were needed for this prom. I think Sir David Attenborough and Goldie appreciated the loud primal noises but the kids were probably more interested in the nest of velociraptors poking their snouts out of an improvised cage in the arena and a snarling T-rex head that roared away just inches from the bust of the venerable Henry Wood.

We supplied drums to The Killers for their session at Abbey Road Studios as recorded for Channel 4. The show is comissioned as part of Abbey Roads 75th anniversary celebrations. Killer performances included "When You Were Young" and Dire Straits' classic "Romeo & Juliet."

We had the honour of supplying percussion to the RPO for the UK premiere of Claude Vivier's Orion at the Royal Albert Hall. Claude Vivier, whose violent death in Paris in 1983 silenced a major talent at the age of 34. Orion is a work of luxuriant harmonies and orchestral colours emanating from a distant universe other than the one in which we humans inhabit. Scored for plenty of percussion those dancing rhythms had the conductor Dutoit gyrating on the podium.

From the Killers to the Origami Killer at Abbey Road in one fatal move. Composer Normand Corbeil was comissioned to write the Orchestral Score for the new Heavy Rain Game soundtrack. His drums were heavy, his score is heavy and the rain, oh the rain!! Inspiration seems to be from that fantastic sci-fi flick Bladerunner for this one. A very dark film noir thriller who's message is how far you're willing to go to save someone you love. Deep. Expecting good things from this collaboration.

Providing cool Vibes for The Clark Tracey Sextet at the iconic Ronnie Scott's venue recently was a real treat. Our vibes got a real high-energy hard-bop workout, with one of the highlights being Lewis Wright’s unaccompanied vibes solo. Clark is the son of the legendary Stan Tracey, one of the UK's leading jazz pianists.

Les baguettes et la batterie! At the beginning of July, a Bell representative followed an American marching band from the bandstand at Victoria Embankment over the channel to the bandstand at Euro Disney, Paris. The fortunate Bell employee made friends with oversized mice while the band worked their magic on instruments including a didgeridoo and drums courtesy of Bell Percussion. After the concert - and more than his fair share of camembert - the Bell driver found a hotel in Paris to rest his head. The next morning, he followed the band to Omaha Beach, Normandy for another performance before returning safely to sunny Acton.

Set in a futuristic city and a netherworld of robot gladiators, this film appears be influenced by the deepest realms of our Hire Studio. However, the advanced technology at Abbey Road made this a more suitable place to record John Ottman's soundtrack to Astro Boy (released January 2010). No film soundtrack would be complete without an oversized instrument from Bell, though, so we obviously had to drop off some special percussive monsters.

On Sunday 12 July, the talented 13-19 year-olds of the NYWE and NYCO played some wonderful music for the audience in Pittville Pump Room as a part of the Cheltenham Music Festival. The concert displayed the youngsters' virtuosity, premiered two new works by Philip Grange and Shiva Feshareki and made very good use of our drums, cymbals and percussion!

After their duelling-keys performance of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue at the 50th Grammy Awards, the hottest pianist on the classical music planet, Lang Lang, and iconic jazz pianist, Herbie Hancock, joined forces for an extraordinary performance at the Hall. The duo and four hand repertoire for piano was accompanied by the Philharmonia Orchestra; I can't believe they didn't ask Herbie to sign our timpani!