Primary school music teacher James B Partridge has gone from posting on social media to become something of a national sensation. From performing to his students in the classroom, he has toured his live version of the school assembly across the UK, going viral with his sets at this year’s Glastonbury Festival. He has since been interviewed on BBC Breakfast, The One Show, ITV This Morning, and various shows across BBC Radio 2 and Virgin Radio.
This month he comes to Oxford with a new show, The Big Christmas Assembly in which he promises sing-alongs of popular Christmas carols and all-time favourite school assembly hits, interspersed with tales from his 90s schooldays. We got in touch to find to find out more.
How did you go from teaching music to touring the country with your Assembly Bangers Live show?
I wrote the show last year, telling the story of my childhood and growing up through nostalgic references to the 90s and all of that kind of stuff, but interspersed with sing-alongs from the school assembly days. [Originally] I just did a one off, in a cocktail bar in Soho, as you do – the more incongruous the venue, the better in a way. Then some gigs in drag clubs and cabaret bars and things like that, but it expanded into smaller theatres and then Glastonbury.
And now you’ve been on telly and are doing another tour. What can we expect at your Oxford show in The Old Fire Station?
I’ve written a Christmas themed version that is a completely different show with different anecdotes. The format is you come and sit in a room, have a few drinks and listen to me telling tales of my childhood and then join in and sing along.
This leads me to ask, how was your childhood? Are the stories good or bad?
I would say they are not embarrassing necessarily, but relatable. It's not the kind of traumatic stories of all the times I was forced to do things at school; it's more relatable things, and it's structured around the school year, up to the leavers’ assembly where you sign each other's shirts and write rude messages. It also reflects other things we did or watched, like the extremely catchy adverts theme tunes of our favourite children's TV shows.
In the Christmas version I start off with the Harvest Festival, leading through the kind of slightly traumatic Fireworks Safety assemblies, and the unexpected hilarity of the Remembrance Day assembly. Then we get into the start of the Nativity season, so it's rolling with all the Christmas songs.
Kind of wholesome nostalgia?
Yes. It can be slightly raucous after some ‘singing juice’ has been imbibed from the bar…
So essentially, the primary school bangers are mainly hymns and carols. Does that mean there is a religious element to the show?
What I'm trying to do, hopefully, is spread the joy you get from a communal event, rather than necessarily focusing on the religious side of things. I'm not actively a religious person, but I grew up going to Sunday school as a small child.
I make it as inclusive as possible. I'm finding the humour within our collective experiences as children but I'm not using the religion as the butt of the joke.
I understand. I mean, some of those songs can get quite dark. I’m thinking of The Lord of the Dance.
I had to cut out some of the verses, actually, you know? ‘They whipped and stripped and hung me on high’. We probably just laughed at the word stripped, to be honest, but also ‘I was cold, I was naked’? We used to shout the word naked as loud as we could. And when I do that song in the show, and I get everyone to shout so they can relive being naughty, sitting on the back benches in the assembly hall.
Which is your favourite Christmas carol?
I've got a soft spot for In The Bleak Mid-Winter, which is a bit of a heart wrench. But also, I quite like Ding Dong Merrily on High, when you got that ridiculously long chorus with a Gloria that lasts about a minute, and everyone is running out of breath by the end of it. Hark The Herald also gets everyone on their feet and I'm also going to do a request section where people can post requests into a little Christmas post box.
James, we have to ask which part did you play in your school Nativity?
I was a Wise Man, which I think was quite a good part. My brother was a gingerbread man. I don't know at what point the gingerbread man made an appearance in the nativity, but I did see someone online who posted an email from their school, saying, ‘Dear so and so, your child has been cast as a door. Please find the appropriate costume’.
In the spirit of goodwill, let me ask; do you really believe that anyone can sing?
I would say probably the politically correct answer is to say anybody can sing but to different levels of tunefulness. So, from my lessons, I would say that most people can hold a tune, but a small minority of people can't quite hit all the notes in the right order. They'll give it a good go, and that's the main thing.
With my show, if you can't hold a tune, we're going to kick you out the choir. It's allowed: if you want to add your own harmony or just sing in a grunt, then that's also totally fine. The main thing is to get involved. I'll give a little piano introduction, like you might have had in the school assembly. And then, I think, when you have a group of people, you actually converge on a on a melody.
The main ake-away is whether you can sing or not, it's all about being in a room full of people having a joyous experience.
James B Partridge will be at The Old Fire Station, Oxford on Saturday 21 December. Shows at 3pm and 7.30pm. For more information visit jamesbpartridge.com
