Royal Philharmonic Orchestra raises the Regent roof

We Have All The Time In The World, although You Only Live Twice and yet Diamonds Are Forever.

All James Bond themes.

Songs of love and loss, longing and celebration, danger and warning.

Tuesday night was the chance to experience the magic of Bond music, from the Dr No theme through to the present day, in the company of the amazing Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Big cinema screens are great; but this is the best place to see orchestral and film music - live on stage.

Most of the Bond theme songs are big ballads, with a powerful music score behind them.

We were treated to a magnificent show by the RPO, under conductor Gareth Hudson, rich in quality, tone and flavour.

It was an absolute delight.

The evening was compered by Bond girl, Fiona Fullerton (Pola Ivanova in In A View To A Kill), who introduced the music and gave us anecdotes, including sharing a hot tub with Bond (Roger Moore).

We can all name a dozen or so James Bond film theme songs – many feature the titles of the films they belong to, which make it easier.

Some have been massive worldwide hits, for stars like Paul McCartney and Wings, Carly Simon, notably Adele in 2012 with her Oscar winner, and Louis Armstrong.

There have been six Bonds, so far, and memorable theme songs from many of the hit action films, which were sung by some of the stars of their era.

Some were massive hits in their own time.

Shirley Bassey with Diamonds Are Forever and Goldfinger, Duran Duran wih A View To A Kill, Carly Simon with Nobody Does it Better and Adele’s Skyfall and the rest.

Some, away from the movie theatre, just faded away.

I had forgotten completely GoldenEye by Tina Turner and Moonraker, also sung by Shirley Bassey.

But they were all given the full orchestral treatment by the RPO in an evening packed with quality.

It was a tough job for vocalists Alison Jiear and Simon Bowman to follows some of the iconic singers but they did sterling work.

Simon did a fine job with Sam Smith’s Spectre theme song – Writing’s On The Wall – which the orchestra added as an encore to the show.

Alison took on the task of being ‘Shirley’ and really belted out Skyfall, and did a lovely treatment of Licence To Kill.

Favourite songs?

Live and Let Die remains one of my favourites, Skyfall has really grown on me, and I do like Writing’s On The Wall.

The show as a whole, which has previously packed the Royal Albert Hall, delighted this Regent audience.

It was a rare chance for many families to introduce their children to a top quality orchestra - brass and string sections, percussion and the rest - even a harp, working seamlessly together to produce a rich multi-layered and varied sound.

Such a lot of talent on violins and violas, cellos, double basses, clarinets, trumpets, French horns, trombones and guitars.

The whole stage packed from side to side with musical talent including many young musicians.

It was inspirational.

I found it interesting how many of the songs had echoes of previous themes in them, right back to the Dum-di-di dum dum guitar riff of the Dr No signature tune written by Monty Norman and produced by John Barry.

There really is a James Bond ‘sound’!

It made for a great night of entertainment at the Regent.