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Jun 24, 2023

Meet Jules Buckley: the conductor with the Midas touch bringing pure gold to the Proms

By Annabel Sampson Sheléa, Cory Henry, Lianne la Havas, Laura Mvula and conductor-to-the-stars Jules Buckley at Steie Wonder's Innervisions for Prom 48 A new production of Prebble’s 2012 play returns

By Annabel Sampson

Sheléa, Cory Henry, Lianne la Havas, Laura Mvula and conductor-to-the-stars Jules Buckley at Steie Wonder's Innervisions for Prom 48

A new production of Prebble’s 2012 play returns to the National Theatre starring Paapa Essiedu and Taylor Russell as love-struck guinea pigs in a clinical drug trial

By Annabel Sampson

Last night, Tuesday 29 August, rounded off Grammy Award-winning 43-year-old Jules Buckley’s summer 2023 Prom season. This year, he led two: a finger-clicking, hip-popping, smooth-sounding tribute to Stevie Wonder’s 16th Innervisions album, and last night’s otherworldly, near-transcendental ‘sonic meditation’ with Jon Hopkins (a classically trained musician, who pivoted to the dark side – electro – a quarter of a century ago and now has Grammy, Mercury and Ivor Novello nominations to his name).

I do not claim to be fluent in everything there is to know about music – but what I do know is that, year in, year out, if there is a Prom with Jules Buckley attached, it will be well worth attending. I learnt that in 2016, when my mum, down from Yorkshire, bought my brother and I tickets to his Quincy Jones Prom with the Metropole Orkest. The evening was full-throttle euphoric: swinging from disco to orchestral jazz, and starring guest cameos from Jacob Collier, Cory Henry and Laura Mvula sheathed in jaw-dropping, star-spangled gold. Collier and Henry’s synth improv version of Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean – now with 5.2 million views on YouTube – was life-affirmingly good in a way I had never heard before. Quincy Jones, a man with six decades of film scores and disco anthems behind him, not to mention a central role in the biggest selling album ever, Michael Jackson’s Thriller, even made a cameo at the very end, arms-outstretched, palpably jubilant at 83.

By Isaac Bickerstaff

By Ollie Macnaughton

By Annabel Sampson

Is Jules Buckley a genre-blurring, groove machine? His performance with Pete Tong and the Heritage Orchestra at The O2 would suggest so. He’s been accused of ‘ripping up the Proms textbook’ – bringing an Ibiza Prom, followed by a Grime Symphony, featuring Stormzy and Wretch 32, to the Royal Albert Hall in the years 2015 and 2020. When he steps behind the podium, traditionalists never know quite what to expect, which is the sheer thrill of it.

Anna Lapwood is a one-woman orchestra on a meteoric ascent. Ahead of her dedicated Late Night Prom, Tatler’s deputy features editor Annabel Sampson went to meet her at the Royal Albert Hall – where she is more often found rehearsing after midnight

By Annabel Sampson

Slim and bearded (he now lives in Berlin), his conductor’s baton is a tantalising metronome of sorts – and he is the master collaborator. Those A-list collaborations include everyone from the Arctic Monkeys to Anna Calvi, Skepta to Paul Weller. Despite Jon Hopkins’ initial reservations about a classical Prom, after meeting Buckley on one occasion, and then continuing conversations, he thought: ‘I base everything on intuition, and I always thought this guy knows what he’s doing, so if he has a vision for how this could work then I trust him.’

Jules Buckley with Jon Hopkins (centre) with the BBC Symphone Orchestra for Prom 58

By Isaac Bickerstaff

By Ollie Macnaughton

By Annabel Sampson

I can confirm Jon Hopkins’ debut prom with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Buckley, was a near super-natural experience. Hopkins premiered Athos, a 22-minute ‘psychedelic drone epic’ composed for orchestra, choir and piano. With the atom-like flurry of the lights, the overpowering crescendo of the brass instruments against the at-times eerie undercurrent of the BBC singers’ voices. The percussion section was entrancing and heart-breaking all at once.

A meeting of minds: Quincy Jones and Jules Buckley

Brought up in Buckinghamshire, a son of a Keith and a Joan, Buckley’s first musical calling was the trumpet aged nine, before arriving at Guildhall and realising what he really wanted to do was musical composition and conducting. After a fleeting stint as a wedding singer, as they say, ‘the rest is history’. Buckley became principal guest conductor with the Metropole Orkest (a jazz and electric music orchestra based in the Netherlands) and in 2020 he became Creative Artist-in-Residence with the BBC Symphony Orchestra – with whom he performed, with hair-raising thrill, last night.

By Isaac Bickerstaff

By Ollie Macnaughton

By Annabel Sampson

After missing out on Buckley’s sold-out Aretha Franklin ‘Queen of Soul’ Prom last year – starring the goddess Sheléa as Franklin herself – I vowed never to make the same mistake again. Thankfully Sheléa, in calf-high white leather boots, made a cameo at Buckley’s Stevie Wonder Prom on Monday 21 August (the perfect choice given she’s toured with Stevie). Wonder’s actual drummer, Stanley Randolph, was also live and present. It was high-energy and music-focused – the Royal Albert Hall a Wonder-worthy discotheque spearheaded by Henry and Buckley. Living for the City, He’s Mistra Know-It-All and Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing went down a treat.

As far as Buckley goes, what will 2024 bring next to his musical cannon? Time will tell, we’ll be ready.

Listen to Jules Buckley’s Proms via the BBC now; bbc.co.uk/proms