Stewart Lane
Stewart Lane Music
Composer Performer Cultural Activist
BAL: The Alternative Cabaret Group
1989 - 1996
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Founded in 1989 by Stewart Lane, BAL was an alternative cabaret group created to explore broad and eclectic musical possibilities, alongside themes of personal quest, layers of reality, and human agency. The group underwent various line-ups and configurations throughout its lifetime, blending genres such as string quartet and electronica to craft a unique sound.
BAL’s debut performance took place at The Kings Head Theatre in Islington, where they presented a set inspired by Hedda Gabler. The group’s performances featured a contemporary twist on Commedia dell'arte characters, with Lane himself embodying various social archetypes, showcasing his transformative range as an artist.
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Over the years, BAL performed at prestigious venues including Ronnie Scott's, The Purcell Rooms, the Southbank Centre’s Festival Hall, the Barbican, Riverside Studios, the Acoustic Music Centre in Edinburgh, and The Third Eye Centre in Glasgow. In 1992, the group won an Edinburgh Fringe Award for their outstanding performance at the Fringe Festival.
After a distinguished run, BAL gave its final performance in 1996, leaving behind a legacy of innovative and boundary-pushing work in the cabaret scene.
J'accuse was one of BAL's set staples and was performed at most shows. 8 minutes was not an unusual length for a BAL number, yet it became one of our most popular pieces with live audiences
Desert Birds
J'accuse
Cloud Drumming
Cloud Drumming was part of a new collection of songs that formed a new set in 1994 and was first performed at London's Barbican in January of the year.
Recorded as a demo at RMS studioes in
1990, this is the only album Length set of
BAL recordings. We sold cassettes at gigs
and I hawked it around various Record
companies. Typically, I was greeted with
incredulity, indifference, or occasionally,
ridicule. We appeared a very strange endeavour to the gate keepers of the music business at the time. Regarded with equal suspicion in the classical world (we were labeled a cabaret act). Thankfully, a very different scene exists today.
I am hugely grateful for the generous support of a number of charities and foundations that supported BAL over the course of it's performing life, among them: Music Works, The Holst Foundation, Foundation For Sport And The Arts, Greater London Arts
In 1991 I was commissioned to write a String Trio (Violin/Viola/Cello).
This, for me, new combination, opened up an entire new world of musical possibilities. With much excitement, I expanded BAL's strings to a Quartet. Tambaran was the first piece I wrote for the new line up.
Tambaran
