Decca 90 Celebrations To Visit London’s Prestigious V&A

Decca Records will continue its 90th birthday celebrations by partnering with London’s V&A Museum for a family day on Sunday 5 May, as part of the V&A Performance Festival.

Festivities, which will be open to the general public, are to be spread over five rooms, with part of the V&A transformed into a celebration of Decca, via live performances by its artists, children’s music-focused workshops and more besides.

Sheku Kanneh-Mason photo: Lars Borges

Already confirmed to perform at the event are cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, who won the 2016 BBC Young Musician of the Year Award and earlier this year played at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex; and singer-songwriter Rhys Lewis, whose latest single ‘End Like This’ was released last week. Other appearances will be announced in due course.

Rhys Lewis

The V&A collaboration will also include music history and artefacts, rare memorabilia and a room dedicated to Decca’s world-famous tenor Luciano Pavarotti, in the lead-up to director Ron Howard’s feature-length documentary on him. There will be a Dansette Disco of 45rpm singles released by Decca and a chance for younger attendees to make a musical instrument or design an album sleeve. At nominated times throughout the day, visitors will also be able to see newly-restored video footage of David Bowie filmed in the 1960s.

Admission to the Decca event at the V&A is free, but some events may be ticketed on the day. More information is available at the Decca 90 website. Which will also have details of the full programme when confirmed.

As reported earlier, 2019 will contain countless releases, publications, broadcasts, concerts and other events to mark Decca’s formation on 28 February 1929. There will be 90 reissues of landmark albums from the company’s storied past and a series of podcasts, which already feature such artists as Marianne Faithfull, the Lumineers and Sir Georg Solti.