In The Spotlight Songs from the musicals with Faye Tozer

In The Spotlight

Songs from the musicals

with Faye Tozer

Assembly Hall Theatre

Tunbridge Wells

29th May 2010

Company:

Host and Vocalist: Faye Tozer

accompanied by

Annabel King

Rebecca Wicking

Mark Daley

Christopher Finn

Tom Warner

Ellie Cobb

Lindsay Shaw

Charlotte Gale

Will Knights

Tom Shilcock

and Dancer, vocalist and resident director

David Kemp

Lets get the ironic title out of the way first i.e. In The Spotlight. Ironic because the spotlight control (or rather lack of it) did not help this show one little bit. I lost count of the number of occasions, in both halves of the show when the singing artist was, out of the spotlight, half in the spotlight or in the spotlight but in a light which was clearly continually shaking. Often in shows you get the odd spotlighting issue but it was all over the place, annoying, distracting and, lets face it not too professional either.

But that wasn't the only distraction in this show. Theatres have to decide where they stand in the line of a person with a mental disability who makes so much noise throughout the show that it is affecting the concentration and enjoyment of the other theatre goers and the concentration of the artists.

This unfortunate person was, granted, at the back of the auditorium. The noise however was so loud that it could be heard above all the songs, even sitting at the front! On a few occasions I noticed it affected the performers and a couple were trying to stifle laughs. Laughing, I hasten to add, not at disability but at the frustration of the situation. No matter how professional you are having to endure such noise in the middle of a serious vocal piece must be so annoying.

Look I know about mental health issues but leaving such a situation unchecked because of a fear of disability discrimination should not go unchecked.

If I had a mobile phone and it kept ringing I would be told to turn it off. If I had a kid who wouldn't shut up I would be told to do something about it. Finally if I caused a disturbance that interrupted the performers and ruined the enjoyment of other theatre goers I would be asked to leave.

So what's different in this situation? Only that the person generating the noise has a disability. That cannot be right.

I do feel for the person with the health issue but when they are generating so much noise themselves it can't be that they can be absorbing the content of the show either.

If I get to a stage in the future where I cannot control the noise I generate I would not want any carer of mine to put me in a position where I am ruining the enjoyment of a show for others. All I would then be doing is drawing more attention to myself? I would effectively replace the show.

There's a message for theatres here. Decide on your policy on noise in shows. Either a no disturbance policy exists across the board for able bodied and disabled or we have a free-for-all where we can scream, shout and do what we like. I know which I'd prefer!

Anyway somewhere amongst the wobbly lighting and noise distractions there was a show......

Let's talk about Faye Tozer first though. Do I admit to being a former Steps fan many moons ago? Probably not a good idea but we did make the journey to watch them live once (well alive and dancing anyway) at the Chelmsford Spectacular. As you may have gathered it was a mainly lip-synced affair. I hate lip syncing and I think it ought to be outlawed. The rubbish excuse regularly used is that it's not possible to sing and dance at the same time.

Actually in Steps to be fair there was some truth in this statement but it would be better reworded. They lip synced because a couple of members could dance a darned site better than they could sing.

Anyway we watched the final live concert on Sky. Of course Lee Latchford-Evans, Lisa Scott-Lee and Faye weren't aware this was their last concert until just before the start when Ian "H" Watkins and Claire Richards announced they were off to make their fortune elsewhere.

As devastated as Faye was after the group split was though in the long run it has probably been the best thing that ever happened to her.

In Steps, despite arguably having the best voice and vocal range, it seemed she had to always play second fiddle to Claire who appeared to be cast as the lead singing female.

Anyway Faye, picked herself up, dusted herself down and put the days of cheesy pop and lip-syncing firmly behind her. She has gone on to become what is probably the most successful former member of the group.

We had already had the privilege of watching Faye sing around 5 years ago in Eastbourne when she performed the one-woman-musical Tell Me On A Sunday. That was an incredible vocal performance and as that is also a very emotional story it also showed off her acting ability well too. That show was before my reviews here started. I may create a placeholder post though for that show, if I can find the date. But it was a five star performance. Faye is also a delight to meet, always really friendly, and never rushes anybody who has gone to see her.

So we already knew her singing and acting ability so how did tonight's performance go?

Well let's be honest, although a few expected it, this is not a Faye Tozer dominated show. Yes she is "Host and headliner" and accordingly she does "tell the story" in between songs, performing in many herself. But essentially this is a company performance of West End players performing west end hits.

Faye's own performance in this show does not disappoint. As always she looked incredibly glamorous and her vocals were lovely. I loved the performance she did with Will Knights in Taylor The Latte Boy / Taylor's Response, again this brings her acting abilities to the fore.

Rebecca Wicking was, for me, the other shining star of the evening. Only her incredible vocal range could compete with the noise that was still being generated in the audience. For a petite young lady she has a very big voice!

In format In The Spotlight is very similar to Gotta Sing Gotta Dance produced by Eastbourne's artistic director, Chris Jordan. A series of west end hits linked by dialogue. With that being such a super production I cannot fail to compare the two.

It doesn't quite make it in equalling the quality though. The theme in this show is "love". The dialogue linking the songs together, whilst beautifully delivered by Faye, is nowhere near as interesting as Jordan's creative writings.  I would rather have seen and heard far more of the well known hits than lesser known ones too. I expect many without a programme would have been stumped as to which musicals many of the songs came from.

With many of the songs being slower numbers there was little chance of seeing much in the way of impressive choreography either.

However there are some touches of genius amongst all this. There are medleys in both parts of the show which have complicated routines with different company members singing different songs. These are impressively delivered. The Strictly Not Come Dancing part of the show is a particularly funny part of the show, which raised many a laugh.

Would I recommend the show? Absolutely, I have a feeling that without the distraction of constant auditorium racket and a spotlight crew who can put the light on the performer and leave it there you will get a more confident performance. With the professional "the show must go on" approach adopted by performers I think you'd be hard pushed to get any cast member to publicly admit these distractions affected them. But sitting in the audience you could see the utter frustration etched on the faces at times.

Only a couple of hundred people went to see this show in Tunbridge Wells. If anybody is contemplating seeing this but doubtful of the ex-Steps star's ability to sing live why not give Faye a chance? You may just be surprised at how talented she is.

Faye Tozer was, in my opinion, wasted in Steps and since their demise she has, justifiably, gained rave reviews from her stage performances in productions like "Tell Me On A Sunday" and "Over the Rainbow" the story of Eva Cassidy's Life. She has also been involved in many straight acting roles including Sheila Wendice in "Dial 'M' for Murder".

Friends Of The Devonshire Park Theatre Spring Fair 2010

Friends Of The Devonshire Park Theatre Spring Fair 2010

Saturday 22nd May 2010

9.30am to 12 noon

Use the arrows at the side of the video to change the selected scene

An incredibly fine day for a Spring Fair with the sun shining and barely a cloud visible. You can't ask for more.

Well you could ask for an incredibly talented ventriloquist to turn up and to perform for free and for all the stars of your latest thriller to put in an appearance that may help.

Well it's just as well the Friends did ask because they ALL turned up and gave their time to this fund raising cause.

The brilliant Steve Hewlett took a break from his long season at The Royal Hippodrome theatre in Hooked On Laughter and put on an excellent spontaneous show accompanied by one of his own "Friends", Arthur. Steve showed that he is not only a skilled ventriloquist at a rehearsed routine but that he is equally skilled at ad-libbing, adjusting his routine and still being incredibly funny in an ever changing environment. The footage you see on this review is a great advert for the Royal Hippodrome show where he appears with other incredibly talented entertainers in an extremely popular show which regularly sells out.

I thought we may be lucky on the day to see one of the stars of Inside Job turn up to support the event. To have all 3 appear was amazing. The lovely Michelle Morris, together with the friendly ex-Emmerdale stars Chris Villiers and Matt Healy were all able to lend their support.

There were a range of stalls including a wine raffle, book stall and tombola. The cakes, which Steve Hewlett and Michelle Morris noticed very quickly went down well! However I must say the plant sales seemed to be incredibly popular. Probably because whoever nurses these plants obviously does a great job. A great priced, quality product, will always sell. I am now talking very nicely to some tomato plants in my greenhouse!

As is always the case with the Friends seasonal fairs, which are held at the theatre, there was the opportunity of a backstage tour with talk for £2.50. These are usually very popular, I have no idea what the take up was today.

Any downside? Well this isn't a show review but 2 and a half hours is never long enough. But with a matinee performance of Inside Job in the afternoon the clearing up would have to be done before the audience starts to arrive.

There's also no point in starting earlier as nobody would be about.

The key here is the star guests. If only you could advertise knowing 100% that these 4 incredible artists would be attending the numbers would have been a heck of a lot higher. Kids (of which there were few) would have loved Steve Hewlett!

But I realise that unless that certainty is 'cast in concrete' there is little point in doing so.

I couldn't help but look around and feel that something was 'missing' from the stalls. I couldn't quite put my finger on it but there looked to be too much free space at the front of the theatre. Some incredibly easy fund raising opportunities are also not adopted.

Nonetheless the existing fair format I expect still raised some worthwhile funds in this beautiful couple of hours.

The summer event is longer as it is held away from the theatre. If The Friends can arrange for some well known artists to definitely be there and advertise it widely people could do well to look at my videos and see that there is a good reason for a great day out. Last years summer fair raised the chance to meet Ruth Madoc, Tony Adams and Harry Dickman from The Last Of The Summer Wine Tour.

Being a Friend Of The Devonshire Park Theatre you really never know who you are going to meet!

Paul Merton's Impro Chums Assembly Hall Theatre Tunbridge Wells

Paul Merton's Impro Chums

Assembly Hall Theatre

Tunbridge Wells

21st May 2010

Paul Merton

Richard Vranch

Lee Simpson

Suki Webster

Mike McShane

Despite extremely mixed reviews this improvisation show continues to be hugely popular and Tunbridge Wells was no exception with a complete sell-out on the night.

You'll notice my emphasis on extremely above and I did that for a reason. Paul Merton started this touring show in 2004 and if you look on-line you'll see it's received reviews ranging from awful to amazing! I'm going to add to the wild variations by falling somewhere in the middle.

Most people will be familiar with Clive Anderson's hugely popular TV improvisation show "Whose Line Is It Anyway?". Week after week the programme was must-see viewing, it was hugely funny. Indeed on You Tube you will find that clips that are now many years old still gets thousands of views.

Anyway with ad-libbing master Paul Merton at the helm of this comedy ship and his shipmates being equally qualified well known improvisationists I had high hopes of a good laugh.

Actually for the first half of the show that's what we got. The show follows basically the same type of routines that Whose Line Is It Anyway followed. All of these rely on audience suggestions and you are therefore guaranteed a different show in every venue.

However the input from the audience is done in a very different way in part 1 than in part 2.

In part one audience suggestions are verbal (i.e. yelled out). Because suggestions come from all directions of the auditorium the improvisationist can pick the suggestion that will work best for that particular scene.

This works and I really enjoyed this first half of the show. There was a good variety of used material and the scenes were varied and incredibly funny. All 5 artists proved in that hour or so that they are experts in the art of improvisation.

If only the same format of material selection had continued in part 2. But no. Instead in the interval a bucket and pieces of blank paper are left on the stage and the audience are asked to write down 3 or 4 words for subjects to be used in the following part of the show.

Bad, bad, move.

Yes people filled them in. But it was the same people filling them in and then filling them in again, and again and again and again. OK if you are a master of coming up with improvisation subjects. This audience sadly wasn't. The situation was not helped by the number of young girls who stood there writing absolute rubbish and "I (heart) Paul Merton" on as many pieces of paper as possible.

If rubbish goes into a bin that is what you'll get when you get to take it out again.

The show continued in an uninspiring manner as subjects like "Mother superior gets pregnant" (hardly original), "Invisible Man" (unsurprisingly they walked off stage), lots of suggestions involving dead animals and some that couldn't be read out as they weren't fit to be read out. At one point it seemed that selections were being made at a ratio of about 4/1 (4 rejected) and the one that was left was pathetic.

It really didn't work and I really just didn't find any great level of entertainment in this final part of the show.

A great shame given the material delivered early on.

If this is how the format works in every venue it could explain the widely ranging reviews. The way it stands this isn't a show that depends solely on the talent of the performers. It also requires an audience that can give a written suggestion more than a half second thought. It needs the knowledge that the sole subjects in the world are not sex, bottoms, dead animals, perverted behaviour and a lust for Paul Merton.

I think therefore that without the format of subject selection changing seeing this show is a huge gamble. You could be lucky and get great audience written input or you could, like us, end up with rubbish.

People in the front 3 or so rows had a further disappointment. The stage is so high at Tunbridge Wells that when the front section is at full height you can't actually see most of the stage. Apparently, until the stage manager sat in one of these seats tonight (she genuinely seemed shocked at the lack of visibility) nobody had ever mentioned it before? Yet so many people were complaining that seems really hard to believe. I've never before had a theatre where the front rows can actually give a restricted view. I was told that the front section could not be lowered as the performers would need to keep going up and down the drop of about 8". I hasten to add here that a few weeks earlier 78 year old Debbie Reynold's was negotiating the step without a problem and these artists are almost 1/2 her age! The management of the Assembly Hall really need to be aware of this viewing problem as tonight the first 3 rows saw a show where the performers apparently had no lower limbs!

Friends Of The Devonshire Park Theatre Eastbourne Spring Fair Saturday 22 May 2010

The leaflet below is self explanatory but why not come along between 9.30am and 12 noon on Saturday 22nd May?

Highly recommended are the backstage tours of the theatre. Bring along just a few pounds and take the opportunity to look at the theatre as the artists see it from their side of the stage curtain.

Learn interesting facts about the theatre from a knowledgeable guide as you go.

If you are going to enjoy this popular feature it is best to arrive early as places on the tour fill quickly.

Come along and support a lovely theatrical building.

Inside Job Devonshire Park Theatre Eastbourne Review

Inside Job

Devonshire Park Theatre

Eastbourne

18-22 May 2010

(Performance seen 18 May)

Cast (appearance order)

Suzy: Michelle Morris

Larry: Matt Healy

Alex: Christopher Villiers 

With two well respected and very popular ex Emmerdale actors together with one of the most experienced touring theatre actresses (who also starred as Jess Haworth in TV's The Knock) I anticipated good things from this Ian Dicken's production.

It does not disappoint. With so many twist and turns in this murder mystery thriller written by Brian Clemens you are kept guessing until the very end about the eventual outcome. Any of the 3 cast members have good reason to end up dead, but who will it be and will there be more than one victim?

To save ruining the plot on this one I'll give no background story except for the fact that it is set in a Spanish Villa a mile or so from Marbella. The set is an impressive static set (well almost static - see the show to find out what that means). This is one story where you don't need set changes to impress or add to the tale.

It's almost a year since Strictly Murder was awarded a 5 star rating. It's hard to find a thriller that has something gripping and different about it. The recent Nightfright The Nightmare Of Your Life was good but had too much comedy to be a seriously top thriller. Inside Job has practically no comedy, the only titters really being raised at the ability of Matt Healy to switch from a raging bull to the serene calmness of a grinning cheshire cat instantly.

The three artists are superb. The charming Michelle Morris is a familiar face at The Devonshire park, although her previous appearances have both been farces, Cash On Delivery (2007) and Run For Your Wife (2008). Those were both super comedies and I may do "retro reviews" shortly as I do have some pics I can use too.

Matt Healy is most well known as playing bad boy Matthew King in Emmerdale. Since he left the ITV soap they have tried hard to find a new 'hard man' but if  the character Nathan Wylde is meant to be it then it doesn't work. Emmerdale's loss is a gain for this excellent touring production though. A tip for other theatres that haven't produced all their promotional posters yet Matt is spelt exactly that way and not Matthew as it was spelt on some of Eastbourne's posters. Matt, understandably, would most appreciate his name being spelt properly.

Christopher Villiers is also best known from Emmerdale playing Grayson Sinclair. Both Chris and Matt are great friends in real life and their working knowledge of each other is reflected in a convincing dramatic performance on stage.

Any downside? Well the audience numbers for this opening night were somewhat abysmal. Hopefully as more good reviews get published interest will be substantially greater at other theatres. Eastbourne is the first venue for this show so Inside Job still has plenty of time to get the audiences it deserves.

The one other minor thing involves a prop - if a prop is being displayed that has just been used to substantially batter somebody with great force - would it be a good idea to have it not looking immaculately clean and to maybe have some 'blood' and 'gore' on it? Just a thought.

This is an excellent thriller with plenty of 'blood' and with that 'keep the audience guessing' factor that so many similar shows lack. With this first rate cast it comes highly recommended.

These future dates for Inside Job may be subject to change - check with your theatre
Lincoln Theatre Royal - 1st-5th June 2010
Connaught Theatre Worthing - 8th-12th June 2010
Mercury Theatre, Colchester - 14th-19th June 2010
Lyceum Theatre, Crewe - 21st-26th June 2010
Grand Theate Wolverhampton - 6th-10th July 2010
Civic Theatre Darlington - 20th -24th July 2010
Grand Theatre Swansea  - 3rd-7th August 2010

Footloose- The Eastbourne Stagers - Devonshire Park Theatre Eastbourne

Footloose

The Eastbourne Stagers

Devonshire Park Theatre

Eastbourne

11-15 May 2010

(Performance seen 15 May)

(As with last year to save typing the cast list I've 'borrowed' this from the programme)

Rating an 'amateur' production can be so much harder than a professional production, especially when you are reviewing both on the same site.

The way I see it, a first class amateur production isn't about lush sets and a huge investment in costumes. It also isn't about experiencing the finest acting and singing ever. It's more about whether you have enjoyed the show, got good value for money and thoroughly enjoyed the show throughout.

Well done to all of Eastbourne Stagers as I thought the performance tonight warranted a five star rating!

Being the last night Leigh Baker gave a thankyou speech at the end and it was mentioned to the large audience that audiences had been equally as large and given an enthusiastic response all week. If the performance on the other nights was as good as this evening's show I'm not surprised. The Stagers have another production at the Devonshire Park this year. That will be "Summer Holiday" in the week commencing 14th September. If it is as good as Footloose it should also do extremely well.

Actually amateur productions, particularly at The Devonshire Park, are regularly achieving audiences far in excess of professional touring shows. I assume that word of mouth and family recommendations must be behind the success? The amateur production producers are certainly doing something to put bums on seats. Pricing is probably a major factor too with tickets around half the price of a "professional" production. But we have enjoyed many an amateur show far more than so called star-studded shows.

The story of Footloose is, let's be honest, totally predictable and typical of the 80's style.

Dance loving boy moves from 'with it' city, Chicago, to a small town in the West. Dancing is banned here because the bible-bashing minister (who is also on the town council) lost his son in a town accident several years before. All other residents apparently either knew or were related to other victims. So dancing was banned at it was seen as a celebration and they had nothing to rejoice about. Dance lover falls in love with minister's daughter (oh dear). But the town thug is going out with minister's daughter.

Bad boy doesn't take kindly to the new, itching to do a hoe-down, resident and decides that he'd look better with his limbs rearranged. Our God-possessed minister meanwhile is having his own personal breakdown, he doesn't like his precious Ariel seeing thug boy (Ariel needs retuning?)  but in many ways the potential new 'Patrick Swayze' is seen as a bigger threat to him, his family and the town. Dance boy needs to 'adjust the Ariel', get the better of thug boy, earn the reverence of the reverend and make the town a lovey-dovey, everybodys' happy, dancin' and a jivin' kinda place.

So yes it's a predictable, rather slushy, 80's theme which needs something special to succeed.

Humour (plenty of it) , some great singing and acting , well cast characters and yes lots of good choreography is what is required to hold the attention in a story when you can predict the ending at the beginning.

And that is what Eastbourne Stagers managed to deliver.

Any show that can manage to keep you smiling from start to finish deserves to be a success and that is what Footloose did.

Last years Back to the 80's by the Stagers was good but this was great! This was a much better all-round performance from the company rather than a few people standing out amongst the crowd.

However, I don't think I'd be being fair if I didn't mention a few of the cast who went down so well with this final night audience.

Leigh Baker (could be Lee as it was spelt that way last year?) as our dance-loving lad put in an incredible performance in lead role. He was great in Back To the 80's - in the last 12 months he has got even better! Fiona Dogan was actually an extremely very well tuned Ariel (you'll be glad to hear that's my final Ariel pun). She was a very good casting as the minister's daughter and out of all the female performers she had the best yankee accent too. Tom Robinson played a convincing bad lad, Chuck Cranston.

Let's mention a couple of the more senior members. Tiffany Da Silva was vocally terrific as minister's wife and Ariel's mum (Ariel engineer? - I lied). Dave Nicholls as Rev. Shaw Moore- wow! So believable as a man of religion he could easily be a vicar in the real world. The Reverend's role is the one where the script needs to be delivered with conviction, with emotion and to be believable. Those 3 boxes were all ticked off by Dave.

Star of the night? It seems a bit unfair to pick someone out of a very impressive company but if I didn't mention Gareth Brighton who kept the whole audience in hysterics throughout with his performance as Willard Hewitt I'd be doing the poor guy an injustice.

Willard Hewitt has a sort of Forest Gump type mentality crossed with the deliverance of humour similar to Graeme Proctor of Coronation Street. Willard is the lovable village idiot, the hilarious hopeless hoe downing hillbilly. Like Fiona Dogan, Gareth had also put a lot of work into his American country accent which he even managed to keep up whilst singing well and dancing like a loony! This was an excellent comedy performance that could put many professionals to shame!

Almost forgot the excellent band. Nice to see the 8 band members weren't crammed into the relatively tiny Devonshire Pit. Instead 6 members made good use of the pit area whilst Ollie Boorman took his drum kit into the left "theatre box" and Nick Long took a huge variety of percussion instruments into the right hand box.  Good thinking and it worked very well!

Two hours of continuous entertainment - well done Stagers - look forward to September!

Ruby Wax Losing It Review Assembly Hall Theatre Tunbridge Wells

Ruby Wax

and Judith Owen

Losing It

Assembly Hall Theatre

Tunbridge Wells

13th May 2010

Firstly this tour is being undertaken in aid of a great cause. 50p from every ticket purchased goes towards the Comic Relief charity. With £250 being raised from the sale of every 500 tickets the eventual sum raised from the complete tour should run into many thousands of pounds.

Many people have wondered where Ruby Wax has been on TV the last few years. The answer actually lies in the underlying theme of this show. Presented with continuous humour Ruby is talking about her own experience with "losing it", her breakdown, depression and the ignorant attitudes of those that simply don't understand the condition because they have never experienced it. Anybody who has ever suffered from or is suffering from depression could instantly relate to Ruby's 'friend' who thought the only solution was to tell her to "perk up!".

Ruby is accompanied, throughout the show, by the outstanding vocals and piano skills of Judith Owen. Judith has had her own life-long battle with depression. Her songs reflect her experiences and many of the songs from her latest album, The Beautiful Damage Collection, are featured in this show, including one of her most popular tracks "Emily".

As most people found out we see a very different Ruby Wax in this show than we were used to seeing on TV. This is a show which, yes, is very funny and entertaining but it is also full of heartfelt honesty covering all aspects of her personal life. Childhood, school days, showbiz life and an open account of her breakdown, nothing is omitted.

Judith's contribution to the show works extremely well with appropriate songs coming in at each 'chapter' of Ruby's life.

This is also a show where you discover just how much more there is to Ruby Wax than simply a , sometimes controversial, TV comedienne who once interviewed Pamela Anderson! Many may not know that she performed at the Royal Shakespeare Company for 5 years, was a script editor for Absolutely Fabulous and other top shows. She facilitates leadership groups in improving communication skills as well as advising individual executives from top companies around the world. She studied psychology at university and following recent events she has been studying  Psychology and Neuroscience at UCL. To label Ruby Wax simply as a comedienne is somewhat insulting.

With me still suffering from the aftermath of a brain hemorrhage and my wife the long term effects of a stroke and associated neurological problems, we could relate to this tremendous show throughout. As I expect could a large number of audience members around the country who suffer from depression and psychological problems.

As may be expected a few audience members couldn't seem to grasp the concept of the show here and in the interval there were a few comments like "it's very different from her TV shows", or "it's not as funny" and "it's depressing".

Well welcome to reality people - depression isn't exactly a bundle of fun! That is the message that is being delivered here. Ruby and Judith are delivering a serious message about a condition that is treated with ignorance by friends, neighbours,individuals, employers and even some medical practitioners.

And actually the "it's depressing" label isn't really fair here. Ruby's almost non-stop comedy dialogue and Judith's marvellous facial expressions and musical skills have made this an incredibly funny, entertaining show. presented by two people who actually know what they are talking about. It could easily have resulted in a show which leaves the audience depressed but it is not like that at all.

Losing It has received rave reviews around the country by critics - and rightly so. The show is very funny, extremely entertaining, and above all brutally honest. You can't ask for more.

It was so nice to meet two people who haven't got inflated egos either. Both parties taking time to talk to fans after the show. The outstanding Judith Owen performs a one-night show at Ronnie Scotts in Soho on 27th June 2010. Whilst it's a bit remote for us I am more than happy to recommend her show see http://www.ronniescotts.co.uk/ for details. Judith's official web site is here http://www.judithowen.net/home/ I thought Ruby looked fresh and fabulous both on stage and off. But Ruby, I am in the real world, I do realise that people who suffer from depression can look great - but feel crap! However, it appeared you both enjoyed your reception at Tunbridge Wells and hopefully this was a great day (edit: Judith - apart from the dressing room?? Saw the tweet!)

A thoroughly recommended show and all in a great cause too!

For tour dates http://www.rubywaxlosingit.com/