The Solid Silver 60's Show Review 2010 Congress Theatre Eastbourne

25th Anniversary Special

The Solid Silver 60's Show

Congress Theatre Eastbourne

Friday 12th March 2010

Dave Berry

Mike Pender

Brian Poole

Peter Sarstedt

Vanity Fare

The Swinging Blue Jeans

The Troggs

Well for any 60's fan there's a bit to suit everybodys' tastes in this line up.We have the rather gentle, demure hits from Peter Sarstedt (Where Do You Go To My Lovely?). There's the 60's "hard rock" from The Troggs (Wild Thing). Everybody else falls in the sort of 'middle of the road' traditional 60's music.

Before I go further I must mention Vanity Fare who superbly provided the backing for most of the show. They have a wonderful sound. The band was formed in 1968 and Eddie Wheeler, Mark Ellen and Bernie Hagley have now been together over 30 years. 'Baby' of the group Steve Oakman (son of Pete Oakman of Swinging Blue Jeans) is their incredible keyboard player. He stands out from any keyboard (and accordian) player we have ever seen not just because of his incredible talent but the guy has so much energy he reminded me of the "Duracell Bunny" he just never stays still. If you could bottle the energy he has we wouldn't need power stations! So thanks to Vanity Fare for performing their own hits and for keeping us entertained for the rest of the show with excellent percussion and vocals.

Brian Poole (Twist and Shout, Candy Man etc) still performs with The Tremeloes from time to time and he delivered a great performance this evening. Great to see Brian still gets on so well with the band he was formerly with.

Sadly original Searcher, Mike Pender, doesn't have have the same good relationship with his former band members (at least the living ones) although he did play tribute to The Searchers who are sadly no longer with us.

I'm not going to delve into the politics behind the relationship between "The Searchers" and "Mike Pender's Searchers" I had enough of all that with Bucks Fizz / The Original Bucks Fizz. What's important here is was the performance any good?

Let's be honest I've seen the "other" Searchers so many times now I am more familar with their show but you cannot fault Mike Pender for being a great showman and he does have the distictive vocals which are clearly identified with the original hits. He was also a very friendly guy to meet after the show.

The question was asked by Mike Pender in the second half "Do you think there will still be a Solid Silver Tour in 10 years time?".

It's a good question really especially as after 53 years Ray Ennis founder member of The Swinging Blue Jeans will be hanging his jeans up for good come May 30th this year when he retires after a final gig in his home city of Liverpool. From what I've read it doesn't appear the Swinging Blue Jeans will be continuing in any form after his retirement but at least the music lives on. The hits like Good Golly Miss Molly and Hippy Hippy Shake will be around forever. What will also be missed is Ray's Liverpudlian humor which makes the act all that more entertaining. I am sure anybody reading this wishes Ray a long and happy retirement.

I thoroughly enjoyed Dave Berry (The Crying Game, This Strange Effect etc). Vocally Dave I think has a rather unique sound for the 60's but it's a very pleasurable sound. You can't fail to mention Mr Berry's equally unique, slow on stage movements. It's beyond the realms of description really - the closest I can get is that it's like he can perform an 'all body moonwalk'. In fact you have to wonder if, the late, Michael Jackson picked up a trick or two from Dave Berry as he does kick his act off with a white glove and his distinctive 'side shuffle' is close to a moonwalk. Dave also went out of his way to meet fans after the show signing autographs and posing for photos which was well received by those who stayed behind.

Surprise of the evening for me was that I enjoyed The Troggs. Having only really been familiar with their most well known hit "Wild Thing" I did enjoy the rest of their material too and I must mention that I found Reg Presley's dialogue entertaining too 'Damp, Damp Damp' comes to mind here. Dont Ask! Just go and see this terrific tour before it ends.

You will not only get a great show but don't forget it's one of the very last opprtunities to see Ray Ennis and The Swinging Blue Jeans live.

If you go I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. Post a comment if you do see it.

The Friends Of The Devonshire Park Theatre 25th Anniversary Garden Party

Saturday 1st August 2009

Opened by the cast members of
Last Of The Summer Wine
"The Moonbather"

Ruth Madoc
Tony Adams
Harry Dickman

If there's one thing you cannot rely on in this "Green and pleasant land" it's the weather.

This is one of the biggest events of the year for the Friends Of The Devonshire Park Theatre(FDPT) in Eastbourne and it all started so promisingly.

In beautiful surroundings at Selmeston near Eastbourne. a setting kindly provided by a family very happy to support a good cause, the event kicked off at 11.30am.

It wasn't exactly a typical summer's day but it was at least dry and very mild. Everybody just tried to pretend the ominous black clouds in every direction weren't there.

I don't know what the usual attendance levels are for the FDPT garden parties but the two separate "arenas" soon became very well occupied. Not just with the members of the FDPT but also a lot of people who had seen the event publicized by flyers and heard about it by word of mouth.

Whether they were attracted by the attendance of some very friendly celebrities, the lovely setting or the other attractions is anybody's guess but for the first couple of hours attendance level appeared very good indeed.

Former Hi-De-Hi star Ruth Madoc opened the show at 12pm accompanied by fellow, Last Of The Summer Wine, stage show stars Tony Adams and Harry Dickman.

Ruth congratulated the "Friends" on their 25th anniversary and mentioned that alongside stars like Amanda Holden she will be in a new sitcom called Big Top next year. She also expressed a hope that the weather would hold out for the day (the word jinx comes to mind).

Highlight of the day for me had to be finding that just by a chance remark I made Tony Adams told me had read my review of Last Of The Summer Wine and thoroughly enjoyed it - he even agreed that Harry Dickman (who is such a modest man) is the star of the show and had been trying to tell him as much. That's the second "honour" I've had recently with the singer Andy Abraham sending my full show review out to all his email subscribers - that was a nice suprise too.

After spending some time signing autographs and posing for photos the celebs had to rush back to Eastbourne for the matinee performance of "The Moonbather".

Hopefully in the first couple of hours the Friends raised a good deal of money for the Devonshire Park Theatre. Certainly the food area was packed and the raffles, tombolas and various fun and game stalls appeared to be reasonably busy.

Whilst many people ate their lunch in the "food arena" the Royal British Legion Concert Band serenaded them with a variety of tunes.

Around 1.30 the Sea Gypsies, Eastbourne's popular Belly Dancing team, took to the lawn.

They really are very colourful and extremely talented. However the first dance must have been some sort of modern rain dance as at the end of it the heaven's opened.

However as the saying goes "the show must go on" and they carried on with an impressive selection of dance routines despite the deluge.

At the end they probably felt more like Sea Dripsies than Sea Gypsies but all credit to them for carrying on regardless and keeping the audience entertained.

I'm more than happy to give The Sea Gypsies a plug so you can find the website here http://www.theseagypsies.co.uk/ for booking enquiries.

Thank goodness for that relatively dry first couple of hours because the weather was not set to improve for the rest of the afternoon.

Credit must also go to the Band who carried on playing throughout the afternoon. Fortunately a couple of spare gazebos were found to squeeze them all under to provide some shelter. A band leader with a sense of humour did not miss the opportunity to play hits like "singing in the rain".

Sadly no matter how much people wanted to stay longer for the other attractions of the garden party it is inevitable that many literally reached "saturation point" when it came to the amount of rain they were prepared to try and absorb.

Visitor numbers did drop quite rapidly after 2pm despite the fact this was scheduled to run until 4.30pm.

The performance of the Eastbourne Scottish Pipe Band was brought forward from 3.45pm to about 3.15pm but many decided to watch their full rehearsal in the car park rather than get any wetter for the actual performance.

I have to admit that having sheltered under many a tree for a very long time we decided at around 3.15 that we too were now as wet as we could possibly bare and it really was time to call it a day.

So I apologise to the Eastbourne Scottish Pipe Band that we too only got to see your car park tune-up. But I am sure the main show was just as impressive and the least I can do is link to your site for enquiries http://www.eastbournescottishpipeband.co.uk/

Despite the British weather I hope the first few hours were successful for the FDPT especially as a lot of hard work had gone into the preparation.

Perhaps, on the law of averages, the sun will decide to shine on the next event?

I'll finish by returning to the celebrities who kindly gave up their time to support this event.

Readers in the Bradford area, whatever you do, don't miss the chance to see Tony Adams in Jack and The Beanstalk at the Alhambra Theatre. There is nothing like a dame eh Tony?

For booking just follow this link http://www.bradford-theatres.co.uk/event/jack-and-the-beanstalk-a-giant-of-a-pantomime

Harry Dickman I believe is also in panto this year but although I've Googled to death I can't find out where. If I can get this information I'll post a link.

Last but not least I understand Ruth Madoc is having a panto-free-year but don't forget to look out for that sitcom, Big Top.