ONE YEAR ON HOW PLEASED WE ARE

Dateline..... Wednesday 4th June 2008 Folkestone
Tuesday 15th July Hayes

 It feels almost impossible that we have now been touring with this show for over 12 months. In that time the show has grown and developed, thanks to all the hard work of the fabulous cast and the wonderful feed back and response from some amazing audiences. We have also had a change in that cast with Angie leaving to follow her dreams and her place being taken by Lauren Atkins.
Her first show was on our one year anniversary at The Leas Cliff Hall in Folkestone. We had over doubled the size of the audience from out first visit and they really gave us such a wonderful reception. Half a dozen shows down the road we played The Beck Theatre in Hayes again for  our second visit and again the size of the audience was well up on the previous year. They loved the new 60's routine, and the new costumes, and we are really pleased to know that we have already been booked back for next year.
The genuine warmth and appreciation from every audience has been inspiring and encouraging us to work even hard to improve the show even more. We will shortly be playing some of the largest theatres in the country The Sunderland Empire, The Manchester Opera House, and The Sheffield City Hall, so we are very aware that we all need to be on the top of out game, and we are all working to take the show to new highs.
I hope you get a chance to come and see the show live, and in the mean time please check back as I will now be writing regular updates.

WHAT AN AMAZING
FIRST DATE OF THE TOUR

Dateline..... Wednesday 6th June 2007
Place... The Leas Cliff Hall Folkestone

Well after talking about it for almost 2 years, planning it for a year and rehearsing it for almost 6 months. Remember When finally opened for its first ever performance, on Wednesday 6th June, and thanks to the lovely people of Folkestone what a performance it was.

 

At precisely 2.30pm the overture started (do you remember the song the musical muscle man Tony Holland used to bounce his muscles to ?)  dum, dah dum, dah dum dum dum dum dum. Well from the first couple of bars we knew it would be a good day, the laughter and clapping along relaxed us all.

The cast of myself Neil Sands, Gemma Turner & Angie Diggens and the musicians Bob Whiting on Keyboards and drummer Ian Bishop were waiting anxiously behind the curtains as the voice over introduced us.

 

The opening medley of Those Were The Days, Que Sera Sera, Hello Dolly & Dowtown, had everyone clapping and singing along, and ended to great applause.

The next two hours were much more than any of us could have ever hoped for and they flew by filled with sing a long songs , laughter, fun and lots of applause.

For me some of the highlights were Gemmas amazing version of One Fine Day from Madame Butterfly that won a standing ovation, Angies brilliant Somewhere Over The Rainbow that touched everyone’s heart and perhaps me finally singing a Max Bygraves song to an audience after being told for the past 40 odd years how much I look like him. I loved the Rock & Roll Medley and thought the finale with the girls in the naughtiest Army uniforms ever was just so much fun.

At the end of two wonderful hours everyone sang a long to what else but We ll Meet Again and trust me the cheers for more rang in our ears all the way home.

It was a joy to meet and greet so many nice people afterwards and the good wishes for the rest of the tour meant so much.

So now we are ready to take on the world with this lovely show of ours and we thank the wonderful people of Folkestone along with all the great staff at the Leas Cliff Hall for making our first outing one that we will remember for a very long time.

Please check back to the site again as I will be writing regular updates and news about the show, and do try to get to see us soon.

 

God Bless,

 

Neil