Paul
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Report on Knutsford 2006 - 2006/02/20 13:59
The performers on Saturday night were Paul Thompson, Ian Burdon, Tony Cima, Jamie McCoan, Don Whiteford (bass guitar), Phil Neal (recovering from a 20 hour journey from Cuba), Phil McGinity and Malcolm Jeffrey.
Most of those in the audience were local to Manchester, although there were more ticket orders via the website this year and we did have people (with no links to the performers!) travelling from further afield, including Yorkshire and Scotland.
The audience was very receptive from the outset and seemed to thoroughly enjoy the programme, which mixed the famous (Bantam Cock, On Again On Again, Brother Gorilla), relatively obscure (Lullaby My Daddio, Cenotaph) and poignant (Widow of Brid, The Remembrance, The Black Swan). The audience rose to the challenge of audience participation, singing 'Brother Gorilla' with gusto (even though they were in the audience this time, Jenny and William still showed what good lungs they have!), shouting out 'Up with the Thackrays!' (we had three Thackrays in the audience, but no relations of Jake's) and, at Tony's instigation, 'Rule Britannia!'.
David McGovern was on hand to sell Live in Germany CDs and did good business, and interest on the Project website was brisk on Sunday (53 guests at one point - any link to our event?).
There were a number of very successful duets this time round, including The Statues (actually a trio, with Don on bass), The Blacksmith and the Toffeemaker, Isabel Makes Love Upon National Monuments, Brother Gorilla and Ian Burdon's great version of Brassens' 14-18 War. The grand finale was The Bull, with the chorus displayed for audience participation and Ian B using his walking stick (Ian is recovering from a nasty encounter with some wonky Edinburgh paving) to guide everyone. We used back projection again this year, but this time had different images to provide an appropriate setting for each of the songs: perhaps this worked most effectively on the medley of first world war songs (14-18 War, Remembrance and Cenotaph), with a series of poignant images, including a notification of death telegram appearing at the end of The Remembrance.
Feedback from the audience on the night and since then has been great. 'So, it's an annual event, is it?' 'Tell me about Holmfirth' etc.
Thanks to everyone who contributed, on stage and off, to make the evening such a success, especially the good folk of Knutsford Little Theatre who once again proved to be wonderful and generous hosts. £580 was raised for Oxfam.
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