Memory Lane Theatre Tour continues

Tuesday 29^th March. Broadway Theatre, Catford.

Wow, wow and wow again. This has to be one of the best results we have had in a long time.

Regular readers may remember in our blog for last season was that we had the second best ticket sales for a matinee at this theatre, only beaten by Val Doonican. Well Val Doonican, sorry and all that, but we have now beaten your record. With an amazing 730 seats sold for just one matinee show. Fantastic. Special thanks go to all at Catford, and thanks for a great day too. With a great atmosphere from the very start, even some major technical hitches couldn't spoil the day. Poor Bill Bill had one of those nightmare days. It happens, and there is nothing anyone can do about it. We all have major blonde moments, today just happened to be Bills day. Bless him!! Fortunately most of the gaffs are ones which the audience would not even spot. We hope.....!! In the meantime here is a word from one of the cast

I’m Siobhan, one of the dancers and I’ll be reporting from our show in Catford. I live just round the corner so this was an easy one for me to travel to, just 5 minutes on the bus! I met the others at the theatre and of course we went for our ritual of tea and sausage sandwiches before setting up for the show.

I had 4 friends watching today so I was a little nervous. The show was also sold out so there was a great atmosphere. After the show we went to sign programmes and CD’s and meet some of the audience and I got to grill my friends on which were their favourite parts!

Once we were all packed up from the show we were all ready for food so headed to a local Chinese restaurant to eat. Everyone had been raving about this place since the tour started so I was very excited to try it. We all ate huge plates of noodles and sweet and sour chicken. It was delicious but we could barely move at the end! Then it was back on the road and on to our next venue… 


Look out for a very special entry next time courtesy of Penni. Watch this space.

There, that didn't take long. Here is that space.

Hello there ! This is Jenni (sometimes known by the cast as Pen), and I volunteered to write the blog for our visit to Salisbury this week.

Things went really well, in fact, so well there wasn’t really a great deal to write about that you haven’t heard already on previous blogs (audience was nice, Show went well, Colin and Bill ate Bacon Sarnies etc etc etc).

I have therefore decided that you (as an interested blog reader) may like to find out a little more about our Cast and am today posing as an intrepid interviewer and will do some backstage interviews and dig out some gossip !!!!!!

One of the most interesting things I discovered was that all of the dancers said that the Tom Jones section of the show was their favourite, in particular they all said they loved dancing the ‘just help yourself’ routine, not as I first thought because of Colin’s sexy moves, but because they all love the red costumes and the latin style routine. Colin however said it was one of his favourites because he got the chance to be sexy !!!!!

Marie had so many favourites in this show, she found it hard to choose her favourite but she eventually said the same as myself – the Eurovision section. (though I like 50’s too) Steve also likes a few sections but decided upon the 70’s section and the Michael Buble song as his favourites (mainly because he likes the suit he wears in that song).

Everyone was asked who they felt got in trouble the most backstage (ie who did things wrong etc) and not surprisingly the most common answer was ‘Colin’ even Colin voted for himself on that question, but added that he never actually does anything wrong. Sad when someone is in denial isn’t it?

Almost everyone stated that Ironing was the part of a show day they would gladly miss out. Which is no surprise because every costume that is worn on stage has to be ironed (or Steamed) before the show and as you may have seen, there are a lot of costumes so this can take a while. The only person that didn’t agree was Marie who quite likes ironing but said she doesn’t like it enough to do everyones ironing for them, so we will continue to do our own.

It would appear that the general concensus is that Helene and Nina are the most chatty and amusing backstage, they seem to make everyone smile or laugh the most, Fay and Siobhan are the quieter ones (well not that quiet really) and Marie is the best at sorting out emergency costume issues (she can sort out a dodgy zip in less time that it takes Steve to Velcro up a waistcoat !)

It was mentioned in my probing backstage interviews that Blog readers may be interested to know that myself and Marie talk rather a lot, in fact it has been noticed that we have been known to finish each other’s sentences sometimes too and that people sharing our dressing room don’t get a word in, it was also mentioned that we were both probably the most accident prone (well Maisy the Greyhound is more accident prone than us) . It was also accurately pointed out that blog readers should be made aware that in every show this season, the dancers and Steve, are always ready in costume and on stage, well before Colin, Marie and I, something that will probably never change to be honest!

Other interesting facts (well that is probably a matter of opinion) that we thought you loyal Blog readers would like to know are as follows……..

When Colin was a teenager he wanted to be a footballer and actually had spells playing for both Bolton Wonderers and Sunderland (he was stopped by an injury – otherwise he may have been invited to the Royal Wedding instead of David Beckham)

Nina’s favourite hobby (out of work) is attending Spinning classes. Her current food of choice is ‘Crisps’ though it used to be chocolate until Fay and Siobhan converted her during this season.

Fay loves Indian food and loves the Poppadoms and pickle tray in Dyce. She has two lovely dogs ‘Mia and Jack’.

Colin loves cooking and gets frustrated by the fact that myself and Marie never want Indian food so whenever Fay stays over in rehearsals, they try adventurous food together whilst Marie and myself stick with delights such as Cheese on Toast, Eggs on Toast or Beans on Toast.

Steve loves Football, supports Sunderland and can eat loads, he loves his food so much that Colin says he has two bellies !!!!

Siobhan brings her knitting on tour with her and is often found in the Travelodge continuing with her latest knitting project. She also is working on copying Nina’s accent and can already do a fairly accurate impression of Helene.

Helene still has a good tan which has lasted since she got back from working in Egypt. (Marie is very jealous of this) She loves singing in the Carpenters section in some shows and has a very infectious laugh.

I talk in my sleep. Helene has started taking a footspa on tour. Fay massages her feet with a golf ball, Siobhan is so obsessed with Cheryl Cole she bought a special can of hairspray that has her picture on and Nina wants a gnome for her garden this year!

Bill-Bill was unable to be interviewed due to matters of national security and the official secrets act (well he was too busy) but blog readers may be interested to know that he enjoys keeping fit (he goes running when he isn’t working) and he works constantly backstage from the minute we arrive until the minute we leave – even during the interval he is building and moving props, loading the van etc. He also hides bars of chocolate in the van for him and Colin – he doesn’t know I know this!

Well that’s about it, on to the next venue now.

Thursday 31^st March, Town Hall Theatre, Hartlepool

Nina's Blog for the day

So we are in my home place of the North East. The girls cant wait to see the Angel of the North which amuses me and Bill as we think of it more as the tin man. We have two shows today and I'm looking forward to it as my Mam is coming today with my Aunty and Uncle. After a fitting of our knew white feather packs and silver bikinis for our Viva las Vegas routine we are ready to go. Our dressing room now looks like a plucked chicken but Colin is on hand to clean it up. The show goes down really well and my family loved it. Time for a quick break before show number two. Marie manages to get her beauty sleep even with a loud tap dancing class upstairs. This is our last show before a nice few days off and all ends well after another fun performance.

And so March has now gone. April is another busy month with 13 venues to get through. For now we enjoy a short break until Middlesbrough next Wednesday.