Show No.2

Well we had another great night last night. Mark G’s partner Chris was in the audience again and he reported a tighter show than Friday night. Certainly the sound man had been busy and the audience could hear the soloists and we could hear the backing track for YMCA. There was only one general mistake when Charlie (our Musical Director) continued beating time where we normally pause in a short link between songs. The basses followed Charlie and carried on singing the next line, but the tenors paused… fortunately it appears that few (if any) people in the audience noticed that this wasn’t supposed to happen!

John M was in the house tonight along with his brother, sister-in-law and a friend and they all claimed to have enjoyed themselves… although it seems John’s brother was a little wide-eyed on occasion. The lovely Thierry, our groupie from the Melomen, was also there tonight and was most enthusiastic about the show. I swear if he didn’t live in Paris, he’d join our Chorus in a flash! There was also one of the men who lived in the original Athlone Road Commune, which we feature at the end of the first half. Ping was thrilled to have him there. I didn’t really get a chance to talk to him, but it was a poignant reminder that there are people around who have lived through the harder times that we cover in the show. It is a shame that Philip Dewdney, our oldest Chorus member, died just before Christmas as I think this show would have meant a lot to him as someone who really had lived through it all.

Anyway, our last show is today’s matinee. John G from Leeds is coming down to see it with a friend and I’m going to see if I can get their tickets upgraded, as I know we haven’t sold especially well for today, even though we eventually had over 600 last night. John W and Rich C are coming too. Rich is just out of hospital after his operations and wasn’t certain he’d be able to make it when I last spoke to them, so it’s a good sign that he feels up to it. I am going to try and get front-of-house before the show starts so I can say hello, as I suspect that after it’s over, Rich will want to get straight home to rest.