WW1 Heritage Day in Leighton Buzzard & Off to Pickering's 1940s Weekend!

Going Back to 1914 in Leighton Buzzard!

Meeting up with the WW1 Re-anactors!

It’s been a full on couple of weeks as I’ve been working hard to tie up all sorts of loose ends involving paper work to web-design, new musical arrangements while still performing my shows. It’s hard to believe, but it’s my birthday today and thank-you every-one for your kind gifts and cards especially Gordon and Fay as I know how you love to follow my blogs. Thank-you Gordon for going to so much trouble to make my card, that was very kind of you and much appreciated.

In truth I would much rather be out and about doing something exciting today to celebrate but I’m having to face facts and crack on with my paperwork before heading up to Pickering. I’m due to perform for the North Yorkshire Moors Railway this weekend for their 1940s event and I still have much to prepare before setting off on Friday.

On Saturday night Paul and I will be on stage performing at Pickering Recreation club and I’m thrilled to say our show sold out months ago. We will be performing 2 x 45 minute sets. My first set will be ATS followed by glamour and Paul will be singing too. It was Paul’s birthday a few days

Between Shows with Punch and Judy!

ago and for his birthday I commissioned a new track “I’ll be Seeing You” in the Sinatra style from my musical arranger Richard Whennell. As you can imagine Paul is looking forward to singing it for the first time this weekend and I too have some new musical arrangements I’m looking forward to performing later this month.

On Sunday we will be singing at Levisham Station and you can catch our first set at 12.30pm – 1.45pm and then we will be back on stage at 2.15pm -3.15pm. The station is going with a V.E. Day theme and to tie in with RAF 100 I thought I would perform my first set in my WAAF

Dressed for My Burlington Bertie Set!

uniform and then change into something more glamorous for my second set. There will be a dance floor in front of the stage and Paul and I are looking forward to really getting the party swinging. So if you are in town it will be delightful to see you. We will also be working with 3 girl harmony group The Daisy Bells and between us we have a terrific show planed.

There never seem to be enough hours in the day and as you can see I’m back at my desk planning ahead. It’s the only way to succeed. Halloween is just around the corner and I’ve invested in a couple of new musical arrangements. I popped along to the recording studio on Monday and picked up a wonderful arrangement from Richard of “That old Black Magic /Witchcraft”. I’ve been wanting to sing this for a while now as I was never happy with the arrangement I had of “Witchcraft” and I needed a new approach to make the song work for me. Once again Richard has surpassed himself and by combining “That Old black Magic” with “Witchcraft” it’s made

Meeting up with Big Al from L&D Radio!

a wonderful addition to my Halloween show. I’m currently busy leaning new material for Halloween and Christmas as I refresh some of my popular shows. I have lots of plans for next year and ideas I want to put into production.

Last Saturday I was performing in my home town of Leighton Buzzard for Heritage day as the town went back to 1918. I had been engaged to perform 3 shows daily and yes you guessed it it rained all day. However the show goes on what ever the weather and thanks to some brilliant organizing I was able to park my van right next to the marquee and change in All Saints Church

Getting Changed at All Saints Church!

which made a huge difference. It’s such a shame when the weather isn’t on your side as the town had WW1 re-anactors, Suffragettes, Punch and Judy and a Bristol Scout WW1 bi plane which sadly had to stay under plastic to protect it from the weather. I sang my way through two sets of WW1 music and for my final set I came back in my WAAF uniform and performed my “Those Magnificent Men” WAAF show to commemorate the RAFs centenary.

Thank-you to every-one who came along to support this event despite the rain. As a professional I’m paid to smile and sing what ever the weather which sadly just seemed to go from bad to worst on Saturday. I really appreciate those of you who came along and stayed for my performances including L&D radio who had come down from Dunstable to see me especially. Thank-you that really meant a lot L&D.

Me with the WW1 Bristol Scout Aircraft!

As with all these things a great deal of work goes into the planning of events and if only the sun had been with us on Saturday, it would have made all the difference. Oddly enough I remember when Leighton Buzzard went back to 1914 in 2014 it rained then too. Fingers crossed we have good weather this weekend for Pickering. So Wish me luck!

Some of you may remember I spoke about adding a new sound bite page to my web-site and I’m pleased to say it’s starting to take shape. I hope it wont be too long now before the page will be up and running but as I move my repertoire on into the 1970s I felt it was important to have this music represented.

That’s all my news for now. Enjoy my pictures from the weekend and I look forward to catching up with you all again soon after Pickering.