THIS concert, in aid of the Overgate Hospice, got off to the best and brightest possible start with an exuberant display of hot singing and dancing from the musicals, by students of Whiteley's Academy of Performing Arts.
Staying Alive, from Satur
day Night Fever set the tone followed by a catchy tribute to Take That.
Nicola Stephen might have been Carly Simon while singing Nobody does it Better, from The Spy Who Loved Me, while Rebecca Haley recreated those fantastically swirling movements from the opening shots of the movie.
The Wild Geese, that extremely popular six-piece folk band from Bradford, showed the audience the power of authentic music of this kind, with a full set of ballads old and new. Their deeply poignant rendering of The Dubliners' hit, Dirty Old Town brought the house down.
The one truly celestial voice of the evening belonged to Joanna Beaumont, who gave the audience an incomparably beautiful rendering of Kate Rusby's Who will sing me lullabies? among several fine songs. Mike Cornes played a raggy guitar while doing Ralph McTell's memorable Maginot Waltz.
And the great Tom McConville — the "Newcastle Fiddler" himself — made a guest appearance, singing and playing that wonderfully tender composition by Richard Thompson, Beeswing.
The evening belonged, however, to Andy Slater who not only compered the proceedings which he had done so much to organise, but sang and played guitar, never better than on Bob Dylan's Boots of Spanish Leather.
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