NOVEMBER 2016
The final meeting of the year took place once again in The Imperial Hotel’s largest room, the Lancastrian Suite and a healthy crowd turned up on Saturday to enjoy the weekend’s events. A New Banner The first thing to greet anyone entering the room was the magnificent new banner that held pride of place on the stage behind the musicians. Created by graphic designer Steve MacEwan and organised from start to finish by Caroline Stewart, the banner was a real change from what we have been used to looking at throughout the past thirty years of the Society’s history. Not only is it a great stage backdrop, but it doubles up as a magnificent cinema screen for our evening film shows! The banner is a very welcome replacement for the one that we have all grown so used to over the years but it will not be discarded as it was auctioned during the Saturday evening interval.

Loyal Workers

Once again the Society was blessed with many non-committee members who are only too happy to assist to make the weekend the success that it always is. Members who help to organise the entertainment take on all sorts of roles from controlling the sound mixer, selling raffle tickets, introducing the artists on stage, running the cinema or just dissembling equipment at the end of the weekend. One very important role is to make sure that the microphones are all at the correct height and distance for each and every one of the entertaining artists and for this task we have the ever reliable Johnny Key who travels from the London area for every convention and is on duty throughout the weekend. Johnny, what would we do without you?

GFS Shop

The GFS shop did healthy business and thanks must go to the two non-committee members who are always there to kelp Kathryn throughout the weekend. Pat Taylor and Dolwyn Shone always give Kathryn all the support she could wish for. These three ladies are all firm friends and they do
Honorary Membership The highest award within the GFS is Honorary Membership and is very rarely awarded. To get it means that you have worked tirelessly for many years on behalf of the Society. There are currvently eleven members of this select band including Gerry. The current Honorary Members are Kitty Barrett, Dennis Mitchell, Bernard Young, Kathryn Pollard, Peter Pollard, Alan Southworth, Dickie Speake, Pat Taylor, Tony Thornton, John Walley and now Gerry Mawdsley. John Walley also received a “Gold Award” which was a ‘one-off’ award for all his has done for our Society since the very first meeting back in September 1961.
a brilliant job in serving the members over the two day event, the weekend just would not be the same without them.

Zip Goes A Million

One of the main events of the weekend was the production of a ‘mini’ Zip Goes A Million to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the 1951 West End hit show which of course featured George Formby until ill health forced him from the show. This short but very entertaining feature was organised by John Walley. Whilst the production only lasted approximately 30 minutes, lots of work went in to getting the show together. John narrated the story and used images of the show projected on a screen with audio clips of the actual live BBC broadcast from 1951. Everyone did well and the audience really appreciated their efforts. The ladies from Hawaii looked great, especially Tim Austin! With only a brief time to rehearse on Saturday morning, the participating members did a great job in putting across the essence of what the 1951 audience must have experienced.

Honorary Membership

The award of honorary membership is a real rarity but we celebrated on Saturday evening when GFS President Gerry Mawdsley was presented with the honour. When Gerry took over the President’s role after the late Dennis Taylor took a well earned retirement after fourteen years, you would have thought that there would not be that much to do. Nothing could be further from the truth! Gerry was definitely up to the task and had actually made his own mark within the Society long before he took over from Dennis, especially with his work to convince a reluctant Wigan council that they needed a statue of George Formby in their town. Gerry took over the presidency in September 2006 and for the last ten years he has worked tirelessly for the Society and its members. As a honorary member myself I would like to add my warm and sincere congratulations to Gerry for a honour well deserved. The award was present by our Chairman Caroline Stewart who told everyone all about Gerry’s work for the GFS over the years and the award was greeted with appreciative applause from the audience. The words below sum up what Caroline intended to say within her presentation and paint a nice picture of Gerry and his love for the GFS.
VIEW THIS YOUTUBE CLIP TO ENJOY ONCE AGAIN, GERRY’S PRESENTATION
Way back in 1970 a fresh faced young man from Wigan joined the George Formby Society. That man is now our President, Gerry Mawdsley. Over the next forty-six years the Society has become a big part of his life and he has become a big part of the Society. In 1998 he successfully had a blue plaque placed on the site of George’s birthplace. In 2007 he realised a lifelong ambition and somehow, against all the odds, had a statue of George Formby placed in his hometown of Wigan. Those of you who were members back then will remember the work Gerry put in despite the opposition of certain Councillors. Quite an achievement. Following that he joined the Committee and has continued to promote the Society and George. He has represented us on numerous television programmes and I’m sure you will agree he is a wonderful ambassador for our Society. The most prestigious award the Society gives is Honorary Membership. This isn’t awarded lightly and nor is it awarded simply for long service. It is given for outstanding and devoted service to the Society and Members and in this case for actively promoting the aims of the Society over many years. It gives me immense pleasure, in his tenth year of Presidency, to award Honorary Membership to our President, Gerry Mawdsley.
It goes without saying that there was as usual some great performances from so many people throughout the weekend and they and every member of the audience all helped to make the November 2016 convention, a very special event and one that we can remember with the greatest pleasure until it all starts again in March 2017.
NOVEMBER 2016
The final meeting of the year took place once again in The Imperial Hotel’s largest room, the Lancastrian Suite and a healthy crowd turned up on Saturday to enjoy the weekend’s events. A New Banner The first thing to greet anyone entering the room was the magnificent new banner that held pride of place on the stage behind the musicians. Created by graphic designer Steve MacEwan and organised from start to finish by Caroline Stewart, the banner was a real change from what we have been used to looking at throughout the past thirty years of the Society’s history. Not only is it a great stage backdrop, but it doubles up as a magnificent cinema screen for our evening film shows! The banner is a very welcome replacement for the one that we have all grown so used to over the years but it will not be discarded as it was auctioned during the Saturday evening interval.

Honorary Membership

The award of honorary membership is a real rarity but we celebrated on Saturday evening when GFS President Gerry Mawdsley was presented with the honour. When Gerry took over the President’s role after the late Dennis Taylor took a well earned retirement after fourteen years, you would have thought that there would not be that much to do. Nothing could be further from the truth! Gerry was definitely up to the task and had actually made his own mark within the Society long before he took over from Dennis, especially with his work to convince a reluctant Wigan council that they needed a statue of George Formby in their town. Gerry took over the presidency in September 2006 and for the last ten years he has worked tirelessly for the Society and its members. As a honorary member myself I would like to add my warm and sincere congratulations to Gerry for a honour well deserved. The award was present by our Chairman Caroline Stewart who told everyone all about Gerry’s work for the GFS over the years and the award was greeted with appreciative applause from the audience. The words below sum up what Caroline intended to say within her presentation and paint a nice picture of Gerry and his love for the GFS.
VIEW THIS CLIP OF GERRY’S PRESENTATION
Way back in 1970 a fresh faced young man from Wigan joined the George Formby Society. That man is now our President, Gerry Mawdsley. Over the next forty-six years the Society has become a big part of his life and he has become a big part of the Society. In 1998 he successfully had a blue plaque placed on the site of George’s birthplace. In 2007 he realised a lifelong ambition and somehow, against all the odds, had a statue of George Formby placed in his hometown of Wigan. Those of you who were members back then will remember the work Gerry put in despite the opposition of certain Councillors. Quite an achievement. Following that he joined the Committee and has continued to promote the Society and George. He has represented us on numerous television programmes and I’m sure you will agree he is a wonderful ambassador for our Society. The most prestigious award the Society gives is Honorary Membership. This isn’t awarded lightly and nor is it awarded simply for long service. It is given for outstanding and devoted service to the Society and Members and in this case for actively promoting the aims of the Society over many years. It gives me immense pleasure, in his tenth year of Presidency, to award Honorary Membership to our President, Gerry Mawdsley.
It goes without saying that there was as usual some great performances from so many people throughout the weekend and they and every member of the audience all helped to make the November 2016 convention, a very special event and one that we can remember with the greatest pleasure until it all starts again in March 2017.

Zip Goes A Million

One of the main events of the weekend was the production of a ‘mini’ Zip Goes A Million to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the 1951 West End hit show which of course featured George Formby until ill health forced him from the show. This short but very entertaining feature was organised by John Walley. Whilst the production only lasted approximately 30 minutes, lots of work went in to getting the show together. John narrated the story and used images of the show projected on a screen with audio clips of the actual live BBC broadcast from 1951. Everyone did well and the audience really appreciated their efforts. The ladies from Hawaii looked great, especially Tim Austin! With only a brief time to rehearse on Saturday morning, the participating members did a great job in putting across the essence of what the 1951 audience must have experienced.

Loyal Workers

Once again the Society was blessed with many non-committee members who are only too happy to assist to make the weekend the success that it always is. Members who help to organise the entertainment take on all sorts of roles from controlling the sound mixer, selling raffle tickets, introducing the artists on stage, running the cinema or just dissembling equipment at the end of the weekend. One very important role is to make sure that the microphones are all at the correct height and distance for each and every one of the entertaining artists and for this task we have the ever reliable Johnny Key who travels from the London area for every convention and is on duty throughout the weekend. Johnny, what would we do without you?

GFS Shop

The GFS shop did healthy business and thanks must go to the two non-committee members who are always there to kelp Kathryn throughout the weekend. Pat Taylor and Dolwyn Shone always give Kathryn all the support she could wish for. These three ladies are all firm friends and they do a brilliant job in serving the members over the two day event, the weekend just would not be the same without them.

Honorary Membership

The highest award within the GFS is Honorary Membership and is very rarely awarded. To get it means that you have worked tirelessly for many years on behalf of the Society. There are currently eleven members of this select band including Gerry. The current Honorary Members are Kitty Barrett, Dennis Mitchell, Bernard Young, Kathryn Pollard, Peter Pollard, Alan Southworth, Dickie Speake, Pat Taylor, Tony Thornton, John Walley and now Gerry Mawdsley. John Walley also received a “Gold Award” which was a ‘one-off’ award for all his has done for our Society since the very first meeting back in September 1961.