Pleasureable weekend
Another very pleasurable weekend in Blackpool attending the June
convention and greeting friends old and new. One of the delights of
sitting at the reception desk is that I get to meet many more people
than I might normally and it is always nice chatting with like-minded
souls.
Good cinema
Even though the weather was lovely outside, we had good
attendances on both days and when I looked in at the cinema on
Saturday evening there was an almost capacity audience enjoying
“Get Cracking”. The quality of the DVD was really good, far better I
suspect than the DVD discs that are on sale it seems all over
Blackpool. Apparently you can purchase almost every Formby film
from various outlets but all, I must emphasize are pirate discs with
very questionable contents.
Jane Partington raises the roof!
Great performers
These reports are in a way not easy to compose because
actually one convention is very like another but that is what we
Formby fans like so why change it. The performers were all
brilliant, I really enjoyed them all and the ones I really got
enthusiastic about were Paul Kenny for is brilliant playing style,
Martin Selman for sheer all-round entertainment, and a
newcomer to the Blackpool stage, Jane Partington who played
the wooden ukulele and sang two of Gracie Fields most famous
songs and nearly raised the roof! I honestly thought that she
might pop a couple of light bulbs with the range of her voice.
Obviously she will very soon become one of the conventions
favourites. There were of course many great performers but I
thought that these three deserve a mention. The whole show is
carefully put together by concert organiser Alan Chenery who
works very hard and is never off his feet throughout Saturday and
Sunday arranging the show and making sure everything functions
just as it should do. The fact that Alan is hardly noticed confirms
just what a magnificent job he does.
Neil deserves a medal!
Loads of ukuleles for sale in the next room and some nice
photographs of GF presented for display by Neil Forshaw who
deserved a medal for sitting with me for the entire weekend
helping me to cope with member’s subscriptions – thanks Neil.
A few brave friends managed to turn up in spite of suffering from
very poor health problems and to them I applaud the most
because they took the time and very great trouble to travel many
miles to be with us, it just proves once again what a special place
the Winter Gardens can be when special people attend a
convention. They know who they are without me naming them but
– well done lads and lasses, smashing to see you.
We now look forward to the big event in September when we
celebrate the 45th anniversary convention.
Peter Pollard