Souvenir Programme
Act One
Overture
Brian Rogers Dancers – Get Happy
Brian Rogers Dancers – Stepping Out
Cannon and Ball
The Roly Polys
Brian Rogers Dancers – Moulin ROuge Sequence
Danny Adams
The Barron Nights
Act Two
Brian Rogers Dancers – Dance the Night Away
Matt Slack
Brian Rogers Dancers – Bewitching Broomsticks
Cannon and Ball
Finale – O Happy Day
Cannon and Ball
Tommy Cannon and Bobby Ball are one of Britain’s funniest and most successful double acts. In a career spanning over 30 years they have achieved a string of honours that includes them among the all-time greats of showbusiness.
On television they have starred in their own series practically every year since 1979. They have also ‘guested’ on all the major shows including Wogan, Parkinson, Des O’Connor, Sunday Night at the Palladium and several Royal Variety Shows. They featured in a BBC Documentary Funny Business, based on double acts, which also included footage of comedy legends Martin Lewis, Laurel and Hard and Morecambe and Wise.
To add to their pedigree, they remain the only act to have won three separate National Club Awards and be named as Variety Club Personalities of the Year. Their feature film The Boys in Blue in addition to its cinema success, has gone on to become a video best seller. The boys have also been the subject of This is Your Life!
During the 1970s they built a strong reputation around the UK cabaret club circuit for being a great live act. They also toured extensively in the hotel circuits of Australia and South Africa.
Tom and Bob have broken records in theatres all over the UK, including London. In 1981 they played a six-week season at the Dominion Thetre. Every seat was sold before the show opened, and in 1988 their pantomime Babes in the Wood broke all previous pantomime records at the world famous London Palladium, where Cannon and Ball created the record for the largest box office amount taken in one week in British theatre history.
Rock with Laughter 96 fulfilled Tommy and Bobby’s ambition to start in their own Rock ‘n’ Roll spectacular, their first Summer Season for producers AMG
After an extensive Autumn Tour and a trip to Israel, the boys played ‘The Chinese Policeman’ in Aladdin at the Theatre Royal, Newcastle and again at the Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton
They have appeared on many TV shows including The Des O’Connor Show, Noel Edmonds’ House Party, Talking Telephone Numbers and The Generation Game.
In the spring of 1999 the boyes appeared at various theatres across the country starring in An Evening at the Music Hall, whilst continuing their tour of An Audience With
The boys played full houses at their Summer Season in 1999 at the Blackpool Grand Theatre, the season was the most succesful summer Blackpool has ever had!
The 1999/2000 pantomime season saw the boys play the Regent Theatre, Stoke on Trent for the production Cinderella, co-starring Melinda Messenger and Britt Ekland.
The early part of 2000 saw the boys starring and touring in various shows throughout the UK’s theatres. Summer Season 2000 featured the successful Comedy Bonanza show (which broke box office records) at The Princess Theatre, Torquay for 10 weeks from the 23rd July including Sundays at The Pavilion Theatre, Bournemouth. Pantomime 2000/2001 saw the boys star at The Alhambra Theatre, Bradford.
Even after nearly 30 years of making people laugh, 2001 saw Tommy and Bobby back out on the road and enjoying every minute. They are looking forward to entertaining for many years to come.
The Barron Knights
The Barron Knights’ first appearance on stage was in I960, so it’s not too difficult to work out how long the band have been together. On the 1998 tour of Australia a DJ in Sydney asked ‘How long are you blokes going to carry on for?’ They asked him if he would ask the same question of his bank manager. Their answer was that they travel the world and get paid to make people happy and they feel extremely privileged to have such a wonderful career. So their answer was… Forever!
Butch and Pete met in their hometown Leighton Buzzard as teenagers in the mid-fifties and sang Everly Brothers songs at any party they could gatecrash. Together they won the Frankie Vaughan talent contest and in 1959 went their seperate ways. Fate brought them together again with a chance meeting in a guitar shop in London, and within months the Barron Knights were up and running. They built up such a following and were filling dance halls across the country without a hit record. Brian Epstein heard and booked the Barron Knights to appear as support act to the Beatles on their very first UK tour. This led to a record contract with EMI and their first million-seller ‘Call Up The Groups’. It was a novelty record where they changed the lyrics of the hits of the day. It was such an original idea, the demand from the public for more was enormous.The band went on to have fourteen hits selling millions of records worldwide.
Since the sixties, they have developed their act into an international show and they now travel the world on an annual basis performing in concert. They are now hailed by their peers as the Guv’nors, because they achieve things that no other band would dare to attempt.
They have appeared at the London Palladium 324 times and their 35th Birthday show sold out in seven days. The Barron Knights’ 1998 tour of Australia was their 21st tour down under and the most successful. They perform in South Africa, America, the Far East and the Middle East, so even though you don’t see them on TV as much, they are somewhere in the world entertaining.
The band love working corporate shows and have tailored their act for large companies such as IBM, Barclays, Fords, British Airways and they rewrote the whole of The Sound of Music for Rank Travel when asked to perform in Austria. If need be, the Barron Knights can organise the whole event.
The Barron Knights have had more comedy hit records than any other group in the world.They have a new CD, ‘Songs ForTraffic Jams’ and a video Madness and Mayhem, so it’s plain to see the Barron Knights have no thoughts of hanging up their guitars.They don’t want to stand still and live on past success. They update their humour and appear fresh, and that is why their audience is a mixture of age groups.There is one thing for certain. When you walk out of the theatre you will feel warm and happy and will want to see them again.
The Roly Polys
The Roly Polys started in 1982 in a Les Dawson TV show and since then have got bigger in more ways than one! (all round entertainers!).They are a big favourite in panto and cabaret, also commercials and TV.
They have entertained several members of Royalty and also appeared in four Royal Variety Shows. They are also popular in Japan, South America and all over the continent.
The idea of the act was originated by Les Dawson and Ernest Maxin especially for a BBC series and, of the three original members, Mo did an act wth her husband Roy, known as the Mighty Atom and Roy.
Marie was a choreographer and is now married to comedian Jack Diamond. Sue had a dancing school inWolverhampton.They are now joined by Sandy who was a Tiller Girl and Zeb who followed her father’s footsteps in circus.
In December 1991 Mo was awarded the top accolade of show business by being chosen for TV’s This Is Your Life.
The girls’ hobbies include swimming, knitting, cooking and they would love to go horse riding but the RSPCA stepped in.
Matt Slack
Matt Slack started out as a bluecoat for Pontins back in 1993. Two years later he became Entertainments Manager and won the Pontins award for ‘Entertainer of the Year’.That same year he went on to win the prestigious ‘Stairway to the Stars’, one of the biggest talent shows in the country.
The following year was to prove even better, after breaking out on to the cabaret circuit he won ‘Best Comedy Act’ and also took the title of outright winner in the ‘Entertainer of the Year’, South West awards.
Matt was then to have his first taste of TV as co-presenter on Westcountry TV’s Club 22.45 with Nick Owen. He also had an acting role in a children’s series, Dr Zargle with HTV, which was broadcast nationwide on CITV
Since then he has performed at all the major holiday centres, on cruise ships and in theatre, and has also supported names such as Bradley Walsh and The Three Degrees.
It was certainly just a matter of time before pantomime beckoned. Playing the part of Muddles, the court jester in Snow White (Pavilion Theatre, Worthing), proved to be a huge success after smashing box office records. This year you can see him playing the same role at Fareham.
But to see this versatile performer in his full glory, it would have to be in the Babbacombe Theatre,Torquay, where he is currently headlining for the third consecutive year. In TheTime of Our Lives show. Matt appeared with 36 young talented hopefuls, which provided great entertainment for all ages. Last year’s Stars inYour Eyes summer season show, received rave reviews and on this year’s show The Sounds of Laughter, Matt has been quoted to be part of local folklore (whatever that means)!!
Matt Slack has an incredible comedy talent, and can turn his hand to almost anything or any crowd. Whether it being stand up, visual comedy, impressions, not to mention a superb vocal talent and also a great acting ability. But most importantly he is a complete natural. He’s modern, he’s zany, he’s blessed with insatiable energy and he has often been compared with many different names in the entertainment industry.Take a small piece from each of them, put them together and you have a new name – MATT SLACK.
Danny Adams
The fact that Danny Adams was almost born in a dressing room enabled him to start his show business career very early!
This early start, coupled with an absolute passion for every aspect of show business, his incredibly high energy level and the dogged determination required to acquire his highly tuned physical skills, has led Danny to achieve a great deal in his young life!
He has already entertained thousands with his antics in a wide variety of venues, from family style cabaret to TV audiences.
His zany, high-energy style of comedy produces gales of laughter and gasps of amazement almost simultaneously – no mean feat!
Danny believes there are two types of comedy. He says “There are people that say funny things and funny people. I like to think of myself as a funny person”.
Danny’s act consists of many ingredients, including stand-up comedy, knockabout comedy, comedy magic, comedy juggling and all round madness!
Bryan Rogers Dancers
During his career as a dancer Brian worked almost exclusively on television. Nowadays, Brian is a highly-sought-after choreographer/director in both television and theatre.
His distinctive choreography has been featured in many successful television series including The Jim Davidson Show, Search for a Star and The Mike Yarwood Show. Brian’s dancers appeared regularly on Majesty’s/Piccadilly/Palladium series and The Hippodrome Show. He has also staged and choreographed series of The Best of Magic and the spectacular EuroDisney opening special in 1992.
In television he has choreographed shows for Jimmy Tarbuck, Freddie Starr, Les Dawson, a series of Sunday Shows for Tommy Steele and has also worked on numerous television shows throughout Europe.
Brian has directed and choreographed many pantomimes around the UK, and of course, many summer shows including Cannon and Ball’s Blackpool summer seasons and shows for Danny La Rue, Freddie Starr and Little and Large.
In September of 1999, Brian launched his new production company, Hands On Productions, in partnership with Paul Stone. As well as working with various artists from the Decca and EMI record labels, Brian is currently working towards the Lorus World Sports Awards, Monte Carlo, in his role as Stage Director for worldwide transmission.
To date Brian has to be one of the most experienced choreographers in show business. He has been fortunate to have worked with some of the best entertainers and dancers and is looking forward to returning to Blackpool’s Grand Theatre to work on the Comedy Bonanza 2002 show.
Dancers:
NATALIE MAPLESDEN
NICOLE LOUISE
SUZANNE CRAWLEY
ABY KATE
CHLOE EVANS
GEMMA DANIELS
KIRI FROST
LINZI STANTON
ELISE WRIGHT
KATIE LEWIS
