The Stage

Hull Daily Mail Talent Trail 2006

Published Monday 8 May 2006 at 11:15 by Mark Ritchie

When the curtain went up on this annual charity/talent event, it was the young bright sparks from The Gemma Academy Dancers who got the ball rolling with their well costumed and eye-catching opening routines.

Compere Dave Norman then hobbled on in carpet slippers, complete with a Wayne Rooney-style broken metatarsal, to offer all the opening bonhomie.

The charitable angle within the local hospitals, Daisy Appeal, which hopes to raise a total of £6.5 million for a cancer and heart disease research centre in the Hull area, was then explained to the huge audience in the City Hall and the talent show proper was soon underway.

Great to see a live four-piece band backing the acts and keyboard player Terry Bell, Gary Gillyatt on guitar, Les Naylor on drums and Richard Grant on bass were all quite superb throughout this long evening.

When the first act was announced to be Rich T, I honestly expected either a white rapper or a comedy act. In the event, what we saw was a bonny young Hull lad with a well pitched singing voice and a boy band image.

The now hackneyed song This Is The Moment from Jekyll and Hyde and a superbly sung version of the old Gary Puckett hit Lady Will Power were on offer from a smiling, confident and engaging performer.

Former Great Britain women’s rugby league team prop forward JD Adams, looked a lot more glamorous then she presumably did during her days in the scrum, when she strode on stage and struck her opening pose.

A sweetly sung acoustic version of the Van Morrison song Have I Told You Lately That I Love You, performed alongside guitarist Gillyatt, was a real highlight from this serial talent show entrant and the essential element of likeability is also present in her approach these days.

JD Adams really does look a little bit special as a cabaret performer and providing she doesn’t meet too many of the bad guys along the way, her future appeal within many sectors of our industry seems pretty much assured.

She concluded her set with This Is My Life. Having seen this artist several times now, I am pretty sure that showbusiness is her entire life.

Two girl duo Honeytrap look much more elegant and well presented than on the occasion of my one previous viewing of them at another talent show.

Some outstanding harmonies here and an eclectic mix of duet material, from The Last Night Of The World from Miss Saigon to a version of the Journey song Don’t Stop Believing.

In short, Honeytrap were impressive in all departments and it was pleasing to witness such a huge improvement in an act that I only saw for the first time last summer.

Hull supermarket checkout girl Emma Jo is hoping to break into the business professionally and I’m sure she has every chance. However, her choice of material was hardly an inspired one. Anyone attempting Eva Cassidy’s Songbird really does have to be a very special vocalist. Aside from the Cassidy recordings, I have only ever heard one other artist pull off a creditable attempt. Emma Jo was well dressed but needs advice on how to use the stage properly.

After a welcome comfort break and a choc ice or two, it was time to unveil the finalists in the second half of the show and after a song from compere Norman, it was the turn of Tony Pendleton.

A version of The Darkness hit A Thing Called Love, superbly played by the live backing band, announced the arrival of this bespectacled Scunthorpe singer. After the raucous closing bars of the song, Pendleton’s first words to the vast audience were, “Have I got your attention?” Clearly by then he had and a good stab of the Bon Jovi song Bed Of Roses was another highlight. The problem here was that, despite the great voice, at present Pendleton has the look of a bloke who probably works in a bank and on a Saturday night takes on his rock singer alter-ego to perform in his local pub.

In short, Pendleton looked like a performer doing impressions of other performers with the approach resembling a compromise in presentational terms between a rock singer and a mainstream cabaret act. Who knows, perhaps this great rock singer may well develop a style of his own in time.

It’s always great to hear a good, solid live band belting out The Proclaimers best song I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles). Reloaded are a very competent four-piece live outfit with a tip-top singing frontman in Neil Baker. Songs from The Who and the Kaiser Chiefs completed this enjoyable set from a band who, however musically tight, didn’t quite look edgy enough to deliver these type of covers.

Chirpy and quirky entertainer Simon Young may well develop as a type of comedy vocal act or an all round entertainer of some kind. At present his type of up close and cosy humour and music probably works better in smaller rooms. The lack of grounding was all too apparent but the performance was extremely sincere and engaging to say the very least. A fair singing voice here, as revealed during a version of the old Jackie Wilson song Higher and Higher but his attempt at the Bryan Adams song Heaven was just a tad ambitious. Oddly enough, Young was chewing gum whilst singing, perhaps a good chew over the nuts and bolts of presenting his many talents to their best advantage may be a more sensible option.

Beautiful singer Lesley Ball walked on resplendent in a glittering gown and was soon revealing seemingly sculpted cheekbones and a great face for cabaret. When the singing voice came out, it was immediately apparent that her natural and comfortable vocal delivery was a real treat to listen to.

Ball gave us As If We Never Said Goodbye from Sunshine Boulevard before not quite hitting the heights with a rather ambitious attempt at the Eva Cassidy version of Somewhere Over The Rainbow.

However, on another night, she might have been top of the poll, on my voting card at least. In the event, I had Ball in second spot with JD Adams as winner and Reloaded back in third spot.

By coincidence, this was exactly the aggregate score that the 10 judges, some in showbusiness and some not, came up with and it was JD Adams who scooped the £2,000 first prize.

Talent shows are the devil of a job to organise. I know as I spent 13 years producing them myself. However, Hull Producer and agent Liz Hughill puts her heart and soul into it and she certainly is buoyed by the services of a great live band and musical director in the shape of the gifted Terry Bell.

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