Showcall Showcase 2007 - Thursday, Evening Session

Published Friday 9 November 2007 at 14:15 by Mark Ritchie

The Showcall band delivered their final overture and compere Steve Walls, who has been quite a hit this year, strode on looking very smart and suave to make his eighth and final welcome.

When a band are known by the frankly odd name of GTB (Good Thinking Batman), you just know that a zany, fun band are going to step out from behind the curtains. This four-handed gang of assorted, tuneful nutcases are not a live band by any stretch of the imagination, but more of a zany, self-contained cabaret act in the guise of a band. When the lads burst into a bit of a hillbilly rock and you glance across to find that the keyboard player is wearing a horse head mask, you just know that these guys don’t take life too seriously. This is a very bookable band though.

Hannah Dallas is a young girl with a big, booming voice, which also contains elements of light and shade. The vocal delivery, however, is dredged up with great effort in the higher registers and the Whitney Houston song I Have Nothing is a heck of a big ask for an opening number. Perhaps a vocal technique teacher would be a huge help, as well as advice to help out on image and projection.

With their St Paul’s Cathedral backdrop and sandbags all over the stage, mini production show England’s Pride almost had me reaching for my ration book as I headed to the tea bar for my cuppa. Two singers in RAF uniform were soon establishing a wartime singalong theme and the whole thing ended happily with a good old cockey knees-up. Great fun for the elderly or for fans of nostalgia and/or jingoism.

Well dressed and experienced looking chanteuse-style singer Jean Pasquill looks as though she has been around the clubland block a few times and her patter was straight out of the social club. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but the giveaway sign of many acts of this type are twofold. Firstly, they talk down precious applause and, secondly, the poor vocal technique suggests that maybe this singer should have a closer listen to herself.

A Kinda Magic is yet another of the younger and more high-tech and quirky, big-box magic acts which have thankfully moved into the speciality act market in recent years. I say thankfully, as this is pretty far removed and hugely superior to the doves, rings and conjuring approach of yesteryear. This boy-girl act are just the ticket required to move the art of the speciality act in the direction of younger fans.

Bonny young singer Daniel Fox gave us a cheery rendition of the recent Mika hit Grace Kelly, before regaling us with yet another attempt at Nessun Dorma, which we have probably heard once or twice too often at this year’s Showcall. Suffice it to say that Fox is talented, but has lots to learn. Hopefully he finds the right kind of teacher who is suitably qualified to take him forward on his showbusiness journey.

Three-piece, live, all-girl band Sk8er Girlz really were a tonic. On the business front, an all-girl band playing live instruments so well really are a huge commercial proposition. The Sk8er Girlz gave us commercial rock hits, which were delivered with edge and elan. We Will Rock You, they sang - suffice to say that did just that.

Yes folks, another overblown recorded introduction and yet another Take That tribute act, this time known as Take On That. These guys were not really sharp enough in a dress sense to scale the peaks to the tribute summit, but there was potential here and, with the right management, who knows? A good strong lead vocalist but, as ever with acts like this, there is often an ambiguous nature to the source of all the audible vocals. Many acts seem incapable of comprehending that tracks are meant to provide musical backing instead of, as is the case with many, the live vocal sounding as though the voices are accompanying the tracks.

Tiggerblake is the name of a two-female duo, featuring the once hugely popular and larger than life solo entertainer Sunny Daye. Now working as one half of a duo, with a very pretty girl singer called Lisa, Sunny Daye manages to restrain her OTT stage antics and cheeky asides to the audience, in favour of a real personality duo approach and this really was an excellent performance.

Smart and personable swing singer Peter Sarsfield opened with Luck Be a Lady and arrived armed from some pretty tasty sounding, swing-based backing tracks. We are told that swing singers are now popular at weddings and functions and I’m sure that the polished Sarsfield will be one of the many cashing in.

Three immaculately dressed ladies who are collectively known as Voices With Soul came next and the recognition factor came from their recent success in The X Factor. These tuneful women are all related and clearly well used to performing close harmonies together, as their delightful version of Bridge Over Troubled Water amply demonstrated. There is still a feeling of an act evolving here, but no doubt their short television odyssey has stimulated much interest in these pleasant Midlands lasses.

An Eagles tribute band just has to be a seller, as long as it is done well. Desperado have a six-piece line-up who played many hits in segued style and I’m certain they will have made many new friends amongst the tribute fraternity after this impressive appearance. New Kid in Town and a snatch of the guitar solo from Hotel California provided the visibly wilting Thursday night survivors reason to tap the odd appreciative toe.

Preston-based, showgirl-style singer Vickee Lester entered from the audience in the guise of the tragic Norma Desmond character from Sunset Boulevard and what followed, including the facial mannerisms, was pure theatre. Stripping off to reveal an army sergeant’s uniform, Lester than gave us a segment from her forties show, before reminding us not to pigeonhole her and to try booking her club/mainstream set. I’m sure that many will do just that.

Tim Ames describes himself as “a comfy armchair type of act”. From which we ascertain that hotel audiences can just sit back and let his songs and gentle and inoffensive comedy patter swim over them. Ames gave us memories of the great Anthony Newley with a spirited version of What Kind of Fool am I? and, to be succinct, I just loved the comfy armchair approach.

There are many ifs, buts and maybes which determine the success or otherwise of the 21st-century cabaret act, but if Madonna Decena is not an enormous success, I promise to bare my behind in a shop window. This Filipino singer opened at almost midnight with a version of the Whitney Houston hit I Will Always Love You and you could have heard a pin drop. I would simply run out of superlatives if I continued on in the same vein about this singer. Instead, I will simply score her maximum points for potential, stage presence and vocal talent.

Following the huge response given to Madonna Decena was a pretty daunting task, especially when you are a keyboard act with a dodgy power lead. But boy/girl vocal duo Touched gave us Billy Joel’s Root Beer Rag, which was concluded eventually after the aforementioned problem with the electrical supply, and a Grease medley which was also quite fun. Touched are a fairly standard holiday park-type act and there should be plenty of work for this personable pair of charmers.

Reviewing singer Emma James is a pretty tough task. James is a singer with the gift of the gab and an overall approach which seems disposed to sell everything she does much too hard. The OTT projection suggests possibly a singing actress or at least someone who is not used to a light and shade approach.

The final act of our flagship light entertainment event was an eight-piece Commitments-style band called Souled Out. A brass section, along with two female backing singers and a gem of a front man, which was just as well as the hour was getting late, leaving only diehard bookers and friends.

To sum up, those who deserve the real pat on the back are the Stagecore crew, who battled against some pretty tough odds to make everything happen, at least roughly on time. I’m sure that everyone, most notably compere Steve Walls and producer John Hopcroft, will be happy to have made something very difficult look considerably easier than it actually was.

EXPERT CHOICE

Noel Gee (Noel Gee Associated) chose Madonna Decema and Sk8er Girlz