I started to write this blog on Saturday, when I was just beginning to feel halfway human again after an epic Thursday night. Yes, after all the months of long, hard work, the day was finally upon us: West End Eurovision 2011! For me, the day began at 7am and finished at the same time the following morning, but OH was it worth it…
Most of the day was spent in the MADTrust office, doing my little bit to help out with all those last minute preparations. As well as all those vital things that take many months of long, hard work to set in place for an event like this, there are hundreds of little details that have to be addressed. There were things that had to go to the theatre, backstage passes to arrange and allocate, programmes to organise, and a thousand and one queries to answer…not to mention the volume of requests for tickets. People were queuing outside the Piccadilly theatre first thing in the morning to get any returns – two particular men were practically fighting in the street to get hold of an available ticket. The demand was just huge, not to mention the press interest: a big step-up from previous years, which is of course, brilliant news for MADTrust!
I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek at the Tech rehearsals during the course of the day – imagine maneuvouring through halls strewn with dancers stretching into weird and wonderful position on the floor, to get to the auditorium to stand with the crowd of gorgeous, toned, scantily clothed cast members, watching this up-close, private preview of the night’s performances…it’s not a bad life hey?
A quick trip back to the homestead to grab a bite and change of clothes, then it was straight back in to meet up with the rest of the night’s volunteers: they’re a lovely bunch of people!
I am very pleased to say that the whole night was a complete and utter success. The audience was on fire, the show casts were on top form and the atmosphere in there was just electric! Our celebrity judges had everyone rolling in the aisles with their performance comments, most of which I simply could not repeat here – well, lets just say it’s a good thing it was a late night event yeah? The lovely Sheridan Smith was having a particularly good time: as the alcohol level in her bottle went down, the fun factor went up!
All of the performances were amazing, every one of them. The effort and imagination that went into them was immense. A quick break-down here for those who weren’t fortunate enough to be at the event:
Billy Elliot – Teenage Life: A school-themed performance with a rapping granny – she went down a storm!
Dirty Dancing – Captured By A Love Storm: Check out the show’s title. Enough said.
Legally Blonde – Lasha Tumbai: ‘Dr Belond’s Sex Change Clinic’…skipping rope routines, fabulously luminous outfits, a ‘sex change’ and of course…the Ukranian superstar and Rear of the Year, Dr Belond!
Les Miserables – Shady Lady: Orange wigs, white tent dresses…and the vocal talents of Miss Lucie Jones in THAT gorgeous outfit.
Love Never Dies – It’s All About You: A visually stunning affair, with aerialists and acrobats, definite WOW factor.
Priscilla Queen of the Desert – This Is My Life: Glamour and glitter; all you would expect from the Priscilla team! Hugo Harold-Harrison provided the treat for the ears, with the ripped torsos on display providing a feast for the eyes.
Wicked – Aven Romale: Our very own Big Fat Gypsy Wedding on the Piccadilly stage…including a huge light-up wedding dress and simulated sex! Whew!
We Will Rock You – In My Dreams: The dancing, the outfits…and Ricardo ‘The Voice’ Afonso. Need I say more?
The Wizard of Oz – Je Ne Sais Quoi: If you haven’t been to see these guys yet – go! That’s all I’ll say…
The 39 Steps – Pump-Pump: The only non-musical in the show, their ‘pump pump’s’ had the audience on their feet – fantastic job!
The Phantom of the Opera – Diggi-loo Diggy-ley: The song was Eurovision perfection and the guys in short-shorts…nice legs! ;)
As well as the eleven shows that were performing, there was another, very special, performance that tore the roof down – what would West End Eurovision be without a little bit of original Eurovision in there too? It was of course, 1981 Eurovision winners, Bucks Fizz! If you had asked me if I ever thought I would see them perform Making Your Mind Up; ‘never in a million years’ would have been my answer. Wow, wow, wow! The audience loved it – as they did Michael Bruce’s hit YouTube video of Portrait Of A Princess with Julie Atherton, which was shown after the interval. It got a great reaction.
Despite all the wonderful performances, there could only be one winner however. All deserving winners, and it was a very close race between Legally Blonde, Priscilla and The 39 Steps in particular, but this is how it went down in the end:
Best ident – Legally Blonde
Best Creative Entry – Wicked
And the 2011 West End Eurovision champions were…Legally Blonde! This seems to truly be their year, after their recent success at the WhatsOnStage and Olivier Awards. A performance that was, well, completely off-the-wall it has to be said, but entertaining and brilliantly imagined!
The 39 Steps drew Second place, with Priscilla bringing up the rear with Third. I must take the time here to make mention of the incredible response that The 39 Steps received. As the first and only non-musical taking part in West End Eurovision, they were the underdogs of the night: they didn’t have professionally trained dancers backing them up; there were no aerialists, acrobats, or skipping ropes for them…they themselves had admitted to feeling a little intimidated, seeing the offerings from the other shows during tech rehearsals, yet they stood there on that stage and delivered a strong, confident and fun performance (Pump, Pump…genius!). The audience went crazy for these guys and the celeb and show judges were handing out the high scores left, right and centre, although sadly not quite high enough for them to grab the victory; although for a brief time, I really thought they might just do it! The MADTrust team were thrilled to have a play involved in West End Eurovision and beyond pleased with how well they did – here’s hoping this is the start of something special.
I just want to draw your attention to some of the dedicated people who worked so hard to make West End Eurovision the success that it was:
I have to start with the core MADTrust team of;
1) David Pendlebury – MADTrust Chairman
2) Steven Inman – MADTrust Director
3) Jeremy Ellis – Office Manager
Those of you there would have seen David as he made his onstage speech at the end of the night, but most of you will have no idea of the amount of time and effort these guys put into making West End Eurovision bigger and better than it has ever been before! They worked so hard to get every detail right, and did it with an enthusiasm and passion that is just inspiring to see. Without them, West End Eurovision – and the rest of the MADTrust events that run throughout the year - would not happen, so make a note and remember these names: if you wanted to give them a little round of applause from wherever you may be reading this, please go ahead! ;)
There are many MADTrust volunteers who dedicate their time for free to help the charity all through the year, as well as with events like this one. Jane Garfield is the first one to name, for all her hard work organising the WEE filming; a valued member of the MADTrust team. There on the night, there were eight volunteers – including myself – working their socks off to help make sure it all ran smoothly: Anna; Racky; Jo; Rachel; Michael; Gena and Kevin. These seven people made a great night even more fun and have given me another reason to be thankful for my involvement with MADTrust, as I have made some wonderful friends through them that I may never have met otherwise.
Last, but certainly not least, how could I not mention the eleven shows that took part in West End Eurovision? The night would definitely have never happened without them! All the shows agreed to do WEE for absolutely nothing and approached it with such zeal and positivity - I have been blown away by them, truly; with their tireless promotion through Twitter and the effort put into their costumes, make-up and performances…the support they have shown to the charity is beyond words. I, and the rest of the MADTrust team, simply cannot begin to thank them enough. After tech rehearsals in the day and shows that evening (two-show days for some of them!), you still found the energy to rock the Piccadilly stage and put one heck of a smile on everyone’s faces: we look forward to hopefully seeing most of you back again next year!
Speaking of which, West End Eurovision 2011 came to the Piccadilly Theatre for the last time; next year we will sadly not coming back there. As most of you know, Ghost the Musical will be making its home there in June and with the layout of the sets that it requires, it just won’t be feasible for MADTrust to stage the event there. We are on the hunt for another theatre – hopefully one which can seat more people so that we can make WEE 2012 even bigger and better – so if anyone out there can help, let us know!
The night came to an end around 2.30am; late, but not so late that we all went home to bed…no, it was on to Freedom for the after-party! The phrase, ‘packed in tighter than a can of sardines’ springs to mind. To give you an idea of just how busy it was, a mate and I were meant to be keeping an eye out for each other in there and never crossed paths – even though we were in there together for two hours! It was hot, it was sweaty, the drinks were flowing, the dance floor was heaving…everyone needed to let loose a little after all their hard work and that we did. Good night. I couldn’t possibly name any names, but a certain blonde had one ‘elle’ of a lot to drink and after some pretty steamy gyrating, staggered away with a LOT of help…
I left there a bit after 5am, only once the bar had closed. ;) Being Good Friday, the ‘lovely’ people who run the trains had decided that the first train I could get home shouldn’t be until 8.05am. So what did I do? Well, I walked the streets of London with Jo (one of the MADTrust volunteers) for a while as we searched for somewhere to grab a bite, then decided I’d had enough of my heels and took them off to walk barefoot for a spell. Put them back on to head down to Victoria station – if any of you have ever been on your feet all night, taken off the shoes and then put them on again, you’ll share in my pain! Apparently, it was just fine for Jo to get home as her train there was running every half an hour…So with two hours of nowhere to go, nothing to do and very sore feet, I contemplated my options before the alcohol mist cleared a little and I remembered the bus! Safe to say, that after two buses, I was sitting down with a cup of tea and my shoes kicked off and feeling VERY glad to be there. Of course, it was my sister’s house and my ten-month old nephew was wide awake and climbing all over me but still, so very glad…
I only grabbed a quick hours sleep in the end; once I’m asleep, trust me, I am ASLEEP and I had to drive up the M20 to get home that same day…Surprisingly, I didn’t feel too bad! It has been a long time since my last all-nighter and I handled it rather better than I thought. The Saturday was a different matter! Boy did it catch up with me…
Sleeplessness didn’t stop me for long however. Come Sunday, I was back down to London for the Sheytoons Camden gig that evening. I was taking my mum and sister along, so we prepared by lounging in the garden for the afternoon, enjoying the sun and drinking bottled beer…it’s really not a bad life. J
After an eventful journey on the train and tube (if you knew my family, you would understand why it was eventful, ha!) we arrived at The Dublin Castle on Parkway just before the doors to the music venue opened. Three quarters of an hour later, we actually went in… I met up with Anna, another of the MADTrust volunteers and her friend – it’s always good to leave the Twittersphere and mix with real people right? By the way, has anyone been in the music venue room there before? It’s a tiny little space, dark and hot with a small stage tucked away in one corner, a few sofas scattered round the outside and a bar at the back. The mother was not impressed to find it was standing room…don’t worry, we got her another drink and that kept her quiet – for a while. ;)
An hour of the longest, dreariest songs I’ve ever heard ensued before Sheytoons’ spot was up – no offense to the two guys, but the lyrics were hardly inspired and one song seemed to bleed into the next in one long, seamless stream of monotony. One half of the group had a decent enough voice, but overall, not to my taste I’m afraid. One of their songs did get a huge round of applause though – yes, you guessed it, the last one!
Ramin and Hadley started their set just before 10pm, joined by Rosalie Craig on vocals, Tom Deering on keyboard, Nick Pini on cello, Ruth Irons on violin and a last minute replacement drummer for Jim Field Smith as his unborn baby had decided that was the best possible time to make an appearance! They played some old favourites and debuted a few new ones called Big Love’s Small, Herne and the Red Kite and Patient For Love, all of which went down a storm!
The gig was smattered with little bumps in the road: the odd forgotten lyric, a false start on the guitar, a banjo unplugged from the amp…Hadley nicely filled the gaps that opened while Ramin switched between guitar and banjo, with his usual quirky ramblings; one of Tom’s Questions filled a little time too (if you ever wanted to know how many people are in the song The Twelve Days of Christmas, the answer is 365. One for every day of the year). These are all the things that help create that laid-back, intimate atmosphere though and can actually enhance the experience for everyone. Many laughs were had. The guys were having the time of their lives up there, giving it their all during the songs, coupled with plenty of onstage bantering…everyone was having themselves a good ol’ time, a real hootenanny, right boys? If they were to get themselves a bigger venue next time I can’t see any problems with them selling that out either – trust me, they are getting better and better with every gig and I am predicting big things for them!
The only thing I noticed there was some of the audience were clearly only there as Phantom or Les Mis fans. A number had travelled just to see Ramin and Hadley up close and spent the whole gig clicking away with the cameras and paying no attention to the music. I have to say, I think that is a real shame as Ramin and Hadley are very talented song writers: the lyrics are deep and very clever in places; the variety of instruments blend perfectly to create a unique and successful sound that works for them and they get the balance of upbeat and mellow just right. Ramin and Hadley are clearly very proud and impassioned about Sheytoons, and to have people basically pretending to appreciate their music in order to catch a glimpse of them in person – it just doesn’t sit with me, I’m afraid. One girl, who I’ve seen before, was there on her own and had travelled a long way to get there, then stood at the back of the room trying to make friends with Ramin’s wife, shooting to the front of the stage as soon as the gig was over to talk to Ramin and Hadley. Each to their own, I suppose…
Anyway, I think I’ve rambled on long enough. Those of you who persevered to the end – thank you! It has been a fantastic week for me and I hope for you too. I’ll add one last big thank you to everyone who supported MADTrust at West End Eurovision. You guys were awesome! Don’t forget; West End Bares is on September 4th – mark the date as tickets sell fast!!!
Remember...create, love, inspire!
Miss Julie
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