Our UK correspondent Ron Bingham caught up with some of the festive entertainment Birminham has to offer.
Birmingham is the second largest city in Britain and lies about about 250km north-west of London (think of it like Sydney/Woolongong). It used to be the manufacturing capital but is trying to reinvent itself as a cultutal centre (as are most of the towns and cities in the UK – something to do with countering the yobbos who are all over the place). Jasper Carrot is a comedian who came to fame in the early 1970’s with appearances on TV and some subversive recordings (Magic Roundabout, motor insurance claim form statements), as well as a lot of touring (there was a cassette released with him on tour in Melbourne in about 1975). He has also done a number of ‘worlds greatest commercial’ TV specials as well as numerous other TV appearances. He started his annual ‘Christmas Crackers’ event sometime in the early 90’s and has raised nearly half a million dollars for charity. Another piece of trivia I found was that Mrs Carrot gave one of her kidneys to their daughter just before one of the shows and he still went on with the show (and they are both doing well, in case you’re wondering). The weather had changed. Up to last friday it had averaged 14 (min) to 18 (max) and generally sunny. Suddenly on Saturday it has changed so every day now is 2 (min) to 9 (max). Still sunny though. The trip to Birmingham to see Jasper Carrot’s Christmas Crackers was OK but I think I caught a bug from going in and out of buildings too much. Bloody heating systems! Went and visited the Bullring shopping centre (picture with the weird outside as I saw it getting off the train). Went out to the NEC arena (9 ks from town in a huge industrial park/convention centre/airport/lake) to see the show.
The show started off with a bunch of local ‘60s rockers (Dave Berry, Wayne Fontana, Brian Poole, Dave Dee, Mike Pender and Tony Crane for you oldies out these) doing covers of some classic rock and roll. Then we had the first ‘surprise’ guest in Bobby Davro (used to be big on UK TV and in pantomimes), who started with an impersonation of Ozzy Osbourne then did some marginally amusing ‘dick joke’ material before finishing his set with Tony Blair. We then had the reformed band Move, with Bev Bevan (also from ELO). I knew their first song (I’m just sitting watching flowers in the rain) but the big closer that the audience sang along to with tears in their eyes was one I’d never heard of. Oh well. then we had Bill Bailey with some old and some new stuff. Most of the material I had seen when he was in Melbourne in March but he added enough new links and local material to keep it fresh.Lord of the Dance finished off the first half with a lot of foot tapping dance.
The second half began with the Bootleg Beatles, who did a splendid job of recreating the mod rockers (both visually and musically) from their first albums. After that was another surprise guest who’s name I can’t remember but he was an old friend of Jasper. He did some passable impressions of local English people but nothing special. Then we had the best part of the evening as Bonnie Tyler came on stage and performed some of her greatest hits (starting with I need a hero, going through some classic Joplin (Janis, not Scott) and ending with Total Eclipse of the Heart. Then we got Lennie Henry as a couple of his characters (the old Jamaican immigrant and a philosophical shopkeeper) and doing some of his regular stand up as well. The final act were G4 who I’d never heard of but assumed they were some girlie group. Found out they were runners up in last year’s X-Factor and they were all male (although I had my doubts about the lead singer). They did a passable version of Nessun Dorma and All I Want for Christmas, but then they butchered Bohemian Rhapsody and finished with You’re the Voice! Aaaargh. The worst part was they sang to a crappy backing tape of synthesisers and a drum machine. Would have been the funniest act of the evening if they weren’t scarily serious. Then everyone came back on stage for Hey Jude, at which point I left as I had to catch a train and as we all know, that song can go on for ever.
So it was a good night with a rather disappointing ending (I think I was the only one not clapping at G4, so maybe it’s just me). the venue held 13,000 and if you look at the picture from my seat, you can see the two big screens are partiall obscured. The one on the right occasionally made it look like the performers had huge eyebrows or dark glasses. The water I purchased at the interval (with a glass of red, of course) was bottled in Italy and all the labels indicated it was then shipped to Mentone! That water had really travelled. Jasper did an admirable job as MC and kept the show moving on at a cracking pace. You could also tell that he was really enjoying being there and that it was a ‘labour of love’. The whole weekend cost me just over a hundred quid which, for those who remember the debacle of my train tickets to Edinburgh, was real good value. Final comment is that I was very impressed with the clapping of the audience as they had excellent rhythm.