A fun night out with Bucks Fizz....

I had mixed feelings about going along to the final event of the Tonbridge Arts festival but thought why not go along with an open mind. Anyway it was a night out! The venue was the brand spanking new West Kent College theatre which is an absolutely superb new, state of the art, venue for Tonbridge. I had had a glimpse of Bucks Fizz at the Hillview School May Ball, albeit without the male singer and they only did their best known Eurovison song, so I knew that they could sing. But hang on! This was Bucks Fizz and I was into Heaven 17, The Jam and Kraftwerk while they were churning out all that Euro trash! How could I possibly be even seen there! Having seen their concert though, and being less bothered about my image than I was in the 80s, I can honestly say that it was a great night out. Entertaining, nothing held back, wonderful shameless kitsch costumes, and great singing. Mike Nolan is now the only male singer in the line up which features Jay Aston, who rejoined the group in 2009 after a 24 year absence. Mike held the whole night together with his little quips and funny asides as well as some very competent singing. He was very good with the audience who pretty much did everything he said; if he said clap we all all clapped, if he told us to get up and dance we did that too. He had a great rapport with his fans. There were plenty of true Buck Fizz fanatics there as well. You might think this somewhat sad but a handful of hardcore fans knew every word of every song and had clearly attended most of their gigs. They were just watching and listening, they were living it!

I should also mention that before The Original Buck Fizz (that's what they call themselves these days) we were treated to The Tonbridge Rock Choir, who performed a whole repertoire of Motown hits, classic pop songs, even a rap. What a warm up act they were. The whole stage was completely full as they gave us twenty minutes of great entertainment. Also during the night we had a performance of several songs by the folksy Kyla Stroud, performing a mix of covers and her own material. She's only 16 or 17 and happens to be Cheryl Baker from BF's daughter, but she's surely a star in the making. Another folky band, The Helen Garrod Trio put in a very professional performance, including some beautiful guitar duets, completed the support acts for the evening with Joni Mitchell-esque covers. But the night very definitely belonged to local lass Cheryl Baker and her fellow band members Jay Aston and Mike Nolan. I won't be downloading all the records or anything but I did have a very entertaining night out. They are a great live group who don't take themselves at all seriously they just seem to be out there having fun. I just wished I'd taken a better camera along with me!...