As I stood centre stage at Chertsey Hall, in front of a
capacity audience, many of whom were on the dance floor looking
expectantly at me, I looked across at
Tony and nodded. The band launched into the intro for the Creedence Clearwater Revival classic, Proud
Mary. I was sweating. I had rehearsed this moment for weeks and was terrified
in case I should miss my cue, or worse still, forget the words.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
I needn’t have
worried. I counted the bars of the intro and launched into the first line
exactly at the right moment and virtually in tune. The crowd went wild (well,
they started dancing), and didn’t stop until the final drum-roll, signalling
the end of the number.
Yes that really is me
So what was I doing on stage singing rock and roll? I’ve
never been renowned for my singing ability. Once at a White Lodge charity event
I sang Maggie May to the backing of a karaoke machine. It was a disaster. Even
I had known I was off key so it must have been bad. But as I had started, I
felt I had to carry on to the end, however mortifying it was. So what on earth
was I doing singing in public again? Had I gone mad?
White Lodge Centre
To answer that question I have to take you back to last
July, when I ascended into the post of President of the Rotary Club of
Shepperton Aurora. One of the privileges of being president of the Rotary Club
is that you get to select a couple of charities which the Club will support
during your year of office. These are called ‘The President’s Charities’. One
of my charities this year is CAMEO, a Shepperton-based charity which provides
respite care for families of people suffering from dementia.
They do this by looking after the (usually elderly) relative
for a day, stimulating them with activities, providing lunch and perhaps most
importantly giving them company for the day in a safe environment. Our support
was timely, as Annette, CAMEO’s manager had told me earlier this year that they
have lost much of their Local Authority funding, so were looking for new ways
of funding their work.
Annette from CAMEO at one of our meetings
Not long after I had announced that CAMEO were to be one of
my Charities this year Doreen Pipe said that her husband Tony’s band would like
to do a charity gig this year for the benefit of CAMEO. I was thrilled at this
idea. Tony plays in a rock and roll band called Ancient Rock. I have seen them
play a few times and think they are terrific, in fact they played at my 50th
birthday party a few years ago. The guys have mostly known each other since
their school days, but are now dispersed across the country and come together
only occasionally to play. I felt honoured, then, that they had offered to
support one of my charities.
Ancient Rock
However, there was one catch. Part of the deal was that I
had to come up on stage and sing a song with Ancient Rock backing me. I could
choose any number I wanted (within reason). They would help me through it but
whether or not I got up on stage to do it was not negotiable. ‘What if I mime
it and you sing?’ I asked, desperately. ‘No’ came the reply. ‘How about if I
just sing the chorus?’. ‘No’. There was no way out, I had to sing. Being a
Creedence fan, I chose Proud Mary as I thought I could cope with the lyrics and
the key. Tony gave me a lot of confidence when he said ‘Just start singing and
we will play whatever key you are in!’ We decided to keep my performance a secret, so nobody but us would know I was
going to get up on stage to sing.
Our venue
A date in November was duly fixed and tickets printed. The
evening would cost £15 a head, which included a fish and chip supper. All
proceeds were to go to CAMEO, so it was important to sell as many tickets as
possible. I had arranged with my former employers, Barclays, that they would
match anything we raised in the raffle, up to a maximum of £750. A number of my
Rotary colleagues offered to assist on the night, and many good quality raffle
prizes were donated. We were told that the Hall had a maximum seated capacity
of 120 so our intention was to fill all seats.
CAMEO themselves sold over 50 tickets, Doreen and Tony sold
around 40 to existing Ancient Rock fans (apparently they have groupies too),
and the rest were snapped up by Rotarians. In fact I think we sold over 140
altogether, but managed to fit everybody in somewhere. I was at a Civic
Reception being hosted by the Mayor that afternoon, so hastened over to
Chertsey in time to help set things up. The PDG stationed herself on the front
door to make sure no-one got in without a ticket. I was hoping to get some
rehearsal time on stage with the band, but this proved to be impossible.
So, by 7.30 the hall was full of expectant people, many of
whom had never seen Ancient Rock play and had no idea what to expect. The band
started off fairly low key, with more laid back rock music such as the Shadows
and Beatles. Later they would get a bit heavier with the likes of The Troggs
and Rolling Stones. In fact during the first half they did a brilliant
rendition of the Shadows’ Wonderful Land, with Tony giving a virtuoso
performance in the Hank Marvin role.
Virtuoso - Tony Pipe
This was actually the first record I had
ever bought, in the early 60’s. At the time I didn’t even have a record player,
so I bought it as a Christmas present for my elder brother who did have one,
thinking that he’d be thrilled to listen to Wonderful Land all day long. What I
hadn’t foreseen was that he was into the likes of Elvis Presley and Bobby Vee,
and thought the Shadows to be rather un-cool. Needless to say, I struggled to
get the new record played at all.
Sally enjoys the show
Anyway back to the concert, which progressed very well. Tony
and the band had nearly everyone dancing and singing along to classics of the
60’s and 70’s. The plan was that after the interval, the band would play 5
numbers, then I would appear on stage to say a few words, before making to
leave. Tony would stop me leaving the stage and tell me the band wanted me to
sing a number with them. I was to protest that unfortunately I don’t sing and
try again to leave. At this point Tony would ask the audience if they wanted to
hear me sing. He was confident they would reply in the affirmative, and that
would be it.
I say a few words
As the interval came and went, and the raffle was held (we
also auctioned a few items which raised a lot of money thanks to Richard
Edgar’s brilliant work as an auctioneer) I was becoming more and more nervous.
By the time fish and chips had arrived and been consumed I tried to keep my
mind off my coming ordeal by making myself busy clearing up the rubbish. Des
and Moira said they would need to go shortly after the interval, but I said I
would be making a speech shortly and they should at least stay for that.
Dance floor looks busy
Finally my big moment arrived. I was waiting backstage when
Tony announced that I would be saying a few words, and on I came. After
thanking everybody as usual I explained about President’s charities, and why
CAMEO was one of them (they used to look after my late mother), I thanked
everyone for coming and expressed the hope that they would enjoy the rest of
the evening. Tony and I then acted out our little charade, which ended up with
me launching into Proud Mary. The PDG recorded the whole thing on her iPad, but
neither of us has the foggiest idea how to send the video anywhere, so it can
only be viewed on her gadget.
The audience are putty in my hands
The evening was an outstanding success. The raffle alone
raised over £800, and Barclays topped this up by a further £750. Altogether the
evening made over £2800 for Cameo, and I was delighted to attend Christmas
lunch at the Greeno Centre in Shepperton (where CAMEO are based) to hand it all
over to Annette. I’m trying to persuade Tony to make this an annual event.
Tony joins me to make presentation to Annette
