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John McNamara’s Weblog

Royal Variety Performance

Empire Theatre, Liverpool
December 1st through 3rd 2007

John has been with the Senators since 1999. He is the Percussion Caption Head and has been instrumental in arranging and organising many of the Senators recent high profile appearances.

Background information

The Senators had been approached by ITV about the possibility of appearing on the Royal Variety Performance 2007 which was to be held in Liverpool at the Empire Theatre. Obviously we were very excited about this and then entered into what seemed like weeks of sending through photos of the members, videos of the Corps, explanations of what we could and possibly couldn’t do.

Finally on the 27th November we got the final approval, ITV wanted to use 8 Snare Drummers in a feature with Seal the pop star, he was opening the show and would be performing the Beatles classic “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”. I was sent through an mp3 of the track minus the vocals and asked to fill some percussion in and that was about it. We were told to meet at 10.00am on Saturday 1st December at the Dolphin Dance Studios in Liverpool.

Saturday December 1st 2007

9.39am I have been at the Rehearsal Studios for about 15 minutes and the rest of the Senators have just arrived. We had members travelling from Brighton, Eastleigh, Nuneaton and Stockport so it was a military operation to get everyone together.

We are greeted by Tina who works at the Studio and shown upstairs into a labyrinth of corridors and smaller studios till we are placed in our own room and told to wait. We are then met by Colin Farquhar who is a researcher for ITV and the contact I have been dealing with, he introduces me to Brian Rogers who is the choreographer for the whole show.

Brian is a fantastic guy and puts us all at ease, he explains that the opening number is going to be a huge production which features a 30 strong choir, 2 Ice Skaters, 3 Acrobats, 3 Gymnasts and a fire eater, together with 8 drummers from the Senators all backing Seal up as he sings the Beatles classic “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”.

We were then introduced to the rest of our “set” and Brian explained what he wanted us to do, we had a few rehearsal runs and got to see what had already been put together, once this was over we were allowed to use our own room to practice exactly what he wanted and especially the “performance” side to what we were asked to do.

12:45pm We have just finished rehearsal at the dance studio and have been asked to meet at the Empire Theatre at 2.30pm so they can see our uniforms and run it on stage as an initial performance. This has given us time to get parked up near the theatre and get some lunch as we know its going to be a long day!

2:53pm We have just spent nearly 30 minutes getting into the theatre, because the Queen will be attending the event, Royal Security is very tight and we have had to have all our bags searched and all the instruments scanned through an x-ray machine!

4:43pm On arrival to the Empire we are given our own dressing room on the 4th floor, complete with mirrors with lights round and tea and coffee on tap. We have been asked to wait whilst they run other parts of the show, after about an hour they came and got us and said we can watch Paul Potts rehearse if we liked, although not a huge opera fan I have to admit that he has a fantastic voice and the set he did was excellent, the opera singers were a little off timing wise but I think we can forgive them that.

6:30pm The guys are finally on stage, its been a long wait but when you see how much goes into these productions you completely understand, for our set we had over 50 performers plus runners and production people and then lighting, choreographers, sound guys and finally the orchestra. Seal hasn’t arrived yet so they used an understudy to sing during the rehearsal, which was cool and allowed us to get everything right before his arrival.

8:45pm We have just finished rehearsal, Seal arrived at 7.15pm said hello to everyone, then picked up his microphone and belted out the song flawlessly, wow that was pretty cool. I will try not to give too much away about the performance, however it’s great to watch as well as being a superb song and everyone seems hyped about the performance.

10.00pm The producers have told us we have the day off tomorrow as they are rehearsing the second half of the production; it is over 2 hours 30 minutes in total. They have kindly booked us into the Premier Inn in central Liverpool which is really nice.

Sunday December 2nd 2007

11:00pm I will sum today up quite briefly. We got up for breakfast (yes that includes the guys who painted the town red the previous evening) and then decided to head into the 2008 Capital of Culture to see what the sights of Liverpool held.

Well the Yates’s wine lodge is nice and then we went to another bar to watch Liverpool and Bolton and then we headed back for a nap and then back out to an all you can eat Chinese buffet in the evening. Sad I know, but it was raining and we had wanted that Chinese buffet since we saw it when we arrived Saturday morning!!!!

Monday December 3rd 2007

7:30am Everyone is at breakfast at the hotel; we have had text’s asking us to be at the Liner Hotel which is 100 yards from the Empire Theatre at 8.00am so they can go into make up ready for the dress run.

8:15am The Liner Hotel is a very prestigious hotel and it’s the holding area for the crew and cast of the Royal Variety Performance. We are given special passes and asked to change into the Indoor Drumline costumes ready for roll call.

10:00am The guys are in make up as we speak; we were ushered through security at the Empire and taken straight to the top floor dressing rooms where 4 ladies are doing the make up for everyone. It is like a military operation, as we are in the cast of Hairspray wait outside ready for their time.

10:30pm The members are on stage with Brian Rogers (Brian is the choreographer and a great guy), he is running final checks before the big dress run, ITV are to film all the close ups at the dress run and know they have a replacement in the can “if” there is an issue with the performance tonight

Seal is a great singer and consummate professional; he works really well with Mike Dixon the Conductor and Composer of most of the music played at the event. The dress rehearsal goes great and I get to see what they film which is all looking good for us and the whole production is really slick.

1:00pm Once we finished our rehearsal we got to see Paul Potts dress run, He is a great singer and his set is very impressive. Everyone we speak to have nothing but really good things to say about him and predict a long future in the industry which is good for him.

We also get to see the Hairspray dress run which is a stage show featuring Mel Smith and Michael Ball and is very exciting and again everyone who has seen the full show say it’s a great night out.

3:00pm We were given lunch at the Liner after the dress runs which was a smorgasbord of salmon, breaded trout, Thai green curry and luxury sweets, how they catered for that many is beyond me but the food was excellent and during lunch we got to see a live feed of what was going on at the Empire.

We have been told to wait to find out if we will be used for the Grand Finale at the end of the show, they want to use everyone but with such a huge cast, some are going to be disappointed.

3:35pm We have been told to change immediately and make our way to the Empire as we will be in the Finale which is great news!!! The Finale will be the Beatles classic song “Let it Be” sung by Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora and featuring the most amazing harmonica player you will ever see.

5:00pm We are heading back to the Liner after seeing Russell Brand do his dress rehearsal stand up and it’s very funny and then taking part in the dress run of the Finale. The Grand Finale is spectacular and features all the principal performers together with the majority of the cast, and to see everyone singing “Let it Be” was very special and no matter how it looks on the small screen, I can vouch for how touching the moment will be.

You forget how many famous names are in the line up, but sat on the front seat of the theatre watching it all was very impressive. Here are the names of the front row……Mel Smith, Michael Ball, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Al Murray, Seal, Katherine Jenkins, James Blunt, Paul Potts, Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, Piers Morgan, Bon Jovi, Jimmy Tarbuck, Joan Rivers, David Jordan, Enrique Iglesias, Russell Brand, Darcy Bussell, Teatro, Phillip Schofield and Kate Thornton.

6:30pm We are back at the Empire ready for the performance; it was a nightmare getting in because there was a large crowd at the Stage Door and the Royal Protection Unit were checking everyone entering the building.

We were ushered downstairs to the basement and asked to wait whilst the show went through final checks; finally we are ushered upstairs to stage right. I had a fantastic view of the monitors and the stage and got to see the Queens party arriving and then had the privilege of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa asking me how she looked as she got ready to sing the National Anthem.

7:15pm Everyone is very nervous, Kate Thornton and Phillip Schofield are now by me and going over their final lines ready for the start of the 79th Royal Variety Performance. The Queen enters the theatre to rapturous applause and Dame Kiri enters the stage with a fanfare of buglers to sing the National Anthem.

As soon as that finishes the familiar strains of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” start and the show is off and running, Seal enters and starts and the show looks great, it gets to our entrance and the boys enter the arena bang on cue. They march to the centre of the stage turn to the audience and then do their performance, everything goes great and in a flash it is over, we are ushered downstairs to the basement so we can collect all our belongings and then we are escorted to the Liner Hotel to wait for the Finale.

9:00pm We are all exhausted, everyone at the Liner who saw the feed said it went great and ITV producers gave us all a big thumbs up as we left so we are happy. When we arrived back at the Liner everyone was given goody bags which included Seals brand new cd, together with James Blunt cd, a t-shirt, book and various odds and sods which are great little mementos.

We watched quite a bit of the show and Russell Brand was very funny and well worth watching on Sunday night, Paul Potts was great as was the English National Ballet. Jimmy Tarbuck struggled a bit with his gags which were quite old but he is a legend.

10:30pm We are back stage side ready for the Finale, it is a wash with celebrities, Simon Cowell was really nice and stopped to chat with people, Seal stood with me and watched Bon Jovi finish off their set on the monitors and Russell Brand had plenty to say about our costumes, but sadly most of it unrepeatable on here as it’s a family site :-)

11:15pm It is all over and what an event, the Finale went great and I got to see the audience as the cast sang their hearts out with Jon Bon Jovi, a truly fantastic site. Once the Finale was over the Principals formed a horse shoe on stage ready for Her Majesty the Queen to enter the stage and greet everyone, what was a nice touch was that they left the curtain up for the audience to see it all going on.

Whether you are a royalist or not, it was a truly special moment to have the Queen just 5 foot away and she looked fabulous, once she had greeted everyone and departed back into the theatre huge cannons of glitter went off and the whole cast just milled together on stage.

I was fortunate to get some great photos of some of the cast and everyone had great things to say about the show and the Senators small part in it.

11:45pmThe cars are loaded and most of us are on our way home. Chris Daly, Ian Abbott and Ben Harney decided to stay behind at the free bar at the Liner and do some palm pressing and I imagine a few drinks also :-)

To sum up

It was an honour to be invited to perform at such a prestigious event, although our part was only small we were made to feel wanted and everyone went out of their way to accommodate us.

A few special thanks have to be made, to Joe Fitzpatrick for overseeing and allowing us the opportunity, to Colin Farquhar from ITV for making it all happen, to Brian Rogers and Ashley the Choreographers for their faith in us, to Judith, Trigger and Gabby our Chaperones, to Seal for being top man and a great singer and to Russell Brand for taking the time to talk with us and giving me some very sound advice! And finally to the 8 Senators Drummers, Ian Abbott, Rob Bonsell, Ben Harney, Ryan Finnegan, Christian Daly, Jack Siou, Neil Kelsey and Olly Tobin well done boys you did yourselves and the Senators proud.

The 79th Royal Variety Performance will be screened on ITV 1 on Sunday 9th December from 8.00pm – 10.15pm, for those interested; we are the first act on.