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Babbacombe Theatre
The Babbacombe Theatre is a theatre in Babbacombe in Torquay, South Devon, England. Refurbished in 2009, the venue has been part of the Bay’s tourism industry since the 1930s, and is known for staging variety shows, particularly since 1986 when Colin Matthews took over the venue. The theatre boasts the longest running summer season in the country, lasting nine months. With a regular Christmas show as well as touring productions, the venue is open throughout the year. History The Babbacombe Theatre was built gradually on the grounds of a site where bands played in the summer. The Babbacombe Downs Concert Hall was built in 1938 to replace the weather-damage bandstand and awning, which had been constructed in 1920 and 1935. The hall could be built no higher than the old awning, so all the seats in the auditorium are on one level. Ernest Goss’ Municipal Orchestra with the BBC’s baritone John Steabben were the inaugural performers at the 27 May 1939, debut. The first Sunda ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Torquay
Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paignton on the west of the bay and across from the fishing port of Brixham. The town's economy, like Brixham's, was initially based upon fishing and agriculture, but in the early 19th century it began to develop into a fashionable seaside resort. Later, as the town's fame spread, it was popular with Victorian society. Renowned for its mild climate, the town earned the nickname the English Riviera. The writer Agatha Christie was born in the town and lived at Ashfield in Torquay during her early years. There is an "Agatha Christie Mile", a tour with plaques dedicated to her life and work. The poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning lived in the town from 1837 to 1841 on the recommendation of her doctor in an attempt to cure her of a disease which is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colin Fry
Colin Fry (19 May 1962 – 25 August 2015) was a British spiritualist medium and television personality. He was one of the best known mediums in Britain bringing comfort and entertainment to many. Biography Colin Fry was born on 19 May 1962 in Haywards Heath, Sussex. He claimed to have discovered psychic ability from the age of four when he told his grandfather that his mother had “died and gone to heaven”. The next day his grandfather received a telegram that said his mother had passed away. Fry hosted a number of television programmes dealing with the supernatural, including: ''Most Haunted,'' ''Psychic Private Eyes'' and '' 6ixth Sense with Colin Fry'', produced by Living TV. Fry, who at one time performed under the stage name of "Lincoln", was exposed in 1992 when during a séance the lights were unexpectedly turned on and he was seen holding a spirit trumpet in the air, which the audience had been led to believe was being levitated by spiritual energy. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chuckle Brothers
The Chuckle Brothers were an English comedy double act comprising Barry David Elliott (24 December 1944 – 5 August 2018) and Paul Harman Elliott (born 18 October 1947). They were known for their BBC children's programme ''ChuckleVision'', which aired from 1987 to 2009 and celebrated its twenty-first series with a 2010 stage tour titled ''An Audience with the Chuckle Brothers''. The comedy of the Chuckle Brothers usually derived from slapstick, other visual gags, and wordplay, and their catchphrases included "To me, to you!" and "Oh dear, oh dear!" Early life The brothers were born in Rotherham to Amy and James Patton Elliott, in 1944 and 1947. Their father was a Gang Show performer whose stage name was Gene Patton; he worked with the 18-year-old Peter Sellers in 1943 in The No. 10 Gang and gave performances in London, Orkney and the Hebrides, Iceland, the Far East, India, and Burma. Their two older brothers, Jimmy and Brian, were known professionally as the Patton Brothers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lenny Henry
Sir Lenworth George Henry (born 29 August 1958) is a British actor, comedian, singer, television presenter and writer. Henry gained success as a stand-up comedian and impressionist in the late 1970s and early 1980s, culminating in ''The Lenny Henry Show'' in 1984. He was the most prominent black British comedian of the time and much of his material served to celebrate and parody his African-Caribbean roots. In 1985, he cofounded the charity Comic Relief with the comedy screenwriter Richard Curtis. He has appeared in numerous other TV programmes, including children's entertainment show ''Tiswas'', sitcom ''Chef!'' and '' The Magicians'' for BBC One, and in his later years has transitioned toward acting roles in stage and screen. He appears in the Amazon Prime series '' The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power''.Otterson, Joe (3 December 2020)"'Lord of the Rings' Series at Amazon Adds 20 Actors to Cast" Variety. .Retrieved 4 December 2020. Henry is the Chancellor of Birmingham ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elkie Brooks
Elkie Brooks (born Elaine Bookbinder; 25 February 1946) is an English rock, blues and jazz singer. She was a vocalist with the bands Dada and Vinegar Joe, and later became a solo artist. She gained her biggest success in the late 1970s and 1980s, releasing 13 UK Top 75 singles, and reached the top ten with "Pearl's a Singer", "Sunshine After the Rain" and the title track of the album '' No More the Fool'' (1986). She has been nominated twice for the Brit Awards. Brooks is a Gold Badge Award of Merit winner from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA) (now The Ivors Academy) and is generally referred to as the "British Queen of Blues". Life and career Early career and Vinegar Joe Brooks was born Elaine Bookbinder in Salford, to a Jewish family. Her father's grandparents emigrated to Britain from Poland at the start of the 20th century to escape the pogroms. Her older brothers are Raymond Bookbinder (born 1938) and Anthony Bookbinder (born 28 May 1943), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kenny Ball
Kenneth Daniel Ball (22 May 1930Larkin C., ''Virgin Encyclopedia of Sixties Music''. (Muze UK Ltd, 1997), p. 29; ) – 7 March 2013) was an English jazz musician, best known as the bandleader, lead trumpet player and vocalist in Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen. Career Ball was born in Ilford, Essex. At the age of 14 he left school to work as a clerk in an advertising agency, but also started taking trumpet lessons. He began his career as a semi-professional sideman in bands, whilst also working as a salesman and for the advertising agency. He turned professional in 1953 and played the trumpet in bands led by Sid Phillips, Charlie Galbraith, Eric Delaney and Terry Lightfoot before forming his own trad jazz band – Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen – in 1958. His Dixieland band was at the forefront of the early 1960s UK jazz revival. In 1961 their recording of Cole Porter's "Samantha" (Pye 7NJ.2040 – released February 1961) became a hit, and they reached No. 2 at the end of 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acker Bilk
Bernard Stanley "Acker" Bilk, (28 January 1929 – 2 November 2014) was a British clarinetist and vocalist known for his breathy, vibrato-rich, lower-register style, and distinctive appearance – of goatee, bowler hat and striped waistcoat. Bilk's 1962 instrumental tune " Stranger on the Shore" became the UK's biggest selling single of 1962. It spent more than 50 weeks on the UK charts, peaking at number two, and was the second No. 1 single in the United States by a British artist. Early life Bilk was born in Pensford, Somerset, in 1929. He earned the nickname "Acker" from the Somerset slang for "friend" or "mate". His parents tried to teach him the piano but, as a boy, Bilk found it restricted his love of outdoor activities, including football. He lost two front teeth in a school fight and half a finger in a sledging accident, both of which he said affected his eventual clarinet style. On leaving school Bilk joined the workforce of W.D. & H.O. Wills's cigarette fac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Des O'Connor
Desmond Bernard O'Connor (12 January 1932 – 14 November 2020) was an English comedian, singer and television presenter. He was a long-time TV chat-show host, beginning with ''The Des O'Connor Show'' in 1963, which ran for ten years. He also presented several U.K. television game shows, including ''Take Your Pick!'' from 1992 to 1999, and the long-running Channel 4 game show ''Countdown'' for two years between 2007 and 2008. O'Connor recorded 36 albums and had four top-ten UK singles, including a number-one hit with "I Pretend", with global sales of more than sixteen million records. Well known for his friendship with comedians Morecambe and Wise, his singing ability was often light-heartedly mocked on their show, with O'Connor taking part in the sketches. Early life Desmond Bernard O'Connor was born on 12 January 1932 in Stepney, East London, to Maude (''née'' Bassett), a cleaner, and Harry O'Connor, a dustman. His father was of Irish and Jewish descent, and he often ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tim Vine
Timothy Mark Vine (born 4 March 1967) is an English comedian, actor, writer, and presenter best known for his one-liners and his role on the sitcom ''Not Going Out'' (2006–2014). He has released a number of stand-up comedy specials and has written several joke books. From 2004 to 2014, Vine held the Guinness World Record for the most jokes told in an hour; each joke had to get a laugh from the audience to count towards the total, and he set the new record with 499 jokes. In both 2010 and 2014, he won the award for best joke at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and was the runner-up for the three years in between. Early life Timothy Mark Vine was born in the Cheam suburb of London on 4 March 1967, the son of Diana (née Tillett), a housewife and occasional doctor's receptionist, and Guy Vine (died 2018), a lecturer in civil engineering at North East Surrey College of Technology. He is the younger brother of broadcaster Jeremy Vine and the older brother of artist Sonya Vine. He wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steven K Amos
Stephen Kehinde Amos (born 3 December 1967) is a British stand-up comedian and television personality. A regular on the international comedy circuit, he is known for including his audience members during his shows. He began his career as a compere at the Big Fish comedy clubs in South London, and has been nominated for Chortle's Best Compere Award three times in 2004, 2007 and 2008. Performances and tours Amos has performed stand up at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe every year since 2003, after making his début in 2001. During the 2006 Fringe, he performed the revealing solo show ''All of Me'', in which he publicly acknowledged his own homosexuality to his audience for the first time. He hosted a chat show on weekends (in addition to his own show), performed as a guest at various extra festival shows, such as ''Spank!'', and performed daily in Stewart Lee's production of Eric Bogosian's play ''Talk Radio''. Away from the fringe, Amos is a regular performer at The Comedy Stor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Raymond Froggatt
Raymond William Froggatt (born 13 November 1941) is an English songwriter and singer.Larkin, Colin (1998) ''The Virgin Encyclopedia of Country Music'', Virgin Books, , p. 159-160 Biography Froggatt (otherwise known as "Froggy") was born in Bordesley Green, Birmingham. He began performing rock and roll in the early 1960s before moving on to focus on Country and Western. His band, initially known as the Buccaneers, later Monopoly and ultimately The Raymond Froggatt Band with guitarist Hartley Cain (H Cain), drummer Len Ablethorpe and whose bassist was Louis Clark of Electric Light Orchestra and Hooked on Classics fame, were signed by Polydor in 1964. However chart success eluded them, although the Dave Clark Five had a No. 7 hit in the UK Singles Chart with Froggatt's "The Red Balloon" in 1968. His own original version of the song, under the title "Callow-la-vita", reached No. 3 in the Netherlands. Another Froggatt song, " Big Ship", was a No. 8 UK hit for Cliff Richard in 1969, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Rubettes
The Rubettes are an English pop/glam rock band put together in 1974 after the release of "Sugar Baby Love", a recording assembled of studio session musicians in 1973 by the songwriting team of Wayne Bickerton, the then head of A&R at Polydor Records, and his co-songwriter, Tony Waddington, after their doo-wop and 1950s American pop-influenced songs had been rejected by a number of existing acts. Waddington paired the group with manager John Morris, the husband of singer Clodagh Rodgers and under his guidance, the band duly emerged at the tail end of the glam rock movement, wearing trademark white suits and cloth caps on stage. Their first release, "Sugar Baby Love" was an instant hit remaining at number one in the United Kingdom for four weeks in May 1974, while reaching number 37 on the US chart that August, and remains their best-known record. Subsequent releases were to be less successful, but the band continued to tour well into the 2000s with two line-ups in existence. Hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
