Tavern in the Town
Recollections by Alan Dainton, Oct 2008
I came to Pewsey in 1976 from a teaching job in Durrington to run the new Pewsey Sports Center and Youth Club and for the first year or so gradually became involved with the social life of Pewsey, which of course included Carnival.
Before long I was asked to take over from Frank Valentine as compere of Tavern in the Town, the Carnival Show which at that time it was based on the old time music hall and my role was loosely based on that of the Master of Ceremonies as portrayed by Leonard Sachs on TV’s Good Old Days.
Sitting at a table on the side of the stage in full view, I would introduce the various songs, dance and drama acts with maximum verbosity mixed with a little gentle smut and double entendre. More often than not, my job was to fill in with jokes if there were any unforeseen calamities or hitches in the programme.
This of course all took place in the old Bouverie Hall in River Street, opposite the old Co-op and Phoenix Hotel which doubled as the green room to provide “Dutch courage” for the thirsty cast.
The music was all live – provided by the brilliant Ira Janes on piano and the dependable Gordon Phillips on percussion (snare drum, cymbal and brush and ?????) – they could both fill in and cover for forgotten words or dance steps (which were not infrequent).
In those days performances were held on the weekend before carnival and the same two days the week after. The tickets particularly those for the final performance were hard to come by. With people queuing as early as 6am at the Moonrakers when the box office opened.
This became a problem because all the cast were allowed to buy tickets for their friends and family in advance and that made it impossible for the general public to buy tickets for the final two performances. It was then decided that the cast should have no advance tickets so the queues formed earlier and grew longer.
The show was always at least 3 hours long with a 45 min break when a meal was served. Always provided by Dulcie Kunckler and her stalwart band of helpers. Drinks (Moonrakers) were brought to the table by a regular group of waiters and waitress. By the end of the night the tables of theatre goers were more than relaxed. In fact, several regular groups arrived already relaxed, having had a few pre-show drinks to be in full heckling mood for the start of the first act, with the —-that it was often my task to try and keep the audience from over exuberance as well as compare the shows.
Ira Janes and Gordon Phillips apart, Hilary Lemington (wife of one of the king singers) and Carol Hendry (from Upavon) both did their more than fair share of nerve-wracking piano accomplishment, also Brian Neil who later joined the ???? on guitar.
Memorable acts from those old Bouverie Hall days were ????? Dean, Pewsey’s own local yokel, complete with smock, walking stick, hat and cider jug (on which was written all his jokes) – typical joke ‘”Oi’ve never been to bed with an ugly woman but oi’ve woken up with a few’”. Or ‘”the doctor asked me to fill in a questionnaire and where it said “sex” I put “infrequently” and the doctor said “ be that one word, or two?”. Boom boom indeed.
Local girl, Pam Kimber a real trouper, always provided a song as did June Amor (nee Hull) who also produced. Dave Owen delivered a Stanley Hollaway monologue in his own ????? way – as indeed he still does today – arguably Tavern’s longest serving member. Julie Laverton???? and Sylvia Hardy??? both produced several memorable shows as well as performing. Sam Lewis, blacksmith????, always camped up as Charle Aznomore, Shirley Brassey, Earthy Git – bravely and shamelessly going down into the audience to interact in an often shameful and bawdy manner.
Rube and ??? (aka Chris Messenger and Doreen High) became the highlight of the shows, supposedly the Bouverie Hall cleaners who would come on to the stage late on in the second half, to generally gossip and ??? members of the audience – more often than not – totally unscripted.
Joanne Bottoms (nee Thorne) and Janet Amor (nee Strong) also appeared each year with their harmony folk songs. Alister Sinclair was the singing postman (have you got a light boy?) and it was my hapless task to be his straight man and provide guitar backing, never knowing the full extent of his inebriation.
Bernie Bradsaw and John Grigg were eagerly anticipated for their original brand of humour. Dave and Joan Baggus, Pete and Joan Parker were two regular couples in the early days. Of course, how could one omit Colin Harris. Actor, dancer, producer, general ham as well as Pete Bond, Graham Spanswick who always performed some knock about sketches, often going ‘off script’.
And the dancing girls particularly Adele and Simone Lay along with many other local girls all ready and willing to provide the opening and closing dance sequences as well as aiding and abetting the many, often near the mark sketches. In the early days the choreography was provided by Barbara ????, a dance teacher from Burbage and later, to this day by Tiggy Holmes.
I mentioned earlier the often inebriated heckler, who came close to disrupting or the show with their ill timed or suppressed sniggers, but sometimes humorous comments. The chief suspect was Paul Hornbogen and I remember at the close of one particularly noisy show – I closed the performance with some light hearted banter about how easy it was to sit in the audience and take the micky and I threw out a challenge to this one, especially loud table, to come up and have a go and see what its really like to perform in front of family and friends, under the spotlights and give him his due Paul took up the challenge, some 20 years ago and has now become the lynch pin of the show. Singing, dancing, writing sketches, acting and comparing. The German SS Officer, Tommy Cooper, Skippy the kangaroo, all springing immediately to mind, but there are countless other stupid songs and crazy interludes all made funnier by forgotten scripts and ad-libs.
Brian and Jo German deserve a mention for their backstage work over the years as does Rob Bottoms on the lights. Gill Oliphant and Martin Clifton particularly have been ???? cast and production member. John Lavis for his singing and acting skills. Daren Little and Stuart Jackson have also constantly come up with some highly original and well acted spasm Tiggy Holmes sister Lesley Ann Hornbogen has played a central part to many of the more recent Taverns.
And finaly, some 20 odd years ago my family went to Butlins, a very wet experience week, but the final of the caberet every single night was The Music Man and I brought this to Tavern:
- “I am the music man, I come from down your way and I can pla-ay?
- Audience) “ what can you play?
- M/C: “I can play the Pi-an-o!” Oooh – Pia-Pia_piano, Piano, Piano” etc with everyone doing the actions
- Trombone
- The Archers
- Match of the Day
- Larry Grayson – “shut that, shut that , shut that door, etc.”
- Tommy Cooper (“just like, Just like, Just like that!).
- Jimmy Cagney (“Dirty-Dirty-Dirty rat) Coins (where everyone would sing and bang the table with coins)
Various other popular verses finally culminating with Dam busters – Where the whole audience would be out of their seat, even standing on tables da-da-da-daing to the Dam busters theme with lights flashing and the band and audience going wild.
This was the moment when everyone, sufficiently uninhibited, could do their bit with un abundant exuberance followed by the cast and audience joining hands for the patriotic rendition of Land of Hope and Glory.
It was a great finish to the shows, Unfortunately many of the cast and crew felt we were in a bit of a rut with it and tired of doing it year in year out, but the audience did it only once a year and looked forward to contributing their talents, a great release from sitting drinking, eating and watching a three quarter hour show.
Finally it was decided to do away with the Music Man, but on the last show that year, !1999 I think) the audience demanded it and even though the orchestra were ordered not to perform, the lighting crew ordered to switch off, the audience just carried on anyway, So I felt I should go on and lead the way, as I had done for nearly 20 years, I was not popular with the producer, understandably . My final year was 2000, having done 23 years and it was a great pleasure for me to perform this year (2008) with a cameo spot, with Paul Hornbogen, a song titled “dear Penis Along with a few jokes, as was my wont. I was the so called “archive Footage!
I apologise for the numerous names unmentioned, particularly the more recent ones. Tavern new is a biannual event and only 3 nights long, but it is a great show, all local talent and it always entertains- ok gone is the live musical backing of the old days and in are the techno advances, microphones, video screens etc but its still remains a good night and it could be you up there next time!
