Whitley Bay Playhouse

[paul and sue]

Hi all,

Yes another show and this time it was back to the seaside, pack the shorts, t-shirts and bucket and spade and off we go. As the journey was an arduous six hours from where I live in Worthing, it was decided that I should go up the night before and stay at Monro Towers.

With a good night’s sleep behind me, we set off the next morning at about 11am. I was amazingly organised and had previously printed off the route the day before, but knew if I got lost MattNav would be there to come to my rescue. I don’t think we have ever had such a straight forward journey, straight up the A1 and we would be at our destination. After a couple of hours we stopped for a bite to eat and to stretch our legs. It was such a glorious day, 21 degrees and sunny. I should have known it was too good to last. We were about 20 miles south of Newcastle when the tempature started to plummet at an alarming rate. Gone was the beautiful sunny day, the degrees were spinning down the gauge at an alarming rate. Twenty degrees dropping to twelve and still spiralling downwards.

There was worse to come. We arrived after travelling some five hours to find grey overcast skies, a keen north east wind and a tempature of just seven degrees. It was freezing, just right for the shorts and t-shirts I had packed. We checked into the Park Hotel in Tynemouth about two miles away from the venue in Whitley Bay. The show itself was not until the Friday but we had come up on the Thursday to recover from Car Lag (that’s like jet lag without the landing).

The hotel itself is right on the coast with most rooms having a sea-view, ours of course was the exception. The literature proudly boasted that they specialised in weekend stag parties. You can imagine our delight when we found out this unexpected morsel of information. This particular weekend, they didn’t have one stag party but two booked and coming in from Scotland. They were due to arrive on Friday afternoon. Matt and I were not too worried as we would be gone first thing on Saturday morning.

We got changed, had a bite to eat and then on to bed for an early night. Friday morning saw no improvement to the weather, it was still a murky grey and freezing, but never mind it was showday. We arrived at the Theatre at around 3.00pm and proceeded to get into our well rehearsed band call routine. Matt headed towards the stage and I went to set up all the merchandise. Before I knew it the doors were open and we were off and running.

One of the great pleasures I always get from selling the merchandise is the wonderful people I am lucky enough to meet. Whitley Bay Playhouse was no different, I met a lovely man called Siggi who informed me that he is a huge Matt Monro fan, so much so, that his imminent wedding was going to feature mostly Matt Monro songs, luvly jubbly. Another surprise was the appearance of several of Matt friends from Spain, Kim and Jayne. Matt had a special guest star for this show a singer named Sadie who was excellent and sang some of the great songs made famous by such greats as Doris Day and Judy Garland. Then it was time for Matt himself, the show was probably the best I have ever been lucky enough to see him do, with quite a bit of new material included. I do not want to say too much as it might spoil the surprise for some of you later in the year. The show finished with a complete standing ovation and cheers everywhere. At the end of the show Matt comes out to meet everyone, well the theatre foyer at Whitley Bay is not that large and it was heaving. All too soon it was time to pack up and head back to the hotel. Matt looked shattered and we were both looking forward to a sit down and a quiet drink, well the drink was fine but unfortunately the two Scottish stag parties had arrived so it was far from quiet.

The following morning Matt informed me that he had an unexpected business meeting which he was taking at 10.30 but was confident that we would be on the road by 12.30. There are business meetings and there are business meetings and this fell into the category of long, lengthy and over-ran. By the time we had something to eat and were ready to leave it was 4.30 pm. We checked out, loaded the car and set off for home. Now as some of you might have known, this particular weekend was the Bank Holiday weekend and the traffic was its usual chaos. We had only gone about two miles in 45-minutes when Matt decided it would be safer to turn around and re-check in at the hotel as it was looking like a minimum of a ten hour journey before reaching “Monro Towers”. We booked back into the hotel and spent another night there, still at least we had entertainment for the evening. There were 35 Scotsmen there and luckily for us they all felt like singing. Marvellous. When we could take no more we retired for the night.

The trouble was that all the allocated stag party rooms were around ours and once they returned to their rooms it didn’t mean they were going to retire. No, it meant a whole new batch of singing and misbehaving. We set off on Sunday morning at about 10.30 am hoping for a pain-free journey and to be fair, it started off so promisingly. We flew back down the A1 and then had to get onto the M1 and then the M42 as Matt had to stop in Solihull for another business meeting with his sound people. All went well but by the time we left, the traffic had really started to build and the further south we went the worse it became, until eventually it was stationary. It was at that moment Matt made another of his executive decisions.

We had now been on the road for nine hours and I have to admit to being ever so slightly cream crackered (for the sake of any posh people, it means knackered). Matt directed us to another hotel and we fell into bed, not having had the best of sleeps the night before. We set off the following morning and to my great surprise the roads were empty and we arrived back at H.Q. at lunchtime on Sunday. Not bad going, only two days late, but at least we both got back safely.

Having said my goodbyes, I set off for home and the four hour journey certainly gave me time to work out how to explain to Sue (she who must be obeyed) why a one night gig had taken three. But without Sue’s blessing I wouldn’t be able to ride tandem with Matt and pursue my love for this crazy world of show business. So a mighty big thank you to her.

A big thanks to everyone at the Whitley Bay Playhouse and to the Monro family.
Until the next time, take care
Paul

[ROBERT M.]

I really enjoyed reading yours and Matt Jnrs experiences Paul I think I can read a novel quicker though, than the time it took me to read your entertaining post Must have taken you a while to type all that out By the way Paul, next time you travel across country, make sure you check the local weather forecast first, as the weather in the north east was very cool with that nagging north east wind for at least a full week before you travelled up

[mariana44]

Great story -as ever Paul. As Robert said, however you found the time to post it is beyond me !! Well done !!

[Marian]

Another really entertaining episode Paul. Great stuff, just love reading them. I'm sure you'll be able to write a book of your experiences soon.
Marian

[Lena & Harry Smith]

So !! no time to use your bucket and spade then Paul.?
We feel cream crackered just reading about your experience on this trip to Whitley Bay and back, and anyone who travels for long journeys in bad weather will know it ain't much fun, but we can tell that the rewards come from witnessing the success of Matt's shows and the packed venues with so many people enjoying his talent.
Another great story Paul.

[Angela51]

Wow..... What a story, but I enljoyed reading it.

One must always remember, when travelling North, (pack your Wellies)

I always keep a pair of mine, in the boot, especially when I have done my journeys to Scotland/Orkney, you never know.

If it rains etc., when I am at home, my friends joke about the emergency pair in the car !

Angela