Bognor Regis

[Michele Monro]

The first brick of the then Bognor Regis Centre was laid on 13th June 1977 by HRH Princess Alexandra.It was built to replace the Esplanade Theatre (opposite the Royal Norfolk Hotel) and the Theatre Royal which stood on this site. The Centre opened on March 11th 1980.It then comprised a 384 seat theatre, 550 seat multi-purpose hall, seaward facing cafeteria, large public bar and meeting rooms. The Centre was run initially run by Arun District Council. Due to the cost of running the venue, in 1991 Arun District Council closed the Centre and the responsibility was passed to Bognor Regis Town Council. The Council ran it for three years before closing the building. It lay empty for a year until it was decided to lease the site to Whitbread. So in 1996 the building was divided. Whitbread converted the seaward end containing the Hall and Café, leaving the Theatre in the other half. After a local campaign the Council persuaded Whitbread to grant a lease to a charitable trust (Arun Arts Co Ltd).

In December 1996 the Trust re-opened the Theatre as the Watershed. Because Whitbread would not allow a bar on the premises the existing bar was turned into a dance studio and redundant toilets into further meeting rooms. A new café was installed in the foyer. The Watershed ran till 1998 when the Management got into financial difficulties and the Theatre was faced with closure again. A new group of trustees was formed who were able to keep the Centre running. The Theatre was returned to its original name The Alexandra Theatre. The auditorium was refurbished and the Centre continued to run until 2002 when, due to a large amount of debt being incurred, it was closed once more. New trustees were again appointed but the debts were crippling and in 2005 the Theatre closed and went into liquidation. Fortunately financial backing was found and the debts paid off. In January 2006 the current trustees took possession of the Centre with the lease intact. Major refurbishment took place and it was renamed the Hotham Arts Centre with the Alexandra Theatre. An agreement was reached with Whitbread to reinstate a bar The café was relocated and a gallery was created in the foyer. Since then the Centre as gone from strength to strength.

Having said all that they are now trying to get the building demolished for flats but the public are fighting against this happening. It is now being run by volunteers and they are all very enthusiastic about the venue even when the roof started leaking tonight!!! No I'm not joking, it is full of holes and the foyer was littered with buckets and containers catching the rainpour and boy did it rain tonight.

That wouldn't be sooooooo bad but it was rather unnerving to see the tarpaulin hang above the stage to catch the water. Apparaently it is then channelled into a drainage pipe that takes it outside the theatre. Good thing it wasn't last night when Paul ended up like a puddle on the floor otherwise we might not have found him again!!! (wishful thinking).

I love to write encouraging things about Paul!! as he is a sensitive soul and he is an easy target. Talking about water when he left the Monro Estate this morning he was pulling litre bottle of water out of the boot of his car to fill the water tank, because the car is knackered. He of course blames it on the drive to Dudley, I blame it on the driver on the way to Dudley. Feeling like I should offer my help I asked if he wanted me to refill the bottle in case of trouble on the journey. No need he said, I have 11 others in the car!! You won't be surprised to know Matt took his own car to Bognor and because Paul only lives a snippet away they dropped Paul's car off at his house and went on to the theatre together which meant Matt was driving again. More Heart FM!!!

The theatre is about a 350 seater and it was really busy and in the first half as Matt started his Neil Diamond routine, you could hear cheering, whistling and clapping resonating out into the foyer, actually you could probably hear in in the street - they went mad. Gaining a tremendous amount of confidence because of this Matt finally took the courage to use the HAT in Mr Bojangles and the crowd went mad again. He even treated everyone to a little shuffle. Look out for it.

The theatre actually has superb natural acoustics and one of the things Matt has been doing is testing out the positions of the monitors, having learnt a new trick from the trumpet player and this meant he felt more comfortable on the stage but tonight he also used a new reverb setting and now he feels he has cracked it and the show is as good as it can be. At the end of "Softly" the audience were on their feet and although Matt had left the stage he was forced to come back on and sing "Born free' That earned another standing ovation and you don't get a better accolade then that. It was Paul who said that Matt was fantastic tonight and that it was the best show ever (heard that before somewhere!!!)

One thing I want to mention someone bought the DVD 'An Evening With' at Isle of Wight and they picked up the dummy box. If you were on the island on Thursday and bought a DVD please check the disc is inside otherwise email me on michele@mattmonro.com and I will replace it immediately.

We are also offering a special deal to our website members - half price tickets for the Beck Theatre in Hayes on Wednesday to the first 20 people that email me.

Till later
Enjoy the music

[Marian]

I thought you might like to see a few lines from a friend of mine, Sally, who saw Matt Jnr last night for the first time.

"Just thought I would write to tell you how much we enjoyed seeing Matt Monro Jnr last night. Although he is not as good a singer as his Dad we thoroughly enjoyed the show and enjoyed the banter between Matt and Colin Keys ( who I remember well from the Des O'Connor show ). Matt Jnr came across as being a very nice person and was quite overcome by the applause he got from the Bognor audience. I really enjoyed his selection of songs. Matt looks alot like his Dad and at times sounds very like him.

I was quite flattered as he gave me a kiss at the end when I was standing up applauding."

[Michele Monro]

I took my father last night to what turned out to be a truly amazing awesome gig. He knew Matt Snr when he worked at the bus garage and to meet and talk with his son was really moving for him. As to the concert he was singing his way through most of the songs and was mesmerised for most of the evening.

I too was totally amazed at his performance which made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck, his style was full of chrisma which is sadly lacking in many of todays artists and only Michael Bubble comes close!!
A week before I was rocking watching 'The Feeling' at Brighton - Matt's performance was as memorable as that one. I was probably the youngest one in the audience at Bognor but Matt's performance of his father's songs and songs of other great artists was magnificent and I shall be back to see him again when he is in the south of England and I shall be bringing some other guys and dolls along with me to see him.

Matt's music must not die along with his generation and as long as his son continues to perform songs old and new in his own style, then a new generation will continue to witness an amazing talent.Once again I thank you for the opportunity to meet and hear Matt perform an amazing gig.

Thanks, Kevin Ginger