Matt Monro Forum

I couldn't find our old thread on Joe Longthorne, but I'm sure there is one.
Anyhow, I just watched Joe on the Alan Titchmarsh show. He looked well and sang well too, 'Let Me Try Again.' I wondered if that was our Geraldine in the front row
Apparently Joe's tour starts tonight ,and he has a new CD out too.
Marian

Joe had lost some weight since we last saw him at the Beck Theatre.
He hasn't lost the power to sing though, and still one of the best singers and entertainers that we have in the country.

Saw Joe at Blackpool on Good Friday, absolutely sensational, looking very well and singing better than ever. I should have seen him perform last night at Banstaple but show was cancelled, so I'm off to see him at Leamington next Thursday. Nothing better than an evening listening to Joe singing.

You are absolutely right Chris. A great performer
Joe is appearing at the Beck Theatre tomorrow Friday, just wish we had booked to see him again this time, but we have just heard from a friend and a fan of Joes who who saw him in Newcastle last Thursday and she said he was brilliant.

Lena and Harry,
Yes Joe is the best.
I know someone going to see him tonight at Hayes, and fans who were at Newcastle,they even got a photo with him. Its a very special year for Joe this year as its 40 years since he started in showbiz, on Junior Showtime. I'm just astouded and completely blown away whenever I see Joe perform, he's so fantastic and I feel thse days sadly so underrated in some parts of the entertainment industry. When I hear him sing on stage I'm always reminded of the great Matt in my mind, the presence on stage, the style,genius and class, the easy in which he just stands there and the magic flows out,a rare talent indeed.

Hi Chris,
We are very closely linked to Joe Longthorne on this website, and there is a direct link to Joe's official website from the bottom left of our homepage.
You may not know that Geraldine Vine, who runs Friends of Matt Monro, also runs Joe's fanclub.

We want to wish JOE LONGTHORNE , one of our country's finest singers and entertainers a very "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" today.
We are all aware of how Joe has battled ill health, the last serious scare being a bone marrow transplant and yet he amazingly recovered and is still performing to audiences and as good as ever.

Happy Birthday to Joe.

Another singer from my neck of the woods.............all the great singers come from East Yorkshire ...............well, all apart from the greatest of them all.............our Matt

Quite true , but couldn't Matt do the Yorkshire accent Robert, !!!

Eee Baa Gum...............he could .............but it was more of a West Yorkshire accent Matt did L&H

Oh ok, I wasn't really aware of the different accents Robert.
Harry's Northern accent got him into no end of scraps when he came to London with mickey taking kids at school.
Today it's looked on as bullying. In those days it was fighting your own battles.

Reading your entries about Joe singing "Let Me Try Again" reminds me that Matt sang this song with a brilliant imitation of Sinatra at a concert in Brighton on 2 Nov 1980. Also he opened the show with "If My Friends Could See Me Now" followed by "I Write the Songs" & "You are My Sunshine". Hopefully this and other live shows will find their way into a new CD by Richard & Michele (Maybe "The Rarer Monro" or "Matt Live") on CD. Joe Longthorne is a good singer and seems to cover many of Matt's somgs on his CDs. Also Matt sang a great version of "It Was a Very Good Year" on one of Tony Bennett's Show

Sad to say that none of these performances exist (we haven't found anything yet in any case) that is in any kind of releasable quality.

There are a number of audience recordings (ie someone sat in the audience recording on a portable cassette machine) but sad to say these are not of sufficient quality for an official release.

The Tony Bennett shows are tied up in all sorts of red tape - but at least they exist complete in the Thames archive.

Richard

A ray of hope then ??