Showtime

I’m late to this because the anniversary was last month, but 30 years ago I was the proud producer of a special event at the BBC Concert Hall in London.

Today it’s called the BBC Radio Theatre but I don’t think it’s changed that much. Situated in the bowels of Broadcasting House, it boasted a beautiful auditorium with 300 seats and a polished wooden stage that could accommodate an orchestra or choir.

In those pre-Forest days I was working for Mensa, editing the society’s monthly magazine. I wasn’t (and never have been) a member but I got the job through Madsen Pirie, co-founder of the Adam Smith Institute, who was on the society’s board of directors and who I knew through mutual friends.

That was in 1985 and thereafter I worked for Mensa as a freelance journalist, juggling the job with other work until 1999 when I joined Forest.

Founded in 1946, Mensa is a curious organisation, easy to mock (sometimes with justification), but I had 15 mostly happy years editing the magazine, and during that time I discovered that the small group of active members were not representative of the wider membership.

By and large, the overwhelming majority didn’t take it too seriously. They took the IQ test out of curiosity and having achieved the score that was required to join they accepted the invitation that followed and became a member.

Thereafter they did no more than pay an annual subscription in return for which they received the monthly magazine and the opportunity to join various interest groups.

There was a social side - mostly pub meetings plus the occasional weekend ‘gathering’ - but nothing that showcased a side of Mensa that few people ever saw. Far from being a society of computer geeks and puzzle nerds, there was a significant number of talented artists and musicians, from gifted amateurs to hard-working professionals.

In 1993, with the help of some third party sponsorship, I was able to launch the Mensa Events Club. Events included lectures, debates, and panel discussions, but what I really wanted to do was provide a platform for some of the talented musicians and performers I had been writing about in the magazine.

For example, I had interviewed actor Guy Masterson and jazz pianist Mike Hatchard, and had seen both of them perform at the Edinburgh Festival.

I decided therefore to invite them to co-direct and perform in a Mensa variety show, but the idea sounded so naff to their ears that I had to work hard to persuade them that it could work.

Mike, in particular, was extremely sceptical so I arranged a visit to the BBC Concert Hall, which I intended to hire for the event. When he saw (and played) the magnificent Steinway piano on stage, and was told he could use it in the show, he changed his tune (no pun intended).

The next step was to appoint a stage manager and organise auditions. As luck would have it, our stage manager (another member) worked at the Questors Theatre in Ealing, so that’s where we hosted our auditions.

Like a smaller version of Britain’s Got Talent (albeit 13 years before BGT aired), we invited members to audition, not knowing who would turn up, or how many.

In the event, we had plenty of acts to choose from, and although the standard varied enormously we were pleasantly surprised. The best were very good and if Mike still had doubts they largely disappeared that day.

Better still, when we started promoting the event in the magazine, tickets for the show - which we envisaged as a single evening performance - quickly sold out, so we added an afternoon show, and that sold out too.

The additional show did however give us a problem because it restricted the rehearsal time to less than six hours, starting at 8.00am.

To put that in perspective, every singer on the bill had to perform with a live band who, until the morning of the show, had never met, let alone played together.

Under Mike’s musical direction they had to rehearse and perform a series of numbers in a variety of genres - jazz, rock, opera, and musical theatre - but somehow they pulled it off.

Singers included Jim Robinson whose claim to fame was singing in front of 7,000 people at the Reading Rock Festival; Kerry Donald, winner of the Gordon District Talent Contest 1989; and Ernie Thorn who was managing director of an Isle of Man finance company.

In his spare time however Ernie had also shared a stage with Lenny Henry, Tom O'Connor, and Les Dawson, and today he presents The Opera Hour on Manx Radio.

18-year-old Nikola Montfort was the youngest performer and she sang wonderful versions of 'Come Rain Or Come Shine' and the jazz influenced ‘Orange Coloured Sky’.

(Almost three decades later she sang 'Come Rain Or Come Shine' again on an album called Out Of This World: Songs of Arlen and Mercer.)

Also on the bill was 'juggler and confusionist' Allin Kempthorne who is still performing professionally today.

A few years ago Allin auditioned for Britain’s Got Talent as Professor Strange but was eliminated with the dreaded four red buzzers when his act went disastrously wrong. Undeterred, he turned it to his advantage and judging by his Facebook posts he is one of the hardest working people in Britain.

My favourite act however was Dragonfly, a family folk group spanning two generations – Brandy Clark (no relation) and her husband Peter, and their two daughters, Lucy-Sian and Mandy, who were in their early twenties. Semi-professional, their vocal harmonies were phenomenal. I believe they had previously performed at the Cambridge Folk Festival and on local radio.

(Peter, I now read, died in June this year, aged 79. His daughter Lucy-Sian currently sings with Madison Avenue UK, a ten-piece live function band based in the Midlands.)

Anyway, the variety show was such a success that I subsequently produced a similar event featuring many of the same acts - including Dragonfly - at the Library Theatre in Manchester.

The Manchester show also featured the Andy Leek Band. For a while Andy had been a member of Dexys Midnight Runners. He played on ‘Geno’, the band’s first number one single, and appeared on Top of the Pops before leaving the band two weeks before the single got to the top of the charts!

In 1988 he released a solo album produced by George Martin. I still have a copy and there are some very good songs on it, but it failed to sell and for many years the Andy Leek Band was best known as a party band playing cover versions including a note perfect cover of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.

The variety show was followed by concerts at both the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music that featured even more musicians who were members of the society.

They included cellist Oliver Gledhill and violinist Cloe Hanslip, both of whom went on to enjoy successful professional careers. (Chloe was only six when she appeared at a concert I organised at the Royal College of Music in, I think, 1995.)

A personal favourite was classical pianist Elena Konstantinou. I saw her perform several times, even after I left to join Forest. (One occasion was a lunchtime recital in a church in Richmond upon Thames.

In October 1996 I produced Mensa's fifth and final variety show. Featuring the best acts who were available, it provided a fitting end to the society’s week-long 50th anniversary celebrations.

I booked Wyndham’s Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue for the Sunday night event. With 600 seats it was double the size of the other venues we had used, but once again it sold out, generating a fabulous atmosphere.

The Andy Leek Band was top of the bill, but the star (in her eyes) was an American singer who had enjoyed a number one hit in the US in … 1961. Tragically, I can’t remember her name but she did give the bill an international flavour!

That was arguably the pinnacle of my ‘career’ as a producer, although I was helped enormously by our director, former BBC producer Roger Ordish, who knew what he was doing!

In the pub after the show a senior member of the management team at Wyndham’s congratulated us and said it was one of the most entertaining shows he had ever seen. I can’t be certain, but I think that was a compliment!

Below: Dragonfly at the BBC Concert Hall

Guy Masterson, actor and award-winning producer, writes:

I cannot believe it was over 30 years ago we did that BBC Concert Hall gig. I remember the hall - at least I remember going there - but I remember absolutely nothing about the gig itself except that it was a mixed bag of Mensa members.

One of them could not resist telling me that my performance of Under Milk Wood was too close in intonation to the Richard Burton version to be my own interpretation. I remember telling him that Richard would never have attempted all the voices or performing in PJs! Which he accepted. Apparently learning the whole thing wasn't impressive enough!

I do remember Mike [Hatchard]’s incredible talent and he invited me on his Edinburgh show a couple of times. We had plans to make a play about Beethoven - inspired by Mike's resemblance to the bust I had of Ludwig and his impassioned impersonations. Sadly nowt came of it. Mike had very generously created an overture for my solo Milk Wood which I used for nine years until Matt Clifford (who plays with and composes for The Rolling Stones) wrote an entire soundscape for the piece which I have been using since.

It's funny how careers in the arts go, blossoming and withering to varying degrees. I never intended to become a producer or a director. In fact, my directorial debut also came through Mensa - through an article you wrote about me in their magazine, and I guess I kind of enjoyed it. I remember falling in love with a gorgeous lady from Nuneaton called Donna, but sadly nothing came of it.

I suppose we all make our way somehow. In truth I always wanted to be a film star, but just had to keep plodding on in the industry in some way - hence doing the solo shows. And then you meet the lady of your dreams, have children and find yourself working to live rather than chasing your ambitions. I suppose just surviving professionally doing what you love represents some measure of success even if the craved Oscar has never come my way!

Update: This is embarrassing. I was convinced when I wrote this that the first Mensa variety show took place in October 1994, hence this 30th anniversary post.

However, I have just found a recording of the show and according to the inlay card it was ‘Recorded live at the BBC Concert Hall on Sunday 17th October 1993’.

Oops.