Vintage visions in Ballroom Blitz for Forties festival
S INGER Clara Bloom will be indulging in her passion for vintage clothes and music when she takes to the stage in a festival marking North Wales’ wartime role.
She will be headlining at the Ballroom Blitz dance evening, part of the hugely popular Forties Festival in Colwyn Bay, alongside DJ Malcolm Murray and the Ukulele Party Band with Reflections.
The family-focused festival, on Saturday and Sunday April 21- 22, celebrates the town’s strategic role in keeping Britain fed, when the Ministry of Food set up its HQ there.
Ballroom Blitz, on April 21, at the Barn in Zip World Stadium in Eirias Park, will see performers and audiences alike dressed up in 1940s outfits, and for Clara it is a chance to show off dresses discovered in vintage shops or new styles influenced by the era, such as those in Kit N Heels in Rhos on Sea.
She studied at the London School of Musical Theatre before joining the prestigious Players’ Theatre in London, where the spirit of Victorian music hall was kept alive.
Clara said: “I’m delighted to have been asked to appear at the Ballroom Blitz, as I just love music from that time. In fact I like most things from the 1930s up to the 1950s. It was a golden era with performers such as Judy Garland, Doris Day, Vera Lynn and others who appeared in the old MGM musicals. It was a special time.”
Originally from Scotland, Clara didn’t take up singing professionally until she was in her mid 20s, and landed in North Wales after honing her musical skills aboard cruise ships. She loves her new adopted North Wales home and says she was surprised at the strength of the artistic community she discovered when she first arrived.
She said: “I came for a gig as the singer in a resident hotel band and never left! I originally hail from Glasgow but the North Wales landscape is very similar in many ways to a lot of Scotland.
“I just found the people welcoming and am now settled living near Prestatyn.”
She added: “I’ve always enjoyed singing but for many years I performed alongside ‘normal’ jobs. Then I did a post graduate one year course at the London School of Musical Theatre and performed at the Players’ Theatre in London.”
Clara is also happy that the Ballroom Blitz evening will raise funds for the charity Happy Faces.
This year she is directing a summer season show for the charity, in Llandudno Town Hall. She said: “We are running two variety shows, on Wednesdays and Thursdays each week, from May until October to raise funds for the charity, which provides funds for disadvantaged North Wales children. The shows are good old fashioned variety, which I think everyone enjoys.”
This year’s Forties Festival features full-sized replicas of a Spitfire and a Hurricane, with the town invaded by fans of the era, dressed in vintage style or military uniforms. ● More about the Colwyn Bay Forties Festival at colwynbaybusiness.co.uk