The show must go on as veteran stars say Viva Las Vegas
THEY WERE once among Britain’s most well-known names – the entertainers who lit up our television screens and played in theatres and concert halls throughout Yorkshire and the UK through the 1960s, 70s and 80s. But a new ITV show,
is giving a group of British showbiz legends a chance to relive – and even outstrip – their glory years by putting on a dream gig in the variety capital of the world.
The line-up includes pianist and entertainer Bobby Crush, singer Kenny Lynch, 60s pop idol Jess Conrad, actress and singer Anita Harris, actress, singer and comedienne Su Pollard, comedy double-act Cannon and Ball, entertainer Bernie Clifton and comedian Mick Miller.
Cameras will follow the entertainment veterans right through from the point they leave their homes in the UK to Vegas living, rehearsals and the final spectacular: treading the boards at Vegas’s Orleans theatre.
Despite all eight acts having successful careers, access to the worldclass stages that run along the Vegas strip was a new experience for most.
“It’s a lovely thing for people to do,” agrees Su Pollard, 68. “You’re outside of your comfort zone, you’re outside of things that you wouldn’t do on an everyday occurrence, so it was lovely. We embraced the opportunity and everything that they put on for us.”
The stars all stayed together in the same house for the duration of their two-week stay and Jess Conrad, 82, quips: “It’s a reality show! It’s nothing to do with acting or singing or performing; and it’s a first for us all, so it’s a new art form, I suppose. And the fact that we all know one another from our heyday if you like, back in the 60s, and we’ve all worked with one another, meant we were a great group and nobody fell out. It was a real happy family.”
Pollard says she was taken by the charm of their show producer – and Vegas veteran – Frank Marino. “It was like the old (days),” chimes Pollard, “In this country, in the 80s for example, they called it ‘the shiny floor show’. It was a Saturday-night show.”
The stars’ time in Vegas wasn’t all singing and dancing, however. In fact the performance was thrown into question when the unthinkable happened while they were in the city.
On October 1 a gunman opened fire on a crowd of concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest musical festival. “It was really horrendous,” recalls Conrad. “That morning when we found out about it, we sat round the table with the producers asking ‘What are we going to do?’ We all decided that the show must go on – people were so devastated (so) we decided we would in some way try and do the show for them.”
“It was unexpected and it was shocking and we were given the opportunity to call a halt,” notes Bobby Crush. “But as Jess says, all of us were of the opinion that in times of trouble...”
“Frank said to us, ‘Sadly you guys have been used to it over the years’,” Pollard chips in. “This was an isolated incident for Vegas and we like to think that they got, from us, our stoicism and said, ‘Come on guys, we can’t let people down!’”
The group are in agreement that the series should put out an age-positive message too. “If you’re up for it and you’re given any opportunity to try and give something a go, you do it,” says Pollard. “Age is no barrier, darling. It’s not slippers and a pipe time at fortybloody-six. Come on!”
“What you’re going to see in the Vegas show is that, if you can hang on in there long enough and if you can be devoted to your art, it all comes around again,” Bobby Crush says. “Who knew that any of us were going to be given this kind of opportunity, at this stage in our careers? It’s a gift.”
premieres on ITV on Tuesday, April 3.