Far Grange Caravan Park, Bridlington, East Yorkshire 2005

We picked up George and were on our way up the M62 making good time. We were meant to be there for 19:30, so to travel 145 miles in less than two hours was quite a challenge. We arrived just after 19:45 and were met by concerned people worried we wouldn't turn up, Café Society never let anyone down, never fear! We were playing in the cabaret room. The door stated it was over 18's only, the compere took me to one side and informed me: 'They're a lively bunch and enjoy a laugh, if you know what I mean, there's no kids so you can be as rude as you like.' I was taken aback, what sort of act did he think we were? Nevertheless I nodded assent and went into the dressing room to ponder the best course of action.





'Chaps,' I said, 'we're going to have to do a bit of reshuffling, this audience is expecting adult humour and bawdy songs, not elegant 1920's Jazz with smatterings of double meanings.' The chaps gave me a look askance, and we went through the music. George can be seen going through his music looking every bit as concerned as the rest of us.





John calmed his nerves by playing with my ukulele! In the end we decided on a mixture of sing along and me doing my stand up routines. We adjourned to the upstairs pool room to wait for the looming nightmare which we felt would follow. Actually the pool room was quite a good idea, Willy and George had a pint and John and I played pool. John won three out of the four games. I was hustled!

It was time to go on so we trundled down to the cabaret room. In broadest Yorkshire the compere announced us on... 'Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, for the first time ever at the Far Grange Caravan park, Café Society...'

We were on, I attacked the microphone and got the room shouting 'hello' and went on to ascertain their origins, it was very panto! Naturally I kept it clean but on occasions I was excessively cheeky. They all joined in with the sing alongs and enjoyed my stand up routines, much to my relief! The George Formby medley was a hit as usual, and to inject something approaching crude we played 'Suzie in a shoe shine shop', a song that causes the audience to shout obscenities without realising it till it's too late!!

The night was a success, the manager complemented us heartily saying he'd never seen an act like us in his life! I assumed that was a compliment!