2023 REVIEW As 2023 fades into the distance and we say farewell to the sixty-second year of the George Formby Society, maybe we could just pause for a short while to look at a few moments that helped to make 2023 so memorable. Whilst our year must always revolve around the Blackpool conventions, there are numerous other aspects and activities of the GFS that we can look at. Four Blackpool meetings, the success of the Llandudno weekend, an exhibition in Wigan where Dennis Lee made sure that the Society was represented, our Musical Director Matthew Richards featured on Channel Four TV when he took part in “The Piano Show” plus numerous branch meetings, are just a few of the memories within 2023. A Wigan Exhibition An exhibition of well-known Wigan people was held at The Museum of Wigan Life where Dennis Lee and members of the Westhoughton branch had recently entertained in The Grand Arcade alongside George Formby’s statue and raised £268 for the benefit of the GFS. The opening ceremony of the Exhibition took place on January 27th when Andy Poppleton, Dennis and Debbie Lee performed popular Formby numbers. Another date in the exhibition was when Dennis and Debbie and Garry Hampson took part in a Ukulele Workshop for Beginners which was also well received. Finally the one and only John Walley gave his famed illustrated talk on the lives of the two George Formby’s. This popular event also saw John playing and singing Formby Favourites. John’s wife Gill also assisted, making sure his backing tracks were all in order and that the sound was as it should be. THE WASHINGTON SUITE We appear to have settled in The Washington Suite at The Imperial Hotel as our room of choice now, I welcome the fact that we know where will usually be placed. The Washington Suite suits us much better than the cavernous Lancastrian Suite, we even have a bar at certain times of the day which reminds me of when we would use the Circle Foyer Bar room at the Winter Gardens where we also had the bar facility in much the same place as the one in the Washington. The atmosphere suits our purpose so much better and with the sound desk now (thankfully) always situated behind the audience in front of the stage and with our sound engineer Kevin Staniland, we are getting the best of everything which must be so good for the audience and so satisfying for the performers. Kevin is a perfectionist when it comes to audio and will work all hours on the Friday before the weekend to get everything balanced just as he wants it for the benefit of all. WOODEN UKULELE BEGINNERS CLASS A new feature this last year at the national meetings has been a wooden ukulele beginners class, devised by Cathy Staniland. The leader of the South Yorkshire branch launched her new class at the first Blackpool meeting of 2023 and was immediately rewarded with encouraging enthusiasm. The fact that Cathy was able to give individual advice also made sure that she had willing learners right from the start. As the year progressed, the attendances at this new tuition class have ensured that Cathy's wooden ukulele class is a regular and popular feature of each convention and is here to stay. Cathy is one of the main attractions both on the Blackpool stage and in her well-organised South Yorkshire branch. DAMBUSTERS CONCERT Also much enjoyed at the June Convention was the celebration of The Dambuster's 80th anniversary. GFS members, both performers and audience just love to dress up and of course when George Formby comes up for discussion, his war service with ENSA must always play a major role in any review of his life, George Formby's efforts both at home and abroad during the 1939 to 1945 war must always be remembered. Uniforms of all service branches and even members dressed in 1940s civilian dress were represented. FIVE FAMOUS UKULELES Also at this convention, members enjoyed an unusual event when a talk of "Five Famous Ukuleles" was held in one of the side rooms of the Imperial Hotel. Sadly the room could only accommodate a very limited number of spectators to hear all about the five ukes, owned and presented by members Andy Poppleton, Jon Baddeley, Lewis Clifton, and John Walley. I just caught the last few minutes whilst being occupied in shooting the video of the meetings. Perhaps this is one event that could be repeated in 2024 but this time, surely from the main stage rather than a side room? The Piano Show Matthew Richards gave the Society such wonderful publicity when he was selected to appear in Channel Four’s new competition, "The Piano Show." We all think that we know Matthew so well and are aware of his unique talents from listening to him play his banjo-uke and his keyboard accompaniment of the performers at the Blackpool meetings. The Piano Show allowed Matthew to take flight and play his composition, “Tide Of Dreams.” Matthew was also shown at the age of seven, playing a wonderful classical piece in his home, obviously filmed by Matt’s doting mum, Christine. Tuning pianos is Matthew’s full-time occupation and after watching his performance, who wouldn’t want him to tune their piano? I would have thought that Matthew would have won the competition easily but I could not watch all the performers, it is enough to know that we have such a rare keyboard talent within our midst - The Piano Show. THE GFS SHOP The November meeting was also the last meeting for GFS Shop managers Steve and Su Langford. Steve and Su retired from the shop after taking over from Kathryn and Peter Pollard in Summer 2020. Unfortunately, Steve and Su had to face unprecedented times when the COVID-19 pandemic closed the GFS Blackpool conventions and all branches for approximately eighteen months. Even so, over their three-and-a-half-year residency, they managed to raise a magnificent £10,500 to help keep the George Formby Society financially secure. The GFS Shop has been running for many years now and provides a vital source of funding to help keep the GFS ship afloat. The managers are all volunteers and give their time willingly and freely. All profits go straight to the GFS. Unfortunately, when Steve and Su announced their shop retirement, no one came forward to replace them so Peter and Kathryn picked up the reins once again to make sure the shop could carry on for the foreseeable future. Andy Poppleton was instrumental in mounting the Llandudno 2023 weekend when a good number of members travelled to the North Wales holiday resort to join other street entertainers for The Victorian Weekend. Not only did our team entertain throughout the 3-day festival, but they all helped to bring in £600 of funding for the GFS. CAROLINE STEWART – THE THREE PEAKS CHALLENGE The month of June saw the first lady ever to take on the role of leader of the GFS committee, Caroline Stewart, out in the wilds once again, raising ever-more vital funds for a very worthy cause when she took on the Three Peaks Challenge. Caroline always trains and prepares for whatever challenge is in front of her and once again, came home in style, easily surpassing her target of £2,000 with her total amount raised for the MNDA currently standing at £3,480 and it is never too late to support Caroline and much loved and missed member, the late Lesley Fowkes by following this link. AN OFFICIAL GFS ZOOM THRASH We held a Zoom online thrash on 26 May to celebrate the birthday of George Formby. We had a good night for a session that lasted approximately eighty minutes in the company of GFS President Andrew Poppleton who had travelled to my home to share the hosting with me. The nicest things to come out of the night were the fact that everyone enjoyed the evening and appreciated the music we played, and we unearthed a rarity in this day and age in the shape of thirteen-year-old Charlie Evered who along with his Dad, stayed right to the end of the session and promised to be in Blackpool in September and to join the GFS. I say rarity as the further we travel away from George's birthday and the day when he passed away, young people are becoming less aware of who George Formby was and what he achieved in his short lifetime. Not Charlie Evered though! Charlie is steeped in the world of Formby and already has remarkable knowledge and opinions on Formby and the world of banjo-ukes. We had a glut of young players in the Society in the early nineties including Andy Eastwood, Francesca Davies and Nick Saunders and then again around fifteen years ago with the likes of Lewis Clifton, Tommy Bland, Stuart Lowther and numerous others finding their way to Blackpool and all proving to be such wonderful performers. Charlie lives quite a way from any GFS activities but is already a regular at the Stourbridge branch, which must be a round trip of 130 miles or so, and then the Blackpool conventions which are another lengthy excursion for Charlie and his mum and dad. This young man (like numerous other young people before him) is making astonishing progress on the GFS stage which of course is a delight to behold. There is no telling just what path Charlie's life will take but it is a fair bet that the George Formby Society will be with him for many years to come. DENNIS MITCHELL R.I.P. Each year we receive the sad news that some members have passed away. Each one is of course a tragic event which is obviously felt the most within their respective families. One member who we said farewell to this year and who’s loss was felt by everyone who knew him within the GFS was of course Dennis Mitchell. Dennis did so much for the George Formby Society and the Yorkshire Ukulele Circle over so many years. His work on the GFS committee and his concert organising were just so special and of course his work to develop The Mitchell Monarch and then to create forty much sought after instruments was staggering. Dennis’ Honorary membership was so well earned and his professionalism was evident in everything that he touched. For sure, an irreplaceable loss to our Society. GFS CUTBACKS 2024 will see the George Formby Society reduce to three Blackpool conventions but to make up for that, we have the prospect of another Llandudno weekend. It should be remembered that before the GFS moved into the Winter Gardens in 1991 when the eighteen year residency was paid for by Blackpool Town Council, we would have just three conventions per year and less than that in earlier years. The fourth, November meeting was set up as an “experimental” meeting and first held on 27 and 28 November 1993. We have such a wonderful history and have done so much over the last sixty two years. We are building membership back up up slowly but surely after the dreadful world pandemic which has been followed by recession, the ongoing war in the Ukraine which has seen energy prices rocket and now the Israel – Gaza conflict. None of these events make happy reading and affect the lives of everyone. “Formby magic” We all need that extra “Formby magic” which we find every time we enter The Imperial for a Blackpool weekend and I feel sure that the successful conventions of 2023 will be maintained and perhaps even improved on in 2024. Whatever the future holds, the GFS is still very strong, we have a good, hard working committee and some wonderful members who are never afraid to volunteer for whatever might be needed. I missed the November 2023 convention owing to a serious accident but thankfully I am well on the way to recovery and looking forward to another successful year of conventions, branch meetings and the Llandudno event. Let’s make 2024 a year to remember for all the right reasons!