Festival of film & TV

It was last May when a GFS member put me in touch with the Talking Pictures team about a possible “George Formby Story,” and immediately, they jumped at the chance. After many emails, we decided to perform a selection of George’s songs at the Festival of Film  & TV Roadshow to be held at Hebden Bridge Picture House. What an opportunity to play at this historic cinema and have the chance of being recorded by Talking Pictures. Not only would we gain exposure to the wider public but a GFS article would be published in the up-and- coming Talking Pictures magazine all about George Formby and the Society. After much planning and negotiations, a rough running order was formed, Who would play? I decided to ask members who helped out at Blackpool Conventions, those who worked for the Society, or ran branches. Even then, there would be some omissions because the team at Talking Pictures limited the number of players to twenty.  My apologies to those did not make the final cut. The pretty town is centrally located in West Yorkshire, in between Halifax and Todmorden. Whenever I visit, it is always busy. Its cinema is a well-maintained picture palace which opened its doors in 1921. Just under two miles away in the village of Heptonstall, there is the grave of Sylvia Plath (poet and wife of Ted Hughes). I arrived early to do a sound test, only to be stopped in my tracks by one of my childhood heroes, radio and TV celebrity Mike Reed who immediately began to sing along to one of Formby's most popular numbers. In fact, all the celebrities we met during the day were very down to earth and all enjoyed the music we were playing. Soon it all began with our opening song, Chinese Laundry Blues. The audience was amazed by the sound of the banjo ukulele, so synonymous with George Formby. Every member was thrilled to be playing in front of a capacity crowd of six hundred.  We left the venue for a break and food and were accosted by members of the audience asking about George Formby and our Society and all praised our performance. I was delighted with how the public loved the music of Formby. Our second thirty-minute performance again went down really well. This time, even the celebrities came out from their dressing rooms To listen and dance to the music.  Sherrie Hewson, Bernie Clifton, Dave Berry, Mike Reed and even BGT star Steve Hewlett all came to see our final performance. Although it did take a lot of organising the dividends for our members who took part and for our society were great. Flyers and Vellum magazines were given to the audience, and the members who were lucky enough to take part enjoyed their experience.  This one event helped us to meet our aim, to preserve and perpetuate the memory of George Formby. Report by Andy Poppleton - 23/10/2024