Success!! The Rivertones – An Evening of Musical Variety

The Big Marquee, Vivary Park, Taunton

Sunday 9 August 2015

What a fantastic evening this turned out to be despite the enormous amount of hard work over several months leading up to the event and afterwards too, clearing up and completely emptying the 80ft x 200ft marquee!

The Silver Street Band, Fiddlin’ Folk, Havoc and the Friends of American Old Time Music and Dance were all absolutely fantastic – and didn’t Ben McGrail from BBC Somerset do a brilliant compere job for us, mini-interviewing all of the acts prior to their performance?!! All of this, combined with the varied and diverse musical acts, making it a really interesting and entertaining evening for the 300+ appreciative audience, despite it being a fairly long programme.

We have now had contact from all of the other musical acts who kindly agreed to be part of this unusual evening. Without exception, everyone thoroughly enjoyed the experience and had nothing but praise for each and everyone of us who had entertained a wonderfully receptive audience.

We have also had an e-mail from Bob Homeshaw, the Taunton Flower Show chairman, thanking all of us who had taken part and congratulating us for ‘a most entertaining and successful evening’.

Another very long serving member of the Flower Show committee has said to us that he thoroughly enjoyed the evening and he, very unusually, had heard all the notes, music and the words quite clearly which was a refreshing change.

Other comments from various sources have included:

‘It wouldn’t surprise me if you were asked to do it again !…. so always beware of doing a good organising job like that!…..Apart from the organising, I know only too well exactly what it’s like for the chorus to have to sing soooo many songs in a show and keeping such a large repertoire alive, so well done Peter Gover, your chorus director and all the boys for The Rivertones part of the show ……it was great to be a part of it and worth getting home at 2am’

‘Congratulations on a very successful show last night! Plenty of variety, entertaining, and fun! ……I particularly enjoyed the Rivertones’ singing – and their songs, of which the witty words were all audible – and also the American flat-footing, which I always marvel at – how do they manage to keep their balance while their feet are flying about? ….. Thank you for including us, and making us so welcome’

‘Thanks to all for such an amazing show last evening, we thoroughly enjoyed it. Please let us know when you hold another event.’

‘ Thank you ever so much for yesterday and your great work …. very well organised it was too! ….. We had great feedback from many and my lot of performers also enjoyed themselves!’

‘ Just to let you know how much my contingent enjoyed the show ….. nothing but praise.’

‘We all had a great time and were very pleased with the feedback we received from the audience. A smashing evening and thanks for including us in the show.’

‘ I’m sure it was more hard work and worry than I realise but it seemed to go off very well from my stand-point, and the audience seemed to enjoy the spectacular ….. so well done and congratulations.’

So, in summary, it seems a well done to ALL of us who took part.

The various amounts of publicity prior to the show including linking with the Taunton Visitor Centre’s new premises in the centre of Taunton, the distribution of flyers at the West Somerset Steam Rally and at the Tone FM stand at the Taunton Flower Show itself, all meant that thousands and thousands of people in and around the county have now been made aware of the Rivertones, who we are and what we do.

Thanks, in addition to Ben McGrail from BBC Somerset, must go to the Taunton Visitor Centre and Wellington Community Office, our front of house and stage manager, our sound and lighting men and their transportation team, our first aiders, our ticket sales and programme sellers, our raffle organise and sellers, our risers gang, our publicity team and their team leaders (!), our stage building team, our security staff, our showground experts, the electrical contractors and of course the catering and bar staff. A big thanks also to all of our ‘volunteers’ who unstacked, set up, unfolded and arranged what seemed like a zillion chairs and tables throughout the day and evening of the event and folded and restacked into neat piles – a couple of times – the following morning in the teeming rain!!

We were fortunate to have received financial support towards the printing of our programme from the Quantock Lavender Company, based at Bloomfield, near Taunton and from our other programme advertisers, and our floral decorations were supplied by the Monkton Elm Garden Centre. The brilliant design and production of all of our printing was achieved with the help of the Somerset College.

Finally, we are extremely grateful to the Taunton Flower Show executive committee for allowing us this opportunity of putting on a show with a difference right in the heart of Taunton and in the beautiful setting of Vivary Park.

Oops!! Thanks also to THE RIVERTONES!!