Celebrating the jubilee in clubland

Many of our clubs are planning special entertainment and leading the way are Alverthorpe WMC, Crigglestone WMC, Horbury WMC, Westgate Common Club and the New Brookhouse Club in the Wakefield area.

Pontefract Ex-Servicemen’s Club, Halfpenny Lane Club and Pontefract Sports and Social Club have also hand-picked some great acts to entertain their patriotic members. Whether a royalist or not, there is much to enjoy out there in clubland.

Now that the weather seems to be looking a little more like summer, there really is no excuse for sitting at home in front the terrible television. Why not get out there and check out your local community social club?

Among the acts seen lately and familiar to club-goers to this area were singers Kevin London and Wayne Samuels. Kevin is based in the north, but is originally from Lowestoft. Local agency Ricky Graham Leisure from Knottingley have been booking Kevin heavily lately and receiving good reports.

I thought that, with a few backing track and equipment improvements, Kevin could go quite a bit further in his career. Some songs were performed which the audience had clearly not heard in quite a while, including tracks from Chris Rea and Leo Sayer, which I particularly enjoyed.

As for Wayne Samuels, here we have a very strong vocalist who has natural presence and is performing a Michael Buble tribute show, as well as his normal cabaret act.

Tall, personable and well presented, Wayne can be seen all across our area during the summer months. Catch him if you can.

Over the next couple of weeks I’m seeing shows which include acts from this area such as the great Ricky Graham, the up-and-coming Scott Richards and the gorgeous Madeleine Roberts. It is always a pleasure to report on quality.

The ever-popular Crofton singer and agent Jane Tracie tells me that the next Wakefield and Pontefract Concert Secretaries’ Federation is holding its next showcase evening at Horbury WMC on June 12.

I may well go along and have a look at the talent on show myself although, at the time of going to press, no-one seems to know who is presenting or appearing on the night. Jane herself is often asked to present these shows and she always does a grand job, so perhaps we’ll see her there?

The Wakefield Star Search talent competition is coming to a conclusion for the 2012 run. I shall be going along to help judge the grand final in a few weeks time, as was the case last year and according to reports a great night is in prospect.

As I reported in last week’s Express, Westgate Common Club is a huge success story and the competition organiser Steve Paige is clearly doing a great job. As many readers may well be aware, this area has a grand tradition of presenting talent shows and long may this continue.

Finally for this week, I’m mentioning something here in order to dissuade readers from ringing me and asking “was that you I saw on telly the other night?”

I was interviewed for a programme called Cruising with the Stars a few weeks ago. The programme is being broadcast on June 7 at 8pm and repeated twice the following day on Sky TV’s holiday and cruise channel. I’m not a great TV viewer myself, but I’m told quite a lot of people watch it. If you do see the show, I hope you find it interesting. When it’s on I’ll be hiding behind the settee.

If you have any news or views for this column we would like to hear from you. Just drop me a line at the Express, email [email protected] or call my office number on 01924 890800 and leave a message.