The Traveling TWILbury's Christmas Outing 2001
The Overtures @ Castle Hall, Hertford 21 December 2001

First of all, let us introduce ourselves to the readership of TWIL, I'm Judy Pru (otherwise known as JP) and I'm Amanda otherwise known as Harry or the future Mrs Gavin 'Blue Meanie' Pring YEAH! I WISH! We're both long-standing visitors of Beatleweek, from days of old when knights were bold, and didn't smell of elderberries, The Blue Meanies were in short trousers (ooo! There's a thought!) and Allan Williams was sober (no, we're not THAT old!) We decided early in 2001 that we were going to be 'Voddie Sisters on Tour' for 2001 - we had the t-shirts printed up and embarked on our many voyages to Beatle-related gigs, taking in such fabulous venues as the occasional double room at the lovely Adelphi, (trust them to get the bookings wrong!) grotty pubs down south and up north and theatres darn sarf and oop north!

Thanks to the fabulous e-group of TWIL ('allo pepes!) we discovered that the Overtures (Yayyy!), one of our very favourite Beatleweek bands, were playing some Christmas gigs at Castle Hall in Hertford on the 9th/20th/21st December. Boy, were we happy bunnies or were we not? You bet ya bottom dollar!!!!

After discovering that some other TWILers were also making the journey to Hertford, we decided to book ourselves a ticket each, arrange our travel (200 miles for me, being a northern lass - as opposed to a northern song) and a mere 50 miles or so for me, being from darn sarf, pre-order a bottle or two (a-hem) of wine (Oddbins were pre-warned, weren't they JP?!) and prepare ourselves for what we knew would be an excellent evening's entertainment. Oh! So The Krankies never showed up, then?!! Not unless you're referring to my looking like Jimmy Krankie, erm…. no!

The day duly arrived, and I set off for Hertford (huge thanks to the train companies, I had no problems at all - a rarity in this day and age). 5 hours later (and thus making me eligible to be a Traveling TWILbury) and me with my 2 and bit hours!… we arrived at our hotel for the evening, the Salisbury Arms, which is just around the corner from Castle Hall, (within staggering distance) and is a quaint 'olde worlde' Inn and they do a great brekkie, Adelphi, take note! We got ourselves settled, relaxed for a while, buzzed around the town a bit, before preparing ourselves (and our headgear) for the big event. I opted for the purple sequinned reindeer horns attire and mine were a fetching red number decorated with silver tinsel…they'll be wearing 'em on the catwalks next season, you watch!

We got to Castle Hall early, and waited for the evening to begin with other TWILers (hello to all other Table 5ers from that night and I got a chance to drool over some particularly choice pix of those Blue Meanies taken at the George Tribute gig at the Cav earlier that month, courtesy of Janine! Thanx!!! We were so excited at the prospect of seeing the Overtures outside of Beatleweek, and the meal (thanks to Sal Monella) and crackers (sponsored by the boot and frog and cheap paper hat company) all passed very quickly with the aid of a knife, fork and a huge guzzle or two of vino. Hmmm, those profiteroles were espesh yummy!

Then it was time... the Overtures were due to come on stage. Wot no Krankies, JP?!… being the kind of squealie girlies we are (and we're not young 'uns either) we heard the first few notes and jumped up, knocked over a few zimmer frames and immediately got to the front of the dancefloor. Thinking we'd be back and forth to the table we left our drinks (???!!!!) and started to have a boogie. Have to say - the Overtures NEVER disappoint! HERE! HERE! Playing all the 60s classics, the Beatles, (being a bit of a Kinks nut I was overjoyed to hear a couple of Kinks tunes in there - the Overtures definitely do the best covers of the Kinks I've ever heard), plenty of Rolling Stones, with Mick Jagger impressions provided by a few of us who were a bit the worse for wear… (see the TWIL Yahoo! Group for evidence - be scared! Be Very Scared!) the Monkees, Hollies, etc etc We knew every single song word for word, such was their choice of playlist for the evening - so of course we sang along, deafeningly loud, until we had what is commonly known as Beatleweek throat. (A guide to BW-related illnesses can be found in a future issue of TWIL, along with the all you need to know about BW!)

It was great to see the Overtures on their home turf (almost made me want to move down south so I can see them more!) HANG ON! I'll clear out me spare room! and a treat to be amongst other people we knew or recognised from Beatleweek.

For me, the highlight was the beginning of the lads' second set when Den and Steve performed a heartbreakingly, beautiful acoustic version of "Here Comes The Sun" - THANK YOU SO MUCH boys! George would have been proud, you should do more solo stuff in your sets. We stood spell bound as the final chords filled the vast Castle Hall. I got to thank Den personally after the show for playing one of my fave Georgie songs…what an Xmas pressie!

Over 2 hours later and we were STILL on the dancefloor, still singing and dancing away or at least trying to and really enjoying ourselves, despite being the only people in the whole venue who were brave enough to wear Christmas headgear (but during Beatleweek we wear wigs and really go to town, or faint so what's a pair of antlers between friends?). By the end of the evening the whole crowd were up dancing, such is the magic performed by our friends the Overtures. Den and the boys ended the night by performing Slade's 'Merry Christmas Everybody', resplendent in their Santa hats complete with flashing lights! What a way to end the evening! Thanks guys! The music was SO brilliant we never returned to our table - yes folks, we left alcohol, (whaaaaaaat??!! we hear you cry!) the Overtures are always THAT good! There's so many reasons why we love the O's so much - of course they're fabulous musicians, but they're also a great bunch of guys… and it's something to do with the teeth (an in-joke there!)

After the music ended the TWILer's all got together for a photo session, and Den came to join us for a chat, bringing with him a photo of new son, William (many congratulations from all of us by the way). We had a lovely chat with Den, then left to stagger our way back to the hotel, as we'd planned. Mind you, it about 2am by the time we got to bed! And this is neither the time nor place to tell you what our drunken discussions were that night… We were on Beatle-Week time - you never see the bed til the early hours of the morn, unless you go straight into brekkie, ahh those were the days!!! It's official; the beds in the Salisbury Arms do spin!

Next stop on the Voddie Sisters tour 2002? New York! Hey! Liverpool for the George Day on 23rd February, first, JP!!! Oh, and Beatleweek of course… But Will, Frank and the rest of your Faux, you have been warned! I promise not to faint this time!!! Watch this space. Ta-ra La for now folkies! And if anyone sees a plastic frog and boot walking aimlessly along the streets of Hertford, please let us know!!!

Not one mention of Geoffrey from Rainbow or Eric Morecambe!

Susan Rodgers & Amanda Holgate
TWIL Issue Seven February 2002

Be afraid... be very afraid!