How the LAMPS were lit!
A
brief history of our Society
THE
LOCAL AMATEUR
MUSICAL PLAYERS
The Beginning…
In 1926 the Judd
School Rugby Club was in desperate need of funds and they asked one their ex-pupils,
Mr Charles Barkaway, to arrange a concert to raise some money. Mr Barkaway did as he was asked and the show,
performed by 10 of the rugby players took place on
The following
January another show was staged this time entitled "More Queries?"
starring the same ten rugby players who took on both male and female
roles. The previous years success meant
this show was staged over two nights and raised £55.
Charles Barkaway
in 1930 transformed one of the hit
Much encouraged by
their success, Charles Barkaway and his concert party toured round Tonbridge
and surrounding villages during the early part of 1930 with a show called
"Semitones 1930". The money
raised from the concerts was split and part given to local charities and the
remainder used to fund future shows.
The group of
players had started to find its own identity and were becoming increasingly
detached from
A committee was
formed in 1931 and the official naming of the society was high on the
agenda. Tonbridge Operatic And Dramatic
Society was considered but abbreviated down would have become TOADS which
didn't sound very attractive. Hence the
name of Local Amateur Musical Players was suggested and adopted.
The next
production was a pantomime "Queen of Hearts". With the promise to donate all the profits
to the Tonbridge Cottage Hospital the Lyceum Theatre in The Strand gave the
group the scripts to use free of charge.
This show was performed in the new Medway Hall (where Somerfields car
park now stands), which seated 780. As
the group grew in numbers rehearsals were more difficult to organise and
whereas they had been able to manage in people's homes it was now becoming
impossible due to a lack of space. Phil
Mandel owned the Riverside Café which was opposite the Medway Hall and he
welcomed the Society who used his premises for many years and were very
grateful for Phil Mandel's endless supply of tea and a lovely open fire on many
a cold winter's evening.
During the years
that followed the LAMPS staged many of the popular
In 1938 LAMPS
moved from the Medway Hall to the Repertory Theatre, which was situated in
The Society was
revived by four members prior to the war, Sid Funnell, Rupert Steed, Bill
Sargeant and George Clements and "No, No, Nanette" was the show that
they chose to re-open with. In 1952 the
Repertory Theatre changed its name to The Playhouse and "The
Arcadians" was staged there that year.
The LAMPS Concert
Party, which performed at other venues, was also rekindled with a show in the
Castle Grounds in June 1951 to mark the Festival of Britain. A similar concert was given in June 1953 to
celebrate the Coronation. The Venetian
Fete was also a great Tonbridge event in those days and LAMPS were delighted to
win first prize in the fete in 1953. The
Venetian Fete was one of the main events in Tonbridge from 1929 until 1955.
In 1955 The
Playhouse in
Throughout the
sixties and seventies the group prospered.
They produced popular musicals including "Me and My Girl",
"Annie Get Your Gun", "The Pyjama Game" and also several of
the works by Gilbert and Sullivan, "The Mikado",
"Gondoliers" and "Iolanthe".
Problems started
for LAMPS when it started to become increasingly difficult to find sufficient
people willing to undertake responsible positions on the committee, for like
them or hate them societies like LAMPS do need a committee to run them and
organise them. In the ever increasingly
busy lifestyles we all seem to lead these days, people are very reluctant to
give up their own time. Many people
enjoy the singing, acting and dancing and just want to turn up and do that -
they don’t want the hassle and work associated with getting the shows off the
ground. With there being many societies
in a small area locally, and several of them being musical societies, in
addition to the fact that people are able to travel around easier these days
and so may belong to several societies as opposed to being loyal just to their
nearest one, it is not a problem that will go away easily.
This problem for
the LAMPS grew and grew and they struggled through the early part of the
1990's. It should be said that the
support from the patrons of the society and the audiences remained enthusiastic
and loyal and our financial position was healthy it was just a lack of
committee members. Following
Again a struggle
to keep the administrative team together to stage another show - it
failed. Over the following months much
discussion and debate took place as various attempts to revive the Society were
explored but with great heaviness of heart it was felt that the only proposal
to make to the AGM in October 1998 was that the group should disband. It was only a counter proposal made by
Christina Laye, Simon Holland and Katharine Ledger that they would form the
production team for a show which was submitted at the 11th hour prior
to the AGM was received that a little light on the horizon appeared. It was discussed in detail at the AGM. A few nominations had been received from
people willing to sit on committee and we were lucky to have a few more
"from the floor" at the AGM and so LAMPS was given another
chance. The production team and
committee worked hard and the result was "Half A Sixpence" which was
staged at The Royal Victoria Hall Theatre in June 1999. Sadly not to sell-out audiences but enough to
inspire us to continue and we staged "Billy". Again, audiences were disappointing and at
the end of our 'comeback' year we had lost £8000. So the year 2000 was make or break - we could
not afford another loss.
After much thought
we chose "The Pirates of Penzance" and staged this in March 2000 -
the response it got was incredible, we staged the show in eight weeks had
wonderful audiences and made a profit!
We followed this in the November with "Oklahoma" and again,
managed to pack them in at the theatre.
2001 saw us stage
"Sweet Charity" in March and then "Oliver" in
November. “Sweet Charity” was produced
in eight weeks and culminated in performances which coincided with Comic
Relief. We added an extra reprise of
“Rhythm of Life” and rattled the collection boxes throughout the audience. Over three performances we made £825.19.
“Oliver” was an
overwhelming success. We sold out from
Wednesday onwards. A very happy show for
all involved and a huge success for the Society.
2002 started with
Bugsy Malone. LAMPS decided to take on a
challenge for this show and instead of using children in the parts as is
traditional, they decided to give the adults the chance to have some splurge
gun fun and cast the show from the adult membership. The show worked! And again good reviews were received for the
show.
The highlight of
our 75th Anniversary year apart from a sensational celebratory
Dinner and Dance at The David Solomon Centre in Southborough was SEVEN BRIDES
FOR SEVEN BROTHERS which was highly successful.
We had a surprise guest of honour at the first night too – Danny La Rue,
who had wandered into the theatre during the day to see if there were any
tickets left. He kindly spent time
talking to the cast after the show, which he said he had thoroughly enjoyed.
2003 saw us
staging Anything Goes during March, combining the show with some fund raising
for Comic Relief. Fiddler on the Roof
became our second production for 2003 and again we took the opportunity to do
some fund-raising, this time for Hospice in the Weald.
2004 was another
busy year. We staged Godspell in the
Spring, which again brought us much praise for the production and we then
followed this with our second show of the year.
We presented the SE Premiere of the New Broadway Version of ANNIE GET
YOUR GUN – and the success and popularity of this show ensured we finished the
year on a high.
We are delighted
that in April 2005 our production of “The Music Man” was a great success and
this was followed by “The Mikado” in November 2005 and we were delighted to see
Danny La Rue make a return visit as a member of our audience.
Our Spring
production for 2006 was a musical compilation show “Much Ado About Musicals”
which catered for a cast aged 7 to 70!
The rarely staged musical “How to Succeed in Business Without Really
Trying” was our offering for November 2006.
2007 saw us stage
that effervescent evergreen show, “The Boy Friend” followed by a magical
“Wizard of Oz” in November.
2008 has yet again
been a busy time we staged “Summer Holiday” which was great fun and have just
brought the curtain down on the second production of the year, the bright and
bubbly musical, “Thoroughly Modern Millie”, which certainly got toes a
tapping!
And so thoughts
turn to 2009. LAMPS ever keen to present
a wide variety of musical shows is staging SEUSSICAL in March 2009. A super fun show which is suitable for all
the family. For more information on this
show please visit our WHAT'S
HAPPENING NOW! Page!
LAMPS, although a
Tonbridge Society, have been performing at the Royal Victoria Hall Theatre in
Southborough since 1956 following the closure of the Medway Hall and The
Tonbridge Repertory Theatre. 2006 will
see us celebrate 50 years of performing at The Royal Victoria Hall Theatre
although they have returned briefly to Tonbridge when opportunity has allowed,
the last time being in 1997 when their performed their 70th
Anniversary Show, “Salad Days” at The Oast Theatre.
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