How the LAMPS were lit!
A
brief history of our Society
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 January 1st
1927 in the school hall. There was no
lighting or front curtains and so the show was performed with just some
material draped over the Memorial Organ to serve as a backdrop. The show was entitled "Query?" and
the tickets were sold at 1s 6d and 9d, it was a huge success and raised the sum
of £35.
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 London shows, Noel Coward's
"Wake Up and Dream" into "Make Up and Cream". The show ran for three nights and included
pupils from Tonbridge Girls Grammar School.
A proscenium arch was constructed and front curtains put up as well.
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 Judd School and the Rugby Club and so the first
Tonbridge based musical society had been born.
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 London musicals of
the time including, "Mercenary Mary", "The Lilac Domino"
and "Miss Hook of Holland".
They filled the Medway Hall night after night and still took the
occasional show out to other venues and villages. They performed at the Fisher Hall in Lyons
Crescent in 1932, which was the first public show to be staged in the hall.
In
1938 LAMPS moved from the Medway Hall to the Repertory Theatre, which was
situated in Avebury Avenue (where the Health Club/Gym is now). The show was called "Princess
Charming" in which the founder of the Society, Charles Barkaway appeared
as King Christian II of Sylvania.
Floradora performed in 1939 was to be the last musical show for a while
as World War II started, the Society re-emerged in 1949.
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 Avebury Avenue was sold to Sainsbury's who then moved
from their High Street store to the site, which is where they stayed until the
move to the Angel Centre site. LAMPS
were forced to look elsewhere for somewhere to stage their show. There was no other suitable venue in
Tonbridge to accommodate the ever growing chorus but The Royal Victoria Hall
Theatre, approx. 3 miles down the road in Southborough met all the requirements
and so this is where the LAMPS shows moved to, and with few exceptions have
remained ever since. The LAMPS members
undertook to rebuild parts of the Hall, as it was a very basic venue. The Tunbridge Wells Review Society, the other
main user, assisted them. They heard
that British Home Stores were throwing away sixty counters, which provided
valuable timber to the working party who dismantled them and re-used the wood in
a variety of ways. Raked seating was also
introduced which has obvious appeal to an audience as it enhances their view
greatly.
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 42nd
Street in 1996, LAMPS had to cancel its next planned show. However there was an air of sheer
determination that we should stage a show to celebrate the 70th
anniversary of LAMPS. A production team
was assembled and it was decided to stage a show that would facilitate us
hiring the Oast Theatre in Tonbridge so that we could return to our roots for
our 70th birthday. We staged
"Salad Days" in September 1997 and sold out every night.
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 staged SEUSSICAL in March
2009. A super fun show which is suitable
for all the family. This was followed in
October 2009 by Oklahoma! This show
provided a real challenge for the group as instead of setting it within the
confines of the stage, the stage was made the flat floor with seating added to
the stage to be able to present this musical in the traverse!
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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