On Thursday 5 March, our six year-long tour of Looking For Me Friend: The Music of Victoria
Wood staged a one-off performance at Jackson’s Lane in Highgate. A venue which was local
to Victoria when she lived in London, where her children went to drama clubs, and which has
been the beneficiary of charitable donations from The Victoria Wood Foundation.
This was not the first time we have performed our musical tribute to the late, great
Lancastrian in her chosen London stomping ground. Upstairs at the Gatehouse is a theatre
at the top of Highgate Hill which boasts the ability to literally see VW’s old home from the
stage! My pianist and on-stage partner Michael and I were invited to share our homage by
long-term managers John & Katie Plews as they planned their final season before retirement
a couple of years ago.
There are many towns that proudly claim an ownership of Victoria Wood, and with good
reason; she went to University in Birmingham – and that is where Julie Walters is from, of
course -, she was born in Prestwich which sports a fabulous mural by the artist Woskerski,
and her hometown of Bury is where the controversial bronze statute by Graham Ibbesson
resides. Indeed, you can even find a portrait within a window frame by Mark Kennedy in her
once-home of Morecambe. Having been met with enthusiastic and welcoming audiences in
both Morecambe and Prestwich, and Birmingham being by far the city we have presented
the show in the most, you’d be forgiven for thinking our two-hander musical tribute is
guaranteed a warm hand on its entrance in these particular locales. I mean, Julie’s old
librarian at Sandwell Library certainly enjoyed herself!
Highgate, however, is a washing up brush of a different colour. Our Gatehouse appearance
just a few short years ago saw us confronted with a VIP front row of arm-folded naysayers,
busy wafting flyers even as I sang my heart out, hearing muffled but much more enthused
responses from the rows of people behind, seeming miles away! It appeared some
committee had been sent to check out the Upstarts that had rode into town and to make
clear to them that this was HIGHGATE. I knew this, as I’d seen it on a number of signs, but
each to their own.
So, it was with some trepidation that I prepared to step onto the stage of Jackson’s Lane
earlier this month, at the bottom of that same hill, to sing the famous songs It Would Never
Have Worked, Reincarnation and The Ballad of Barry & Freda – along with 17 others – to a
crowd of Ms. Wood’s neighbours and, potentially, friends too. Over the years, I’ve met half a
dozen people at the merch stand after the show, who tell me that they went to school with
Vic or Vicky – the latter usually denoting a primary school chum as this particular moniker
seemed to be disliked and retired by Wood in later years. In Barnard Castle, we met her
older brother – and champion of the Ibbesson bronze – Chris Foote-Wood and his wife. And
yes, I did have to check my eyesight!
In spite of all these encounters, the Jackson’s Lane performance stands out amongst them,
coming as it did as the nation prepared to mark ten years since the untimely death of Victoria
Wood at the age of just 62, as well as the start of our Finale Tour, which will also see us visit
Birmingham Rep, The Lowry and Bury Met as jewels in the crown of our final tour leg.
Birmingham will give us the rare treat of seeing us stay in one place for more than an
evening, and so I’m excited to take that opportunity to visit Birmingham Museum & Art
Gallery, which is showing a photographic exhibition entitled I photograph comedians! by
Andy Hollingsworth. To celebrate the exhibition, the museum has selected my very own
range of ‘Two Soups’ badges, fridge magnets and make-up bags to sell in their gift shop,
and I can’t wait to see something I have developed and manufactured on an actual shop
floor for the first time.
But first the gala, and how it went. I was very fortunate to be able to assemble many of the
Looking For Me Friend team in person for the event, a rare thing with so many of us now
working from home and, in our case, being freelance creatives. Susie Fincham, who
predominantly designs all my flyers, posters and online assets, as well as tour booking, is
also a dab hand with a camera, and she got some lovely black and white shots of the
evening, which you will see here amidst my words. Our director, Sarah-Louise Young, was
able to join us and took her place at the entrance to the auditorium laden with macaroons for
our guests’ arrival, and my long-suffering lesser-spotted husband was at the helm, pressing
flesh and being his excellent, charming self. Big shout-out to Jemma and Sarah-Jane, both
of whom have worked on the project in the past and came along to support us as well.
Another team member in attendance was graphic designer Luke Benjamin, whom I
co-created the original design for our iconic ‘Word-Bubble’ found on tea towels, oven gloves
and aprons in the homes of VW lovers across the country. This was to be the first time Luke
had seen the show, and we are proud to say that Bury Art Museum has taken our tea towel
into their Victoria Wood collection – another pilgrimage to make when we visit Bury in May!
And so, with the prosecco poured and the macaroons going down like the proverbial hot
cake, the time had come for 130 people to gather in the vaulted auditorium of the converted
Methodist church that makes up Jackson’s Lane arts centre main space, to remember and
celebrate an entertainer much missed and much loved, and who lived locally back in the day.
As previously mentioned, I do not appear alone onstage in Looking For Me Friend, instead I
am ably assisted at the piano by accompanist, backing singer and purveyor of many a dodgy
accent, Michael Roulston, who serves as Julie to my Victoria in-between songs, providing
the other half of a game of ‘VW quotes tennis’, feeding me punchlines and also delivering
zingers of his own from time to time. I’ve been so fortunate to share Michael with the cabaret
super-group Fascinating Aida since 2019, whom he also tours with and accompanies.
During the show, we discuss how a mutual love for the work of Victoria in the era of Victoria
Wood As Seen On TV and Pat & Margaret, had found us gravitate towards one another both
on and off stage. Indeed, Michael first accompanied me at the piano for a Victoria Wood
song as far back as the last century. I’ve long admired his ability to accompany a singer,
rather than simply to play a piano piece. Accompanist is a specific word and a specific job
title for a reason, and at his best his listening skills are second to none.
A show like Looking For Me Friend is a big sing, and requires a lot of puff and even more
diction. I do 3 vocal warm-ups on a show day, plus endless gum-chewing to get my jaw
working. There is a concoction of honey, root ginger and apple cider vinegar that I travel
with in little vials, and at any given moment I am likely to emit a high pitched down-the-scale
wail – which we in the biz call a siren. There are heart-breaking ballads, break-neck speed
comedy tunes and even show-stopping group numbers which I attempt to recreate with the
help of keyboard and Michael’s backing. Some shows, it is just a matter of surviving,
breathing where you can and hoping you hit the high notes. The idea of getting a laugh
barely enters into it.
Sometimes audiences are not warmed up either, when a show begins. Sometimes they
never do warm up and, once again, the idea of getting a laugh barely enters into it. No such
fear at Jacksons Lane, however, As soon as I stepped on-stage, I felt a wave of love from
the crowd and the laughs came thick and fast from the outset. It was one of those gigs
where you could fly. Really spread your wings and flex your muscles, supported by the
energy of the onlookers. I felt free to try out brand-new gags to acknowledge our special
event and the upcoming anniversary; anecdotes of our time on the road were liberally
sprinkled amid the storytelling, and the two hours flew by so fast we were suddenly on the
thirteenth verse of a song often referred to as ‘Let’s Do It’ with a spinning glitterball catching
the light in the smiles of the other assembled devotees of a comedy genius.
Post-show was hugs and chats whilst the prosecco flowed, but no hug was more important
than getting to meet Cathy, Victoria’s Executive Assistant since the mid-nineties who is now
secretary of and backbone of The Victoria Wood Foundation. She had stayed until the end –
which is always a good start! – and we have since arranged to meet for tea in Highgate on
April 21; one day after the tenth anniversary of Victoria’s passing. I can’t think of a better
way to mark the occasion.
With two months and fourteen performances across the UK to go, I’m hoping the remaining
time on the road with Michael, celebrating our hero whilst making others laugh, cry and
forget their cares for a couple of hours, remains as fun, exciting and unpredictable as it has
so far. As jobs go, this is a rather lovely one.
Looking for Me Friend: The Music of Victoria Wood is currently touring the UK, get tickets here.
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