James Goff plays Yamaha EL90
James Goff
May 1st 2010
Yamaha EL90
It was the Bank Holiday Weekend and after a sunny day, the rain duly arrived, but it did not stop a good sized audience coming out for our May concert with James Goff who paid his first visit to us.
James opened his program on his Yamaha EL90 with Cabaret - Witchcraft - Deed I Do & Can't Buy Me Love all set to a swing rhythm. Then it was showtime with short excerpts from The Sound Of Music - Thank Heaven For Little Girls - People Will Say We're In Love - Some Enchanted Evening - Somewhere Over The Rainbow - Bali Hai - Do Re Mi - Sunrise Sunset - Hello Young Lovers - Edelweiss - Hello Dolly & On The Street Where You Live. And to keep apace with the weather we were both Singing & Walking InThe Rain and yes, those Raindrops Kept Falling On Our Heads.
Some disco tunes to keep us warm with Love Is In The Air, Beautiful Sunday and Una Paloma Blanca, followed by Moonlight Serenade. A waltz medley in Viennese style with amongst others Blue Danube - Daisy Daisy - She Was One Of The Earlybirds - Cruising Down the River and Somewhere My Love.
The back curtain had been draped in the shape of a pyramid and Keith was doing his usual great stuff with the lights, enhancing the music.
Flute and strings set the scene for I Just Called To Say I Love You before we heard Apache. James then launched into The Swinging Shepherd in the style of the Ted Heath big band sounds with a few bars of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star creeping in there as well. Tijuana Taxi and What's New? were next before James played a request: No Matter What by A.L. Webber.
More big band sounds with The Woodchopper Ball, which took us nicely up to the break, during which James mingled with the audience whilst enjoying a cuppa and hey presto, we were ready for the 2nd half which opened with Lady Of Spain and Espana, set to reds and greens by Keith.
We must not forget our Peter once again giving us great close up shots of James's finger and pedalwork. Good work Peter.
Back to the music with Splanky by Count Basie before Henri Mancini made an appearance with the Pink Panther and Moonriver to name just a couple.
The recorder, a choir and churchorgan made for a wonderful setting for Amazing Grace. Suddenly the keyboards on the screens turned into "colour", red, green, yellow, clever Peter having some fun for It's A Hard Days Night - Is This The Way To Amarillo? - Crazy & I Can't Stop Loving You.
Yes, the telephone rang more than once for Pennsylvania 6500 before going into the key of F and Keith setting up a blue background for Blue Moon - Misty & Georgia.
Ann and John having become grandparents the previous day, Babyface duly arrived in the program before Alexander's Ragtime Band made an appearance. A lively Latin number concluded the program: El Cumbanchero.
Not getting away without the traditional Basildon encore James played us out with My Way. Many thanks James for an entertaining evening.