Janet Dowsett
August 6th 2011
Janet opened her concert with an all time favourite 'Red Roses For A Blue Lady'. We all remember the comedy duet Morecombe and Wise, the many shows which delighted us for so many years with various television stars. Well, Janet went down memory lane, including 'Dancing Cheek To Cheek' and 'Singing In The Rain' to remind us of those happy days. Keith accompanied this with a delightful range of colours and patterns dancing in the background.
Great string sounds made for a beautiful rendition of 'Nimrod', which was the ninth of fourteen Enigma variations, composed in 1898/99. A complete contrast followed with 'Blaze Away' by the German/American composer Abe Holzman.
Henri Mancini's music is as popular as ever, the 'Baby Elephant Walk' opened up the medley, swiftly followed by 'Moon River' from Breakfast at Tiffany's and to finish with the 'Pink Panther', a great selection. Alexandra Buerke, who won the ITV X-Factor in 2008, got the Xmas number one spot that year as well with 'Hallelujah', written in 1984 by Leonard Cohen.
Organ and church organ set the scene for 'Eleanora' before Janet carried on with a medley entitled Divas, first of all 'Cabaret' (Liza Minella), 'Wouldn't It Be Loverly?' (Eliza Doolittle - My Fair Lady) and 'Chicago' (Katherine Zeta Jones).
The raffle over and everybody suitably refreshed, we were ready for the second half. Janet had changed into a lovely turquoise sequinned dress and started things off on her Yamaha EL900 with the very lively 'Dizzy Fingers' using xylophone sounds set to a red background by Keith.
A beautiful ballad with some beautiful choir sounds for Michael Jackson's 'She's Out Of My Life'. A rhythm activated kaleidoscope of shapes and patterns was just right for a selection of Mary Poppins songs, naturally a 'Teaspoon Of Sugar Helps The Medicine Go Down', 'Chim Chim Cheree' and 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' enhanced by red and green dots creating lively patterns.
Set to a honky tonk piano the 'Black & White Rag' was next. A blue/purple background set the scene for 'Dr. Finlay's Casebook' before Janet launched into a selection from 1956 film musical 'The King and I', which of course, starred the legendary Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner.
The Glenn Miller sounds and music brought the second half to a close, yes, the 'Chattanooga Choo Choo' and 'Pennsylvania 6-5000' featured, of course.
Well, what a super evening of music we had from Janet - it was much appreciated by the audience, who commented what a great evening's entertainment they had had. Such a pity that we were down in numbers yet again. On a happier note, Janet obliged with the traditional Basildon encore for which she chose 'Hotpoint' - and not a washing machine in sight! - played in French accordion style.