I approach reviewing such concerts with trepidation as it looks wrong to criticise anyone. Fortunately, the Tsunami Appeal Benefit was among the best variety shows ever staged at the Philharmonic Hall and was full of highlights. In a sense, the real heroes were the stage management team as everybody got on and off so quickly and expertly. The benefit was four hours long and split into three parts, hosted by Willie Miller (BBC Radio Merseyside), Phil Easton (Radio City) and Pete Price (Radio City) respectively.
 | | Claire Sweeney |
It began with the Philharmonic’s string ensemble and some suitably sombre music immaculately played and then Alan Bleasdale, nervous but confident in his material, gave us a sample of his madcap press cuttings: “One million Australians can’t read. Are you one of them?” He had a collection of the sayings of George W. Bush. My favourite was “One of the problems with the French is that they don’t have a word for entrepreneur.” A couple of months back Pete Wylie’s voice sounded rough at the Everyman benefit but he was much better here, singing Sinful and Heart As Big As Liverpool with the Mighty Wah! Given a few more years and Heart As Big As Liverpool could become another Walk Alone. Paul Cooper, formerly Paul McCartney in the Bootleg Beatles, performed two well-chosen songs, New York Mining Disaster 1941 and Yesterday. | "The benefit was to raise money for Tsunami victims and over £50,000 was raised. Congratuations to everyone involved in this excellently produced show." | |
The contemporary band, Mirrorball, sounded good although I couldn’t make out what the lead vocalist was singing. Jennifer John, the vocalist on 100%’s hit single, Just Can’t Wait, was very impressive and Does It Really Matter has great potential. The folk trio, the Hidden Folk, showcased the voice of their female singer with cello, harp and guitar in a very pleasing way. The Liverpool Philharmonic Community Choir had been instructed to wear black or either lilac or purple and as a result, the choir, largely comprising of senior citizens, looked very good together. Try singing Where Is Love from Oliver! and you’ll realise how difficult the opening line is. Here 100 people were singing it together and sounding great. They closed the first section with Can You Feel The Love Tonight and already we had had 90 minutes’ entertainment.
 | | Neville Skelly |
The second part featured Neville Skelly and guests with his 14 piece orchestra. Neville, who is approaching 30, has been singing swing for 15 years and so he is not jumping on a bandwagon. He showed the strength of his voice with For Once In My Life and Something, but he is just missing that extra ingredient that has made stars of several of his contemporaries. Louis Emerick (Mick in Brookside) delightfully copied Sammy Davis Jr’s arrangement of Mr Bojangles, while Davis’ dancing was replicated by 16 year old Raymond Quinn (the whimpering Tony Murray in Brookside). The highlight of the entire evening was Raymond’s own version of Dean Martin’s Ain’t That A Kick In The Head, which was performed with a strong sense of humour and enormous panache. The actress and comedienne Pauline Daniels is a fine singer but Don’t Rain On My Parade was taken too fast and this complex song sounded disjointed. Claire Sweeney in a figure-hugging yellow evening dress sang Ten Cents A Dance and All That Jazz to much applause. Holby City star, Mark Moraghan, drew screams with The Lady Is A Tramp and joined Neville Skelly for Mack The Knife. During this section, there was some good local humour from R. David (he said his brother was “R. Mani.”) and a rock’n’roll selection from Beryl Marsden, who scored with her stage favourite, Baby It’s You.
 | | Gerry Marsden |
I expected the raffle at the start of the third part to go forever so praise to Phil Easton and Pete Price for getting through it so efficiently. A serious note returned with Roger Phillips, film director Colin McKeown, Les Dennis and Kevin McMahon reading a new poem about the disaster. A comic number after this would have been wrong and Brian Nash from Frankie Goes To Hollywood judged the mood perfectly with May Your God Go With You. Mel C, flanked by two guitarists, did a very good cover of George Michael’s Playing For Time as well as her own number one, I Turn To You. A recent song, Your Next Best Superstar, suggested that all had not been perfect in the Spice Girls’ garden, notably the line, “Where does all the money go?” I can make a good guess. Neil Fitzmaurice from Phoenix Nights had some reasonably funny jokes but his crowning glory was a brilliant impersonation of Robert DeNiro. Scaffold were reunited and backed by the Chip Shop Boys, they performed Thank U Very Much, Liverpool Lou and Lily The Pink with a lot of gusto. They were delighted to be back together but was there ever a more unlikely looking chart act? Also using the Chip Shop Boys, Gerry Marsden, now recovered from his heart operation and much trimmer, sang Ferry Cross The Mersey, How Do You Do It and then, with the ensemble, You’ll Never Walk Alone. The benefit was to raise money for Tsunami victims and over £50,000 was raised. Alan Bleasdale said that this money would definitely get to them, unlike the pledges from several countries. The appeal doesn’t stop either as Mike McCartney is holding a charity auction of some of his memorabilia on ebay next week. Congratuations to everyone involved in this excellently produced show. | 
