Reviews

Towards the end of his one-man show, John Gorman wonders why there have been no tribute bands for the Scaffold. He seems disappointed that the Lily the Pinkers have been ignored, but it’s quite the reverse: it’s a testimony to their talent. There are no Scaffold tributes because the group was genuinely unique. They were an unlikely combination of three highly unusual characters – Mike McCartney (then Mike McGear) the singer, Roger McGough the wordsmith and John Gorman the comedian, although they could each fulfil the others’ roles and the sum parts of their talent was surpassed by the whole when they performed their highly original stage shows. The menace of Harold Pinter, the dying days of the music hall and the surrealistic comedy of the Goons were amongst their many influences, and they in turn must have influenced Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Their annual shows for the Everyman Theatre were very funny and a concert they gave with the Bonzo Dog Band at the Philharmonic Hall was the funniest night of my life. As Scaffold is reforming for the No.l covers at the Arena in January, I am hoping that they will go the extra mile and consider a stage show reviving some of their classic sketches and adding new material.

Gorman, McGough and Mike McCartney.

John Gorman has compiled a two-hour show of his show business reminiscences for the intimate and cosy theatre at the Liverpool Academy of Arts in Seel Street. He is a wonderfully gifted raconteur with a fine eye for the ridiculous and he is happy to tell stories against himself. No one would call him handsome but he has a very mobile face and he is compelling to watch. He tells anecdotes about being managed by Brian Epstein and working with the Who, and the Beatles are never far from his thoughts. Earlier this year, he met Paul McCartney and said, “Tell me, Paul, whatever happened to that band you were playing with in Hamburg?”

This was an evening of gentle reminiscence but there was some music as John recreated his “Ten Whiskey Bottles” routine and sought audience participation on “A Long Strong Black Pudding”. He was assisted by Brian McCann on keyboards, who performed four songs from his musicals for schools. Brian’s songs had intriguing lyrics and his influences embraced both Noel Coward and Elton John. I lost track of the number of the shows that Brian mentioned but he overdid it: there’s no need to give your complete CV before you sing a song.

Comic timing

The evening needs a few nips and tucks. I would have ditched John’s shaggy dog story about Frank Sinatra and there are so many references to Google, I wondered whether I was watching Dave Gorman or John Gorman. He should replace them with a few more personal reminiscences: John, for example, did not mention John Lennon once, and I know that he has very funny stories about Scaffold eating motorway food. If he takes the show elsewhere, he should sharpen his impressions – he can, I am sure, do Richard Burton and Allan Williams more accurately, and he must check his facts. It is intriguing to learn that Scaffold took its name from the film, “Lift To The Scaffold”, but this was directed by Louis Malle and not Luis Bunuel.

Although he never said so, there is a very special knack to performing comedy and John Gorman described how their career was nearly destroyed by inept directing by a young Stephen Frears, who had to be given lessons in comic timing. They extracted revenge by writing about him in “Lily The Pink”.

The two and a half hour show passed very fast and this show could have a life around the country, though whether Gorman, now 71, would want to do that is another matter. I enjoyed every minute of it and I loved his routine about the Spinners in which they tell you so much about the songs that there is no point in performing them. I could imagine Peter Ustinov telling the same story. All in all, this was a very accomplished and entertaining evening from a master storyteller.