I'm sorry (mostly for myself!) for sounding like an old fuddy duddy here - especially as I'm not that old! But a visit to this year's St Albans Gang Show really restored faith in the youth of today!
 | | St Albans Gang Show 2006 |
It showed that they are not the hooded, threatening, mumbling spawn of the devil that the media often portray them as, because this cast, of what seemed like thousands, had a real joie de vivre rarely encountered in anyone over ten years of age these days and more extraordinarily still, featured teenage boys who didn't look embarrassed! Packed with musical numbers the cast were extremely well drilled in simple but highly effective routines that everybody could join in with. Throughout, each is given a chance to appear at the front as well as support at the back, and while some people are able to showcase their singing voice or dance prowess, there is a good balance and no one is allowed to take over. The voices sounded great as a group, particularly in the full choral numbers such as "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and "Fix You". And there were also some very strong individual voices. The three girls who did "Do Your Thing" were particularly outstanding and the young lad who sang "Brave New World", who I believe may be called Ruaridh MacPhee was also excellent! He could also really cut it at the front during Saturday Night Fever!
 | | St Albans Gang Show 2006 |
There were also some clever little sketches in between the songs and the audience howled with laughter at the scout camp in a luxury hotel with an over zealous lifeguard patrolling the spa, and the group who have to try and organise a camp under new health and safety and politically correct restrictions! This was a real ensemble effort. The 'theme' was "teamwork" and in the programme, producer David Barker said that he hoped that this would be apparent and obvious to all the audience. I'm very pleased to be able to tell him that it most certainly was - they all lived up to it perfectly! I can only imagine the chaos that must have been going on backstage with over 120 young people and all their costumes and props, but once in front of the audience it was slick and organised and filled with bags of joyous enthusiasm!
 | | St Albans Gang Show 2006 |
And the icing on the cake was that the audience were equally as enthusiastic and were finally able to do what they'd been gagging to do all evening - they joined in - as "Riding Along on a Crest of a Wave" and the "National Anthem" rang around the Alban Arena! People queue all night to buy tickets for this show. They are legendary in their quality and this year's did not disappoint!
| 
