REVIEW: Dreamboats and Petticoats brought sixties sounds and summer love to the Blackpool Grand
and live on Freeview channel 276
The show was bursting with 60s chart-toppers that had everyone singing along, and reminiscing about the old days.
It harked back to when £11 a week was a ‘good wage’ and kids discovered bands on the radio.
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Hide AdAnd the fashion helped set the scene too. Girls wore groovy miniskirts and platform boots as they danced around their handbags.
We followed the gang through a raft of hook-ups and break-ups, during a summer season at Butlins. The main two characters are Bobby (David Ribi) and Laura (Elizabeth Carter); two dough-eyed lovebirds trying to make the long-distance thing work.
Laura is a budding star doing nightly shows. She has a belting voice and her sultry vocal rendition of ‘You Don’t Own Me’ was a showstopper.
A wafer-thin plot merely acts as a segue from one jukebox hit to the next.
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Hide AdBut the selling point is a talented cast who really breathe life into old songs like ‘Lipstick on your collar’, ‘Stop in the name of love’ and ‘Blue Moon’.
And the live band did a fabulous job of keeping things in motion. Benji Lord, Joe Sterling, Rob Gathercole, Sheridan Lloyd, Daniel Kofi and Alan Howell gave a polished performance with plenty of camaraderie.
And Chloe Edwards-Wood and Lauren Chinery played the saxophone when they weren’t busy dancing.
60s heartthrob Mark Wynter also made an appearance as Laura’s manager/agent. He dazzled the crowd with a medley of his old songs, including his most well-known number, ‘Venus In Blue Jeans’.
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Hide AdBut the Eurovision ‘show within a show’ added little to the night – it seemed to drag on longer than necessary and it detracted from what was otherwise a fun and fast-paced show.
However, a Kenneth Williams impression, by Mark Benson, made Blackpool carry on howling with laughter.
The third instalment of the Dreamboats and Petticoats series was less rock & roll than the first one, but it definitely brought the good times back to Blackpool.