Laughing Gravy's full house

The build-up to our Birthday Evening on Thursday 3rd April had gone really well. The local press had run the story that we were fifteen years old and that we had booked a group of dancers to recreate a routine from one of the Boys' films. We had a lot of phone calls, with questions like, "How much are the tickets?" and "Can we bring friends along?" etc. Jacqui Bryan (the chief Bellydancer) also told me that the girls would bring up to thirty guests. So we knew in advance we were in for a good turn-out. Mandy and I arrived at the club just before 7 o'clock, to find that twenty-three people had already booked in. By 7.30pm almost every seat was taken. Just then "We are the Sons of the Desert" came ringing into the room. Who else could it be but the brilliant Saps at Sea Tent. Roger, Paul and the gang had driven up from Southend to join us. It was great to have them here on our birthday night. We started off with a showing of Laughing Gravy, which just happened to be the first film we screened fifteen years ago. The film was well received and now everyone knew who Charlie Hall was! The lights came back on and there were quite a few people standing up. Some of us raided the pool room and brought in extra chairs. There were still a few people standing when I introduced our special guests for the evening - the wonderful Bellytastic. To howls of approval and thunderous applause the girls danced their way through several of their routines. The Sand Dance in particular was greeted with the loudest cheers. We had a break for the loyal toasts, which included one for Barrie Finney, and we remembered all our absent friends. The girls then performed the Honolulu Baby dance sequence from Sons of the Desert, again to a great roar from the crowd. It was so good that we demanded, and got, a repeat performance. Still the dancing continued, followed by quite a bit of audience participation (some of which left a lot to be desired!). A rough estimate was that 170 people attended that night. The atmosphere was electric and I would say it was our best ever tent night. Fun and friendship were in abund-ance and we presented Jacqui with a bouquet of flowers and thanked all the girls for making the evening so special. How we will ever follow this night, I don't know.  John Ullah