Woodley Tribute Concert 2010

An unusual addition graced one of the tribute acts at our Tribute Concert on Saturday 12th June – one of the band members themselves.  Shadows keyboardist Cliff Hall joined his own tribute band for the day to make a special appearance with the Drifting Shadows, who were one of the acts.  He was the keyboardist with The Shadows from 1978 and agreed to play after the usual keyboard player was unable to make the gig.

Drummer Chris Wright said: “I’ve always been a great Shadows fan and when I was a teenager growing up in the 60s I really got into them. “We had the idea of forming a Shadows tribute act and through my work as managing director of DrumWright I come into contact with a number of musicians including Cliff Hall, who is one of the best keyboardists in the country.

“Our usual keyboardist was already booked on Saturday so I thought I’d give Cliff a call and see if he could come and luckily he was free.”  Speaking beforehand, Mr Hall said: “I’ve never played in my own tribute band so it’ll be quite unusual!”
The band played a number of Shadows and Drifters hits as well as some Cliff Richard numbers. Front man Mark Hankins, who played with the New Seekers, was Cliff Richard for the day and joked he had been practicing his lip curl and hip swivel in preparation.

We held the concert to mark the 50th anniversary of Woodley Carnival, which was held the weekend before. Also in the line-up were Platinum Abba, Elton John act John Ellis, and Killer Queen, who are the UK’s longest-running Queen tribute act.

Local bands We Caught the Castle and Familiar Grounds also played, and the evening finished with fireworks. Around 1,600 revellers, which included home secretary and Woodley MP Theresa May danced the night away to the sounds of the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s.

An exhausted, but proud carnival chairman, Bill Soane, told The Wokingham Times how the concert capped off what was a “marvellous” week of carnival celebrations. “It was extremely good, the weather was perfect for us and we had a very good turnout,” he said

Please take a look at the photo's from the concert.