It’s a Four-Mality

The Rotary Club of Basildon may be a small club but it is continuously innovative in the events it runs and the fundraisers it holds.  So it was on Friday night April 4, when over 60 of us gathered at the Billericay Cricket Club to be entertained by the GNUs.  The GNUs? They are two individuals – actor Jonathan Buxton and musician Andrew Palmer – who delighted us all as they gave us a timeless tribute to the wonderful and witty world of Flanders and Swan.

They were a British comedy duo and musicians who first worked together in a school revue in 1939 and eventually wrote more than 100 comic songs together.  Michael Flanders was the lyricist, actor, and singer and Donald Swann was the composer and pianist, and they delighted TV and West End audiences with their humorous hit comic songs in the '50s and '60s.

Flanders and Swan may not be well known now, but to many us “older” members of the community, they were a comic duo of excellence from our youth, so we were really looking forward to the evening.  We were not disappointed!  We were well represented by Brian, Roger and Sarah, Les and Val, David and Pauline, Bert, Nick, and Peter, and District was represented by DG Anne Moriaty.

The Lecher Section

The First Act (as Jonathan Buxton put it) was the “Lecher Section”, and it wasn’t just a formality.  Or, as Jonathan put it “Mality, ….. Mality, …. Mality, …. Mality …. Well that’s got the fourmality over with!”.

It was full of Flanders and Swan’s innuendo strewn jokes, poems and songs, and ending with “The Gas-Man Cometh”.  The whole Act was a very pleasing mixture of “groan-ful” jokes, poems and amusing songs, all original Flanders and Swan material and all to the great amusement of the crowd.

It was “bring your own nibbles” evening, but the Cricket Club staff were on hand to serve drinks – all you had to do was raise your hands and they came to you in the audience, took your order and brought it back.
All too soon, the first Act was over and time for a short interlude, at which the Raffle was drawn.  £312 was raised for Rotary good causes – a brilliant result.  Some of our members won prizes, including Brian, Roger and David – but we’re still not sure why David chose for his prize .... a handbag.

Beggars Can’t Be Tudors

Jonathan introduced Act Two as the “Spring” section, or, it’s bloody January again.  There were more songs – some less well known but some very recognisable such as “Madeira M’Dear” and the “GNU song”.  All this interspersed with more poems, and more jokes – some about Henry VIII and his wives … well, “Beggars can’t be Tudors”!  (Groan! Groan!).

Finally, and all too soon, the last song of the evening “The Hippopotamus Song” or better known as “Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud” which had the whole audience taking part and singing along to the chorus.

“Encore! Encore!” were the cries from the audience and the GNUs responded with one final rendition of that final song, before it was time for us all to wander home.

We all had a great time and Basildon Rotary Club should be rightly pleased that it all went off so well.