There are too few left now who remember the halcyon days of Northern Music Hall before everywhere became The Talk Of The North, but in his song, THE MINSTREL, Alan Bell paid tribute to one of that era’s true characters. Thomas Edward Moss was "a minstrel, a singer of songs". With this number The Fivepenny Piece brought the evening to a perfect close, for the song is about entertainment from a bygone era: - entertainment that seeks to comfort rather than to shock and to share rather than to alienate. This is the entertainment that will endure.

The show brought to each of your reviewers memories from our youth. Pam recalls nights in the audience at The Two Brewers with Rob, now her husband. Norm remembers his years as a member of a folk group, deep in the shadow of the likes of The Fivepenny Piece. This set tonight could have been the soundtrack of any evening in any folk club anywhere in Lancashire in the sixties and seventies. I knew all the words, but even from the back row of the theatre I still couldn’t hit the notes or hold the harmonies.

A case could have been argued for the inclusion of more Alan Bell songs. BREAD AND FISHES and WINDMILLS are songs that will still be sung in a hundred years time, and there are more great choruses from those folk club days, such as POVERTY KNOCK and WHISKEY ON A SUNDAY.

However, in leaving us all wanting more, THE FIVEPENNY PIECE demonstrated why they made it to the top of their world. In bringing back happy memories, they sent more than 200 strangers home feeling they had shared an evening amongst friends.

That’s entertainment!

© 2002.Norman Warwick & Pam McKee: - Just Poets

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