Gary Brooker and Friends

Guildford, 18 December 1998

'Beyond the Pale' learns from Gary's office that he will again be putting on a Christmas Charity Concert this year: booking details below. This is not, however, his typical annual village-hall gig in rural Surrey, but a much bigger affair in the Guildford Civic: this is a big theatre accustomed to large rock acts: between now and Gary's gig they will host The Stranglers, The Levellers, and the Australian Pink Floyd (!), for example.

Who and what
The gig is billed as 'Gary Brooker and Friends' rather than 'No Stiletto Shoes'. Though the 'Shoes' was once an umbrella title for whoever Gary was playing R&B with, it has lately come to be taken as meaning the more-or-less stable line-up for his Chiddingfold concerts, and we understand that this year's concert will be given by a wider variety of 'names': hence the Shoe-free ensemble title.

Details of who these 'names' will be, and what charity they will be supporting, are now available here. The theatre, however, has a capacity of 1,500, so we should perhaps expect quite a few luminaries! BtP does not yet know the full line-up - though we can dream - but it's worth pointing out that Gary has shared a stage with Ringo's All-Stars and Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings in the last few months so he presumably has quite a number of current 'phone numbers to call on! We have not received any hint whatever that there will be a Procol Harum dimension to this gig, sadly.

Tickets
Booking is open now (19 October 1998: the theatre informs us that tickets are shifting already and the show's expected to sell out); tickets are 15 pounds sterling standing, 20 pounds sterling seated. Seating will be in the balcony, which has a capacity of 200+, and that will be the non-drinking non-smoking area.

The theatre is accustomed to handling all sorts of credit cards, but there is a two or three pound booking-fee for telephone orders. You can get round this by sending a cheque and self-addressed stamped envelope, but the tickets will not be sent out until your cheque has cleared at the bank.

Contact
You can telephone for tickets (Monday - Friday 9.30 am to 6 pm, Saturday 9.30 am to 4.30 pm) on (0)1483 444 555 (UK) or write to

Guildford Civic Theatre (nice website here)
London Road
Guildford
Surrey
GU1 2AA

E-mail enquiries

Are you going to the concert? Then read this

Guildford 1998: index