... No gag wasted with Connolly Blackpool Billy Connolly Things have certainly changed since Connolly's first Blackpool visits, when he arrived by motorbike, and camped and drank in Marton. These days, home is Los Angeles, the world is his oyster and stand-up comedy tours are presumably his pocket money. Not that Connolly has entirely kissed his roots goodbye. Lord knows, if he tells us once I'm ...

... BMHS Central Conference Centre When you consider the word 'amateur' or 'semi-pro', most the atricals for some reasons turn up their noses. This line of thinking is a complete mistake. Amateurs are amateurs and many of their performances are better than pro fessionals. They work harder for a start and have more enthusiasm which is more than you can say for the average pro. And they usu ally ...

... The Doc and Big Mal Croydon For the young and unsporting, The Doc is Tommy Docherty and Big Mal is Malcolm Allison, both soccer players of past repute and subsequently even better known as managers of many top clubs in the sixties and seventies. They had a reputation for being flamboyant, outspoken, and opinionated, so it is appropriate that they should wind up on stage as an entertaining ...

... Beef and Lamb in a Stew Preston If it is true that the new wave of comedians are the rock stars of their day, then perhaps it is only fair that sporting figures are encouraged to step into the vacuum and become comedians. Heaven knows, some of them have attempted to become pantomime stars, so why not go the whole hog. hire a string of theatres and extend the long lucrative after dinner speech ...

... Leah Bells' Fabulous Fifties and Swinging Sixties Torquay Leah Bell may be only four foot ten inches but she explodes on stage and into the hearts of the audience with her dynamic personality. This lady sings, dances, chatters and creates, within moments, a rapport with her audience. By the second number the clapping and arm waving of the audience confirmed that this show was going to be a ...

... Fats Waller Tribute Purcell Room This is an annual event, conceived as a tribute to Waller's melodic longevity and as an opportunity to celebrate St Valentine's Day. Quite why romance and tuneful bonhomie should be aligned is obscure, suffice it to say that it does make for a pleasurable concert format. Instrumentation replicated the Waller rhythm line-up of trum pet plus tenor sax/clarinet ...

... Driving ambition LOOK WHO'S TALKING BY LISA VANOLI At the moment, Julie Graham is probably best known as the bubbly brunette in the Peugeot car adverts a la Thelma and Louise. Although these ads have made her a household face Graham, 28, has been in the business for ten years splitting her time between TV and stage work. Last year she spent six months on location in the north east filming the ...

... The Liverpool Poets Blackpool If the opening minutes of their latest reunion would have us believe, poetry was invented two million years ago in a cave on the outskirts of Liverpool. If something like half a million copies of Penguin Modem Poets Vol 10: The Mersey Sound would have us believe, it was re-invent ed 27 years ago in the pubs, clubs and student dens of Liverpool city centre. ...

... The Hollies Dartford Surprisingly for a band that has survived 32 years, had an armful of hit singles, and still packs 'em in on long theatre tours, The Hollies do not have a lot in the way of showmanship or the art of communication. The set and lighting at the Orchard in Dartford are fine but for much of the first half and there are no support acts it becomes a tad boring, with the power ...

... Chucklevision Preston Paul and Barry Chuckle's Chucklevision is the highly successful stage version of another of those Saturday morning childrens' TV programmes anyone attempting a well deserved lie-in won't know anything about. The Chuckle Brothers are a comedy couple seemingly cryo- genically frozen just before the demise of music hall and now thawed out for a pre-pubescent television ...

... Brian Lee Hayes The demand for Elvis Presley impersonators has never faltered since the King's death in 1977 and Brian Lee is among those who have a fanclub following. To be in an auditorium filled with middle-aged adoring fans is a strangely unnerving experience and the enthusiasts at the Beck, bobbed along on a sea of eupho ria as soon as their idol walked on stage. More bemusing is the fact ...

... Wise move indeed BY LISA MARTLAND It would be difficult to imagine performers further apart on the comedy scale than Morecambe and Wise and Alan Parker, Urban Warrior. But thanks to Radios 1 and 2, listeners have recently had the opportunity to choose between classic and contemporary. When trie and Ernie return every now and then to our televi sion screens the ratings soar a complement to ...