1985 Spring Tour

Tour Dates and Places

Souvenir Programme Articles

Anchors Away

The careers of Tommy and Bobby continue with a busy and demanding series of triumphs in what is the most astounding showbusiness success story of recent years. Foreign tours with TV appearances; four consecutive nights on Australian television; summer shows in Bournemouth and Blackpool; winter sell-outs in all the major British cities; and for Christmas 1983 a triumphant return to home ground at Manchester's Apollo Theatre.

Such is the demand for Cannon and Ball appearances that in the last few years a number of treasured ambitions have had to be postponed, including a second LP and a film successor to Boys In Blue. "And we would love to tour Canada and the United States" says Tommy, "but finding time is the problem".

What about hobbies? Not much time for those either, but both Tommy and Bobby know that relaxation is essential for people with their kind of work and travel schedules. Tommy takes his relaxation on the golf course, while Bobby admits "I'm a boat freak". Bobby's 44ft cruiser will be in the area whenever the boys have a seaside booking, and he chuckles with delight when he tells how he now has Tommy hooked on boats too.

"Bob managed to drag me off the golf course last year and he took me out on his boat" says Tommy. "I absolutely loved it and I knew I had to have one". So now you'll always find a second motor cruiser moored next to Bobby's. "I've tried to get Bobby interested in golf, but I don't think he has the patience.

Handling a boat can be tricky, but it's a lot easier than golf". He looked round to get Bobby's reaction, but Bobby was already in his cruiser moving towards the open sea.

Golf, the sea, visits back to their native Lancashire. These are the real pleasures in the lives of Cannon and Ball. On one of their Lancashire visits they were accorded the greatest honour which the country can bestow - they were invited to switch on the Blackpool illuminations, tha pageant of colour which brings throngs of happy people to the Fylde coast in the late months of summer.

For Cannon and Ball it was one of their proudest moments, a moment which reflected the way in which their humour has illuminated the lives of so many people. Blackpool Illuminations last only a few short months, but Cannon and Ball's tours of happiness continue month in, month out, dispensing their warmh through stage and screen to an ever increasing, ever welcoming audience.

A Great Team

Behind the scenes of a 'Cannon and Ball Show' is always a bustle of activity as technicians, musicians and tour management personnal work feverishly each day in a new theatre to bring Tommy and Bobby's highly professional show to a fresh public, whilst maintaining the highest standards of production in differing theatres and concert halls.

Cannon and Ball's musical director, Mike Ryal (in picture), is now a familiar face to regular fans and over the years, Tommy and Bobby have painstakingly recruited a top team of supporting crewmen, each with specific tasks and responsibilities to be undertaken to the star's satisfaction. In this respect, Cannon and Ball's touring show resembles the bigger productions from the rock and pop world, with its own sound equipment, lighting effects, drapes, costumes, orchestra rostra, music stands, props etc.

Under the direction of a tour manager, the company manager and production chief see to it that all the touring equipment is loaded and unloaded correctly from the 40ft trucks which thunder through the night with their unique and precious cargo.

A show-day starts at 10am, when the production chief Chas Banks will supervise local labour with the "get-in" - the obvious but technical term for just that - the point at which the show "gets in" to the theatre. First to be rigged are normally the lighting effects, suspended on tough aluminium gantries, with each lantern individually focused by a nerveless "spiderman" who picks his way along the 12-inch wide ladderwork swinging in mid-air.

The sound equipment usually goes up next, with the touring sound engineer paying particular attention to the configuration of the building concerned, trying to allow extra "reach" for high balconies, long concert halls etc. Extra care is taken with certain acoustically difficult halls where audibility problems may have been reported in the past, for Cannon and Ball's or other shows.

Lastly, the crew will set the "back line" - the orchestras platforms, the drummers kit, amplifiers for guitars, the synthesiser, keyboards, and so on. All must be completed for the daily "sound check" at about 4pm, when the P.A. equipment will be tested, and all items in the show, such as microphones, special effects, lighting cues checked for a final time.

At about 5pm the production crew withdraw for their only meal of the day since breakfast, and their last until the following morning. By 6pm, they are back in position for the two-show performance which will normally take them until past 11 o'clock. At least two hours work beckons after curtain-down, as everything must be stripped out and re-packed in the trucks for tomorrow. Lucky to be finished by 1am, the Cannon and Ball show team may still face an hour's drive, or at the very least to be up the following day by 7am to put in 2 or 3 hours on the road to hit the next town by mid morning.

Tommy and Bobby's men are not beginners at this - many of them having served with the major pop touring artists all over Europe and the U.S.A. As Tommy sums up, "We have a great team of guys behind us, and it is true when people say we couldn't do it without them. That's certainly our position". Adds Bobby "We're not happy to do things half-cock, cocker! Our way probably isn't the cheapest for ourselves, but it's certainly the most reliable and the best - and that's what the public are entitled to".

Support Acts

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