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MESSAGE FROM JOE “OUR TRIP TO PARLIAMENT”

30
Sep

Monday 29 September 2014


“As you may be aware, James and I were invited by Kevin Horkin of the Community Foundations for Lancashire and Merseyside to attend a charity reception in Downing Street for a full evening’s meet and greet, also invited were Peter Anthony and Paul Lomax, Peter is the Conservative candidate for Blackpool South in 2015 and I would like to wish him well for his campaign.

So we arose at 6 o’clock on the morning of 24th September for a full and exciting day, thought I’d take the wheelchair because although you may have seen me walking a little I’m still not fully recovered and am weak, my batteries are still charging back up.

The Community Foundation Charity is a great way to help local communities and you know when it comes to charity I like to get stuck in.10.17am and we are on the train to London, then to Russell Square and our hotel, it was not a great hotel but it did what it said on the can ! A quick wash and brush up and I ‘foolishly’ decided to leave the chair at the hotel. We hailed a cab to the Houses of Parliament…..well it was up, down, up, down all along the corridors of Parliament, on the roof, seeing every chamber that there was to see, talking to politicians of all parties. We had a fabulous guide called James who was fantastic and extremely knowledgeable…and fast…. 600 miles an hour leading our party… I had to stop and rest at every corner. Those of you who have done a similar tour will understand, it was fascinating and eye opening but it seemed like I was walking miles and I started to ache and be in pain. It was wonderful to walk through the House of Lords and the House of Commons and I thought to myself ‘she sits there, he sits there, they sit over there’ why don’t I sit here…so I sat down on one of the front benches for a rest !. At one point I thought someone had pinched the mace but I’m advised that it’s only there when Parliament is in session and it was in recess that day.

Looking up at the public gallery it reminded me of when I was appearing at Quaglino’s in Jermyn Street for a 6 week season in the 1970s and, for most of the time I was there, I spent some of my days up in the Public Gallery watching the politicians debate the politics of the day and try to work out exactly what was going on. On other days I would visit the Old Bailey to watch and listen to the major criminal trials of the day
.
Back to Wednesday, so the Tour of Parliament finished…finally. We stopped to have a chat with a couple of security personnel on the way out and emerged into the hustle and bustle of Parliament Square. We had to make our way over to Downing Street for the main event of our day, the charity and yes we walked... There are no lifts at No 11 Downing Street so we had to climb the stairs to the reception which was a great experience. The speeches by Kevin Horkin and his associates at the Community Foundation were marvellous and inspiring and illustrated perfectly the aims of the charity. This gave me good cheer as you will know that’s something I can directly be involved with and at this point my team are already making plans to raise some much needed funds for this most worthy cause.

We had nibbles and beautiful wine, I felt a little awkward having to sit down but I was soon chatting away to the wonderful Denise Welch and tried to persuade her to record a duet with me, she smiled and said she couldn’t sing. I did remark to her that everyone can sing, I met her wonderful partner Lincoln we had quite a laugh, then I bumped into the one and only Vicky Entwhistle such a genuine lady we were talking about singing a song on a charity album, she said she could not sing which I thought was quite odd as she’s been in ‘Les Mis’ for 6 months.Had the pleasure of meeting Chris Maloney who we had a great chat with, his personality is up in the air, a very talented performer.

Then the Rt Hon George Osborne arrived straight from a meeting, we had a quick conversation , it was a pleasure to meet the Chancellor. Great to see Elaine Paige looking so well and yes James and I do listen to her BBC Radio 2 show on Sundays, we often end up in the kitchen singing together. All the wonderful classics she plays, a great show, keep it up Elaine. Nicholas Grace what a man we had our photograph taken, also ‘Hello Hello’s’ sensational Vicki Michelle. By this time last orders were announced, the charity’s aims were locked firmly in my head. It was a wonderful experience.

I decided I wanted to walk and see the sights and experience London at night. I went to walk from Whitehall down towards Leicester Square. Well I got as far as Trafalgar Square but I decided to catch a cab the rest of the way to see my pal Casino boss Geoff Todd at The one and only Hippodrome. It was quite a good time to call in and see Geoff as that night they had a fantastic musical revue “The Story of Lionel Bart’ all the cast and musicians were outstanding.

I am delighted to have the news of my 60th Birthday Concert at the London Palladium announced. It will be a once in a lifetime do and I am so very excited about the show on 31 May 2015. I do hope to see as many of you as possible there at the Palladium and I am greatly cheered to know that many of you have been asking already about tickets and travel arrangements.

It’s going to be quite a night, the last Birthday concert was at the Royal Albert Hall 20 years ago and it’s a great feeling to be playing “Sunday Night at the London Palladium” for my 60th birthday, probably the most famous theatre in the world.

So for now I’m back to resting, that’s the most important thing for me to aid my recovery.

I am hoping that you are all keeping well. Thanks so much for all the cards, messages and donations which continue to arrive.

You all know how much you mean to me.

God Bless

Joe x