Gang shows started in 1975 and were first performed at the Trinity Methodist Church Hall, in Shortmead Street. The 1975, 1976 shows were produced by Tony Glenn. By 1977 Tony had moved away from Biggleswade and the producers who took over were Betty Griffiths and John King.
All these shows had one thing in common: the active and enthusiastic participation of Biggleswade’s Scouts and Guides, the young members of the cast. The fourth Gangshow in 1978 was called ‘Our Show’, a title used to this day. This one was produced by Betty Griffiths, who was also the musical director, and John King. The sections taking part were 1st Biggleswade Cubs (Green and Black Packs), 2nd Biggleswade (Methodist) Cubs and Scouts and 3rd Biggleswade (Methodist) Guides and Brownies. This was also the first gangshow attended by Nick Gurney who has done so much to keep the tradition alive.
All the cast wore hand made red, white and blue scarves. The show took place over two nights on 17 and 18 February 1978. The Biggleswade Chronicle for Friday 24 February 1978 told the whole story.
After two shows produced by Betty Griffiths and John King it was the turn of Georgie Humphrey and Bobbie Ball. By that time, John and his family had moved to Newmarket. Betty Griffiths was still involved as musical director. ‘Our Show ’79’ took place at Trinity Methodist Hall, on 23 and 24 February 1979.
Following the prologue, ‘Crest of a Wave’ was sung to open the show and a camp fire to finish, a format that was repeated some 20 years later.
The cast at each show would be cooped up in back rooms, with the male cast downstairs and the female cast upstairs. We were always being told to keep quiet because the audience were only a few yards away behind a door in the main hall.
One back stage memory from Nick Gurney was of lots of secret notes making their way up to the Guides and then back down to the Scouts. It was the method Nick used to ask his future wife Barbara Neville to go out with him. “It took quite a few notes,” he recalls. His father-in-law often reminds him that the first time the two met Nick was wearing a pink tutu and jacket trying to impersonate Terry Wogan. The date was the birthday of Lord and Lady Baden Powell.
Apart from the Nick Gurney interlude, the 1980 ‘Our Show’ followed the usual pattern. It was held at Trinity Methodist Church Hall on 22 and 23 February 1980. In addition to the Terry Wogan sketch, the old favourites were there. The show opened with ‘Crest of a wave’ and ended with choruses from topical musicals.
This was to be the last of the Gangshow spectaculars for some considerable time except for a small show in the late 1980s when the Biggleswade and District Cub Scouts held their own Gangshow at the Trinity Methodist Church Hall.
Trinity Methodist Church Hall was again the venue in October 1999 when the Gangshows restarted after a 10 year break. The production team consisted of two Leaders from Neptune Cub Pack, Charlie Checkley and Nick Gurney, both ex-scouts from the 2nd Trinity Methodist Scout Troop. They are still very much involved in the movement today and remain the very best of friends.
Our Show ’99 was a fitting celebration of the Scout Group’s 90th Anniversary . The show was put together with two full rehearsals and it brought together the Scouting and Guiding sections of the town. The show started the bi-annual production of Gangshows in the town. This was a huge step into the unknown by the two producers in 1999 who continued to improve the Gangshow in the years that followed. The Gangshow format in 1999 has continued to date with the difference that we now have Beavers and Rainbows sections taking part and a change of venue.
The 1999 show opened with ‘Crest of a Wave’ followed by various sketches and dances and finishing with a traditional camp fire finale. The production team of the 1999 show emphasises the sheer number of volunteers you need to put on a Gangshow.
Two names keep appearing at every show. One is that of John Le Warne who has been our curtain operator for the last five Gangshows. The other name is the Biggleswade Chronicle, our local newspaper, which regularly covers the story leading up to each show and reports on the results afterwards.
To quote the programme of 1999, a ‘real spirit of friendship and fun is evident amongst those taking part.’ It is this fun that convinced the group to establish a tradition of holding bi-annual shows.
In 2001 Our Show saw a new producer team of Bev Lattimer and Nick Gurney. The show in October 2001 had both Scouting and Guiding sections taking part. For the first time Gemini and Apollo Beavers brought their young Scouting talents to the stage at Trinity Methodist Church Hall with 20 sketches.
The 2001 Gangshow improved from the knowledge gained from the 1999 show. Producing a show is a learning process and the show in 2001 was very well received. For the record, a list of the acts is recorded in this book.
The £700 profit from the 2001 show was used to finance the 2003 show. This was again produced by Nick Gurney and Bev Lattimer and held at Trinity Methodist Church Hall. Updated logos for Scouting and Guiding were used to illustrate the programme and as a back drop to the stage.
Participants in the 2003 show were Gemini Beavers, Jupiter Cubs, Mars Cubs, Neptune Cubs, Armstrong Scouts, 1st Biggleswade (St Andrew’s) Brownies, 4th Biggleswade Brownies and 7th Biggleswade Brownies. The box office for Our Show, previously Lindsay Music, was Bookworms in the market square.
As with previous Gangshows the opening songs were sung by the whole cast and started with ‘Crest of a Wave’. This year, the introduction was followed by ‘World keeps turning around’ and ‘This little Guiding light’. Sketches included Gemini Beavers, singing Animal Fayre and 7th Biggleswade Brownies dancing to the Cheeky Girls. Mars Cub sketches have become famous for their length and humour.
The leaders’ sketch, which was the last act of the first half of the show, was ‘Follow me’ This was taken from an old record played at Nick and Barbara Gurneys’ wedding on Saturday 22 August 1987. It’s a song which involved the pair dressing up as a Brownie and a Cub, much to the hilarity of the audience. The lyrics are ‘When I was a Boy Scout and you were a Brownie…’
While dancing to popular pop songs went down well, more traditional sketches like St Andrew’s Brownies’ Old MacDonald’s farm, were very visual and funny. The Trefoil Guild brought some traditional Guiding songs and sketches to the show.
As with all the Gangshows thus far, the cast was encouraged to learn the words and lines. In 2003 new technology was introduced in the form of an overhead projector. This was used to project the words onto the back wall for the cast and separate acts helping everyone to remember the words. It’s like the Autocue used by television newsreaders. Perhaps not as Ralph Reader would have had it, but without this aid our cast would have needed many more rehearsals.
The use of this equipment brought the audience into fits of laughter when it came to the Leaders’ sketch, Camp Grenada. The Leaders were all singing along to the words on the overhead projector, but the operator forgot to move up the words, leaving the Leaders to sing to him, “Move the words up!”
‘Wind up Akela’, sung to the tune of Waltzing Matilda had the audience in raptures. The show ended as usual with camp-fire songs. The show was captured on video for all to see later. This was to be the last Gangshow to be held at the Trinity Methodist Church Hall, following a major refurbishment of the hall and the removal of the stage and the building of a new kitchen.
For the 2005 show a new venue was sought. The Group was lucky to find a ready partner in the nearby Holmemead School with a huge stage, room for a bigger audience, better backstage facilities and, just as important, good car parking. The production team of Nick Gurney and Bev Lattimer continued for the 2005 show.
Listening to the Leaders and cast after the 2003 show, the number of rehearsals was reduced to two at Trinity Church with a full dress rehearsal at the shows new venue. Whereas in previous shows we had performed four shows to allow all the parents to see the performance, Holmemead School allowed us to put on two shows on the same day and still provide more seats.
The change of venue was a huge learning curve for the producers, cast and crew. It was a much bigger venue with the stage much further away from the audience. It needed enhanced sound and lighting, not to mention how you get a huge cast from various class rooms around the school, onto stage at the right time. There was also the much greater expense of the hall and equipment to budget for.
The change of venue was a defining moment for all concerned with a cast of over 200 and sell out audiences, it was the biggest show yet and set the standard for the succeeding Gangshows. The venue meant a whole team of sound and lighting engineers was needed as well as a team of runners and stage crew with walkie talkies to get the sketches onto the stage at the right time. The acts for 2005 were encouraged to be as visual as possible. Choosing the right songs for the cast to sing was also vital. So the Jungle Book was chosen, which proved to be very successful with the cast and audience as opening songs, as well as ‘Crest of a Wave’, of course.
Another new idea was the front of curtain continuity sketches, which allowed the big productions to be set up on stage while still keeping the audience entertained. This was done by three very talented people, David Glenwright, Oscar Jenkins and Lucy Sherwood. The three produced their own mini sketches and were great. The first sketch from the joint Beaver colonies was a fantastic example. With a cast of over 40, it was entitled ‘The end of the Pier’ - a colourful and well worked production that really brought the best out of these young actors .
The increase in cast numbers to over 200 was due to the enthusiastic and welcome addition of our sister organisation, the 1st Biggleswade Rainbows, Northill and Ickwell Brownies, and the 3rd Biggleswade Guides. We also had excellent support from the District Explorer Scouts.
The 2005 performance was the first to be recorded on DVD and videos. This proved to be a very successful way of recording the show to enable the audience and cast to buy a souvenir. Photography of the cast by proud parents has always been a problem. It can put off those taking part. To avoid this, it was decided to take photos of the dress rehearsal performances to sell so that parents could still have a photo of their child on stage. This proved very successful
Both the raffle and the teas during the interval were major logistical changes. We moved from a house of 90 at the Trinity Methodist Church Hall to audiences of 250 per show at Holmemead School. This was not helped by a slight problem with the power supply to the kettles at the first performance. Sophie Birch did a great job organising the raffle which helped towards the cost of the show. With help from the parents of the huge cast and the large posters promoting ‘Our Show 2005’, the Gangshow was another sell out.
The 2007 show was used to launch Biggleswade’s Centenary celebrations for 100 years of Scouting. The production team remained the same as did the venue. It proved to be something very special for all of us.
Inspiration for the show came from a week end at the annual Scout reunion at Gilwell Park in 2006. A presentation of the 2005 Eurojam camp held at Hylands Park, Chelmsford, gave producers Bev Lattimer and Nick Gurney the idea of using the sound track, ‘Hope for you and me’ for our show. The track was written by Clive Stainton and gave the team the chance to do something completely different.
A dance troop was formed from different sections of the cast. Under the brilliant choreography of Lorraine Barden and assisted by Nicola Woodward, the troop started practising in November 2006. They went on to open the second half show with a brilliant display. The dance was followed by the whole cast singing ‘Hope for you and me’.
This performance was made all the more special as Clive Stainton was our VIP guest at one of the shows. His album of the same name was sold to raise money to support the Nelson Mandela Aids and HIV prevention work by Scouts in Africa. During our Gangshow we presented Clive with a cheque as part of Biggleswade Scout Group’s Gift for Peace.
Everything about the 2007 show was a celebration of Scouting and Guiding in Biggleswade. Other suggestions for the show came about following a visit to the Kettering Gangshow, which was very professional and gave us many ideas. One of our opening songs, ‘The World in Union’, came from the Kettering show, as did the idea to use a ‘gobo’ light image projected onto the stage. We also renamed the show the ‘Biggleswade Gangshow’ instead of ‘Our Show’.
The programme had always been a black and white photocopy but for our centenary show this was changed to a full colour glossy programme. It was edited by Bev, and printed by Sean Warner, without who’s help it would not have been produced.
The Biggleswade Gangshow 2007 was a monumental effort. From its early start in 1975 it had risen to a higher level and the cost of putting on the show had also increased. But the reactions of both cast and audience show that it is worth it.
The front of curtain sketches led again by Oscar Jenkins and David Glenwright were brilliant. Once again the whole show was caught on DVD. Our VIP guests included Alistair Burt MP and Mrs Burt, the County Commissioner , Bedfordshire Scouts media officer, and the Town Mayor to name but a few.
The graceful dancing of the 4th Biggleswade Brownies and Northill and Ickwell Brownies in their interpretation of ‘If I were a Butterfly’ was a choreographed spectacular. By contrast, the Leaders sketch, ‘The day we went to Gilwell’ and Caldecote Cubs’ sketch about a gnome had everyone laughing. In addition we should not forget Mars Cub Pack who’s sketch ran out of time but has become a legend .
St Andrews Guides and Biggleswade Explorer rounded off the show with traditional camp fire songs. This was made all the more special when most of the audience joined in the choruses.
Biggleswade’s Gangshow 2007 was something extraordinary and helped to launch the Scout Group’s celebrations for Scouting’s centenary year.
As the ink dries on this text, places are already being taken for the next Biggleswade Guiding and Scouting Gangshow. This is planned for 2010 when we will celebrate Girlguiding's centenary with another joint spectacular. Our inspiration for all these shows comes from Ralph Reader, who produced the first Gangshow in 1932. Long may it continue in Biggleswade.