With thanks to Davey Humes, we can present a list of all the venues where the Karaoke Heats were held in the run-up to the May Fair.
I’m not sure why the venues aren’t arranged in chronological order, but it seems the first one was at the Allenheads Inn on the 24th (?Saturday; must have been Tuesday) of March, and followed up at Newbrough Y0uth Club on Friday the 27th of March, and subsequently many of the following Fridays and Saturday evenings were hosted at youth projects, local schools, and pubs throughout the district of Tynedale.
That’s quite a lot of travelling, to include venues from Prudhoe to Bellingham, Allenheads to Haltwhistle. Back then, ah memories, the Hare and Hounds was still open!
I don’t know if the Lions ever had a karaoke event at the Hotspur, though I can remember hoi-ing a quoit or two in the back garden. And the little bar at the Dale was really only for its residents, back in the day. But it seems each of the four remaining pubs in Allendale hosted an evening in 2009.
It certainly was the case that the recruitment net for eager performers was cast far and wide throughout the district! It all contributed to the crowd that eventually would turn up, on May Fair Day, to cheer on their own local favourites. In addition, of course, to a significant amount of fund-raising at each venue, which all would go into the pot that funded the fair.
Seems the karaoke effort really was a win-win-win scenario.
2 replies on “The Karaoke Heats”
The karaoke heats are along my best of memories – such happy days. I remember the format well – at some pubs – we Lions would be the only ones singing to keep the thing going, then loads would appear and we were there til 1 or 2am some nights! lol! I particularly enjoyed the chance to be DJ too!
Interesting question with regards to the Hotspur, as Lions we never went to the Hotspur but the Karaoke may have been there prior to the Lions, by 2009 there are some changes from previous venues, the Carts Bog used to have an event and we also had some good nights in Alston, the Black Swan in particular, Bellingham was also responsible for some epic nights although the Riverdale was not the normal venue, I cant remember why w2e had it there in 2009 and not our normal Pub.