THE noise on Weston beach from 500 motorbikes was almost matched by the rapturous applause from 500 thespians during their 48th annual Rose Bowl theatre awards in the town.

And Bristol groups held their own at the glitzy prize ceremony featuring 18 awards presented by the Evening Post's assistant editor Rich Coulter.

Hosted at the Winter Gardens, the sell-out event saw a wealth of theatrical talent squeeze onto 50-odd tables and recognise the best shows staged in the last 12 months.

Gloucester Road company the Kelvin Players were the major winners of the night, with their powerful production of Dennis Potter's Brimstone & Treacle scooping two awards.

Adam Church's performance as Martin earned the John Lewis award for Best Actor and director Alex Needham, 32, from Totterdown, collected the John Coe award for Best Dramatic Production.

Mr Church, 33, who lives in Bishopston and runs his own property management company, told the Post: "It's great. I've not done anything like this for about 10 years.

"The Kelvin Players are a fantastic group. It's my first production with them and they have been first rate."

Accepting his award, Mr Needham raised a laugh from the room by saying: "If I thought I might have won, I wouldn't have drunk so much wine."

The Aardman Animations Award for best performance in a Musical went to two-time winner of the award 40-year-old Edward Creswick from Burnham for his outstanding dual role of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, which he played for the Weston-super-Mare Operatic Society.

Thornbury Musical Theatre clinched the Bristol Hippodrome award for Best Variety/Review/Pantomime with their version of Cinderella, turning the judges' eyes with some spectacular costumes.

The St Luke's Church Players, Bristol Opera Company, Oldland Players, Bristol Musical Youth Productions and the Ship and Castle Theatre Company also claimed awards in a great night for theatre in Bristol.

Simon Williams, the 51-year-old chair of St Luke's, collected the Coup de Theatre Award for the ending of Under the Greenwood Tree, and musical director Arne Kovac, 38, picked up the award for Best Opera on behalf of the Bristol Opera Company for The Pearl Fishers.

Oldland Players pipped the Bristol Amateur Operatic Society and the Clevedon Light Opera Club to the Walter Hawkins Award for Creativity and Design for their costumes in Alice in Willsbridge, which included a brown-tusked walrus, a winged griffin and a turbaned caterpillar which "stole the show", according to the judges.

Chair of the group, Kit Muffett said: "We didn't think we had a chance in hell. South Gloucestershire Council did give us a grant but a lot of the cast paid for their own and I'm very, very proud."

An outstanding production of Les Miserables, and two very high-class individual performances took the three Youth awards.

Bristol Musical Youth Productions' Les Miserables won the Jean Fennell Award for best production, Becky Hutt's portrayal of Tess gave her the Barbara Macrae Award for best actress in Barnstormers and Minehead Youth Theatre's Tess of the D'Urbervilles, and for the second year running Tom Corbishley, 17, was named best actor, this time for his playing of Dracula in Zenith Youth Theatre Company's Dracula.

Christine West from Easton in Gordano was cheered up to the stage to collect the Eileen Hartly Hodder Award for Best Actress in a drama for her role as Florence Foster Jenkins in the The Ship & Castle's production of Glorious. The 69-year-old, four-time winner said: "It was a great team. Ship and Castle, they are the best."

The final award of the evening, the Evening Post Award for Best Musical Production, went to Bridgwater- based Pinstripe Productions for Assassins. It was collected by joint founder of the group James Tucker and Frances Buttle, wife of the director, Brian who passed away shortly after the show finished.

Former Countdown star Carol Vorderman was originally due to present the awards but was unable to attend due to illness.