This week Gerry Brooke looks at performances by Tommy Steele, Magnum and Des O'Connor

The big star in Bristol this September week in 1986 was Tommy Steele, on stage at the Hippodrome in Singin’ in the Rain.

At a cost of £2 million the musical was the largest to ever tour outside London.

So great was the demand that nearly all the tickets for the eight week run were sold out in advance.

But Post critic David Harrison managed to get one and was suitably impressed.

“Singin’ in the Rain is spectacular theatre in a way that, say, Starlight Express can never be” he wrote.

“It has the glitter, the hi-tech effects, the crowd thrilling staging - but never at the expense of the cast.

“Steele does not attempt to copy Gene Kelly, yet he has kept to Kelly’s vision and style with a very English overtone.

“It is a very fine performance indeed full of humour, bounce and vitality.

“ The film studio setting gives Steele, who is also the director of the show, a chance to use some very funny silent film sequences specially filmed at Pinewood.

“Singin’ in the Rain is big, brassy and of a type rarely seen outside the West End - but it has class and a perfect mix between human performances and electronic ones.

“Last night’s capacity audience gave the show a well deserved standing ovation.

If shows like Singin’ in the Rain weren’t your cup of tea then how about heavy rockers Magnum at the Colston Hall.

“Magnum turned in a workmanlike but uninspired performance last night” wrote Post critic James Belsey the next day.

“Their new album Vigilate has a unicorn prancing around a pink set which looks suspiciously like something from My Little Pony.

“This was mirrored in their stage set - Disney like columns, kitsch mountains on a backdrop and pink lighting.

“Could any band survive that?

“Well, Magnum did to a degree and with loads of very hard work and an empathy with an audience ready to cheer every last cord.

“But there was precious little character and no originality.

“A great deal of volume, a lot of fury, plenty of action... but to little real purpose.”

Failing that gig how about going to see five leading local bands – Flash Harry, Jonah and the Wail, Rhythm Party, the Bloody Marys and the Fascinators – at the Bier Keller in All Saints Street.

It was a fund raising night for an MRI Scanner at the BRI.

Oh, and Mr Nice Guy, Des O’Connor at the Colston Hall.

Surveying a half-empty auditorium Des, according to the Post’s Tina Moran, blamed EastEnders for keeping people at home.