Dave Bartram Solo Event, 1st Nov 2013

On 1st November 2013, Dave Bartram had his first solo event since leaving Showaddywaddy, at ‘Upstairs at The Western’, a small venue above a pub in Leicester, funnily enough called The Western.

70 tickets were available and the evening quickly sold out.

I travelled down to Leicester from Wakefield, a journey that should have taken 1h 45 mins, maybe less with the it being half term. The drive down took 3h 45 mins and I got there at 8.00pm. Dave was due on at 8.00pm but luckily the start was delayed for a short time, and I later found I was not alone in being stuck in traffic. It later transpired that people had travelled from far and wide – Bristol and Kent as well as Chesterfield and Lincoln.

Upon arrival, the pub was heaving, and Dave’s wife Cathy was there in support, as well as his daughter Holly.

A pint was ordered and the Upstairs opened – a very small with a small stage set up with two chairs, a buffet and a couple of mics – an indication that Dave would in fact be performing a couple of songs after all.

Dave was introduced onto the stage and played his first song. A nice surprise, as the song was “Smiling Eyes’, a song from the 1975 Step Two album, and never performed live in the band’s history. The song was written by Dave, but sung by Bill Gask on the album.

The compere then interviewed Dave in a ‘chat show’ type format, where Dave told us about his upbringing, life at school, getting a job at Post Office Telephones (and doing rather well), only to leave to go into the music industry, a decision to be met with disdain by his bosses – “You ******* idiot Bartram!” Followed by experiences in Showaddywaddy, New Faces, touring, Top Of The Pops etc.

Three Steps To Heaven followed, as well as a question and answer session with the audience, in which Dave answered questions about the best musician he’d worked with (“Romeo Challenger”), can you sing ‘Win Your Heart’ (“I’ve forgotten it!”), what was ‘Then Came You’ about (“a model I was in a relationship with”).

I asked Dave a question too – I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here starts on TV again shortly, and Dave’s name has been put forward for it a couple of times in recent years. Dave told us that he’d got down to the final 20 one year. The question was how he would do in the ‘Bushtucker eating trial’, especially if he his camp mates were hungry and he needed lots of stars – the answer to which was “none of it would be a problem!”

An acoustic version of “Hey Rock And Roll” was played as an encore, and afterwards Dave said he would be having a couple of pints downstairs, and he mingled and chatted with everyone over a pint or three and posed for lots of photos.

Overall the night was a great success, and all being well there will be another one next year when his new book is released, and if this does indeed take place it will probably be the last event of this type.

Incidentally, it was good for me to put faces to familiar names on the night, of people I’ve been in touch with over the years by running the web-site. Nice to see you all!