September 2010

National Lottery Awards Show, BBC One

Boom Dang The Performance Band were picked to perform as part of the National Lottery Awards Show, on BBC One.

First an audition tape had to be sent to the producers who wanted to see what Boom Dang’s performance style was like.  Once we got the go ahead that we had been selected, rehearsal dates and venues had to be figured out.

We had one rehearsal day at BBC Studios in Glasgow with Matt Brind the composer and Paul Domaine the choreographer.

The music was a James Bond-esque style of “Cry Me A River”.  Boom Dang were to feature in a section where the tone changed, introducing a new act onto the stage.

At the rehearsal Boom Dang were put through their paces with Matt Brind leading the music side and then Paul Domaine who added choreography.

After much stopping and starting, getting it wrong, playing the wrong beat at the wrong time, turning when no-one else was etc………we finally nailed it!  Paul filmed the routine to ensure we didn’t forget it, and to send to his producers.

Three weeks later, it was off to London to film!

Filming was not until the Saturday, however, Boom Dang travelled down on the Wednesday for the 9am rehearsal the following day.

The hardest part of the whole trip was transporting the big drums from Tower Bridge to Circus Space on the tube during rush hour.  We were disliked by pretty much all commuters and tube staff that day. 

Rehearsals were long but the periods of sitting around were brightened up by costume fittings and a visit from John Barrowman, the show’s presenter,

Putting the show onto the stage at the venue, well, it was like everything that had been learned, was quickly forgotten.  Counting went out the window, the routine was all wrong and smiling just wasn’t featured.  It was like everything had to be re-learned.  And what a time for this to happen – in front of the producers!

It all came together in the end, however, the number was filmed live just before the awards show began.

The only downside of this production was that the Boom Dang girls were made to look like bridesmaids!  A look we had never championed before, ever!   Our look was based on photographs of our previous performances, but I had yet to find the photo that inspired this look.  With our bouffant hair-dos (hair-don’ts more like) and Madge Ramsay inspired slap, we looked more likely to walk down a church aisle rather than a television aisle.