50 years ago this month, on 31 October 1975, Queen released their ground-breaking single Bohemian Rhapsody. About 10 years later in 1985, Queen performed the song at the Live Aid charity concert at Wembley when the band stole the show.
A group of staff and husbands connected to West Heath paid homage to this Queen song by performing their own version during a Staff Revue a couple of years later.
The end of the school year ‘Fancy Dress’ evenings of skits and party games hosted by Elm was an annual tradition, but this Staff Revue and a similar ‘Fashion Show’ held a few years earlier, when headmistress Ruth Rudge appeared dressed as a ‘Cuby Curtain’ (remember those?) seem to have been one-offs.
The staff shows may have been put on for charitable causes – can anyone remember?
Very few photos of the fashion show exist (unless anyone has some in their own photo albums?) BUT a great deal of the Staff Revue was caught on the school’s video camera – a large contraption that had to be balanced on a shoulder! How different from these days where everyone has a video camera on their mobile phones.
The Queen parody by the staff went down so well (despite the lack of rehearsals) that the audience demanded it be performed again as an encore at the end of the Revue. We have managed to find it on film, and you can watch it by CLICKING HERE or by clicking on the photograph above.
The first performance featured staff members Jan Vile, Sian Davies, Jacquie Baldwin, and David Priest, plus staff husbands Frank Baldwin (dressed as Freddie Mercury) and Steve Faulkner-Gant.
Towards the end of the second performance, you will see on the video that several of the other staff members who had taken part in the revue also joined the original ‘Queen’ line up on stage for a final bow. See who you can spot.
Other acts during the show, and other videos taken of school productions, plus Games and Gym classes, will appear regularly in future posts.
Drama Hall demolished
No doubt many of you will remember, the productions and shows etc that were performed on the large stage in the Drama Hall. The sad news is the Drama Hall is no more as it has been demolished by the ‘New’ School after it was found to be dangerous.
More details will appear in a future post, but we would love to hear your own memories of the old Drama Hall, whether as a participant in one of the performances there, or your own memories of watching a show or another event in the hall.
You can send your memories, plus any photos you have, featuring events in the Drama Hall by email to: WHOGA@hotmail.com
