Mon, 29 Nov 2010 9:22a.m.
When I was little, Christmas in the Park was all about Christmas. (In the park.) There was the odd popular song butchered by a B-grade celeb, but the majority of the evening was devoted to sitting on the grass, singing along to carols, and occasionally trying to shove a glow-stick up your nose in an attempt at “Neon Walrus.”. Apart from the last one, which I still can't do, Christmas in the Park is now a completely different and much less Christmassy event, and I’m not sure if I like it or not.
At Saturday night's event, the first half of the programme was Christmas music, and was surprisingly dire; the second half was well-known, mainly pop songs, and was surprisingly enjoyable. It was exactly the opposite of what I expected
Throughout the first half, hardly any of the performers seemed even faintly interested in what they were doing, and that feeling spread to the audience - the fake Christmas cheer was slapped on a little too heavily, and no-one was buying it. Christmas shouldn't be forced. You can't make people feel festive, no matter how many times you shout desperately, "Let's have some fun!"
There were a couple of exceptional numbers - Naomi Ferguson and Michael Sharp’s It’s Only Christmas, Bella Kalolo’s Children Go Where I Send Thee, and the one that I forget the name of but which prompted the sudden appearance of a boys’ choir - but that was about it. Fairytale of New York was completely over-cooked, as was Santa Baby… speaking of, who picked the carols? Next time, can we have some slightly less naff ones? Poor old Michael Murphy (who sort of redeemed himself in the second half) looked positively embarrassed galloping about the stage to Rock And Roll Christmas. Can't say I really blame him.
Anyway, let’s move on from the first half, before I give myself a festive ulcer.
I'm not sure what caused the second half to be so much better. It wasn't J Williams (Simon Barnett's description of him as "so much cool in one guy!" was inaccurate at best) and it wasn't the sound system - it was hard to hear the dulcet tones of Si & Gary, and there were a couple of times when the performers' voices got lost.
It may have been the cheerfully enthusiastic young family who sat next to me and boogied along throughout; it may have been the emergency wine I dashed off to purchase at half time.
It might also have been the increased level of technical effects and the growing darkness amping up the crowd, or the huge mass of balloons which were released – not sure about the environmental consequences of this, but they provided the first breathtaking touch of Christmas magic.
It was also the raised energy level of the performers, who actually seemed to be enjoying themselves, rather than going through the motions - Jackie Clarke reminded everyone why she'd been invited with River Deep, Mountain High, and the Biggest Balls of the Night award went jointly to Ainslie Allen, who took on Lady Gaga and for the most part won, and Drew Neemia, who managed to make Livin' La Vida Loca borderline socially acceptable again, even mounting the mike stand a couple of times (oo-er!) Do wish he would stop wearing that waistcoat though.
Whatever the reason, while the first half was Santabominable, the second half was fun! Which leaves the question… rather than chuck in some half-hearted carols as a token nod to Santa, why not cut out the Christmas part altogether next year and just call it Party in the Park?
If nothing else, it would spare us Frankie Stevens pretending to be Louis Armstrong.