It’s been a difficult week for a lot of us, disappointment and danger, sadness and in some cases despair. But there is also the support of friends and hope for the future, my granny used to preach ‘stickatitness’ and certainly not to give up, face facts and plan for a better future. Easy to say, certainly that’s a challenge for one man.
How often have you had a dream come true? I mean a real dream, like mine which is singing with a jazz band in New Orleans, perhaps meeting David Attenborough in person, even losing three stone and getting into a size fourteen dress. Unlikely on all counts!
But what of dreams that do work out like Larne man Esler Burke’s experience, sadly an experience that has been cruelly shattered and become a nightmare when his musical Twisted opened in Bolton week before last and due to tour the UK. For four nights it was a great success and then the curtain came down. Esler is the kindest man, humble and forgiving but finance and logistics have dealt him a terrible blow. Of course he’s down but not out, he’s not giving up on his dream.
His story begins in the countryside outside Larne living in his grandfather’s house and in and out of his granny’s shop “It was a time of green fields and corncrakes and a wild garden full of butterflies. We still live in that house but there are no curlews or lapwings any more, just houses and young people glued to their phones!” As he grew so did his love of pop music, he played in a band, sang solo and still does today despite being 78. “I missed out on a record deal because I looked so much like David Essex, I wrote and told him so and he send me a reply, ‘I’m sorry for looking like you and I hope I haven’t spoiled your career!” No way!
More Please
His life has been music, pop, jazz, songs from the shows. “My first theatre musical experience was a production of Les Miserable in Belfast but next was the film Oliver and I was blown away, I can say now it changed my life. I read the story, saw it live and began thinking long and hard about it, what happened to Oliver after his experiences of a life of crime in 1830s London? I reckoned there must be a story to be told and I decided to tell it.”
He spent the next four years working on the script, running his shop and gigging.
“Eventually I took a draft to musical director Wilson Shields for his opinion, he loved it, reckoned it had ‘legs’ to travel. The legs took me to Bob Hayes who worked at the Theatre at the Mill Newtownabbey and the ball started rolling.” From there Bernard Clarkson, director of the theatre, who sadly died recently, read it and proclaimed it was “absolutely brilliant.” At the opening night at the theatre in 2019 the audience agreed.
Esler’s sequel saw Oliver at the age of 26, working in a bank and walking through the market every day he sees a beautiful young woman, a flower seller, an orphan under the influence of her alcoholic uncle and so the story unfolds sometimes tender, sometimes brutal.
Six months after the Country Antrim opening, despite trying, no one was interested in taking his project forward. Never one to give up he typed into a website listing theatrical producers – “Would anyone in England take this show any further because I can’t?”
Almost immediately theatrical producer Si Walls asked for a script. “He came back to me with big capitals WOW, can I fly you over, I’m very interested. “
They began working together fashioning a professional musical.
Money Money Money
Despite friend’s support there was not enough to keep the company going without solid bookings and they were not there. The Gala opening night in Bolton was a triumph for Esler, a packed house, a standing ovation, his wife Mandy and his children and grandchildren in the audience. As Mandy told me, it was fabulous. “Tears were streaming down our faces, he was mesmerised, walking around in a daze. Working with Si put meat on the bones of the script, darker and deeper.”
But the bookings in other parts of the UK didn’t materialise although playing to a full house later in the years at the Mill Theatre was a foregone conclusion. However, sadly that’s not to be unless some miracle happens. When I talked to Esler yesterday he said it was like a death in the family, waking up every morning and realising the awful truth has taken its toll on family and friends. The notice of closure was posted a few days ago but there is still much to be discussed. However, like the boy in the Dickens story who wanted ‘more please sir,’ Esler Burke has proved to have that same dogged courage and spirit that believes in his product and doesn’t give up.
Makes me think of Robert the Bruce who sat in a cave watching a little spider trying to fashion its web, It swung between the rocks trying to make a connection for the single line of silk. He failed time after time. Bruce watched fascinated until eventually the spiker made contact, the line was laid and the web woven. Bruce took this as a sign that, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again. He went on to defeat the English at the Battle of Bannockburn despite his Scottish army being outnumbered around 7,000 to 13,000
Jeremy Clarkson as drawn by the remarkable artist Billy Austin.
Not surprised that the Entertainment winner at the TV and Radio Industries awards last week was Clarkson and his programme that shows him facing the challengers on Diddly Squat Farm. It beat Gaven and Stacey and The Traitors. I watched the fourth season and all he and his staff had to confront from weather to wonky tractors. I didn’t care for Clarkson until I watched this series. He’s inventive, hardworking, honest and funny. He is a great supporter of farmers and knows from experience what they are going through at the moment, misery and despair for the most part. A warning to us all to support home industry and buy local and fresh.
I’ve been watching Glastonbury, a bit of a curate’s egg – good in parts! The un-good parts are pretty awful, very young people half dressed and depending on foul language to impress. One band, Weeser featured a singer Rivers Cuomo signing about his love being like an icicle and how he found Jesus but it was so hard to make out what he was singing, no showmanship so for me not good.
There was no such confusion with the band Bob Dylan bellowing ‘Death to the IDF – Israel Defence Forces, his rant has taken the spotlight off Kneecap to some degree although both are now being investigated. What makes me wonder is how the BBC can make a point that these sets contain bad language and contentious issues yet let them go unchallenged. But some other performers, usually older, make up for it. Lewis Capaldi is my firm favourite and his set on Friday was awesome. What a special young man who wears his heart on his sleeve and everyone loves him for his honesty, fruity language and his voice. The crowd camera shots are best of all, how women balance on men’s shoulders is impressive, some of the costumes are fantastic and the banners say a lot. Amongst ‘Is your tent clean?’, ‘Sally from the Co-op’, ‘Hello is it me you’re looking for?’, ‘Gimme chocolate’ and ‘Smile’ and promiment amongst them comes a picture and the legend ‘Do it for David Attenborough’ fluttering in the breeze. I think he would be pleased.
And then at 9.20 p.m. Along came Raye – full band in dinner jackets, two singers and herself in black sequins. What a performer, respectful of her audience, giving great value for money.