October 20th 2005 JOHNNY MARKS

 

There's always a buzz of excitement around the club for any Johnny Marks concert and as usual a large crowd had gathered to see and listen to this ever popular entertainer.

   As usual we had a lovely mix of old songs, new songs, up-tempo songs, many of which are peculiar to Johnny.

The most popular of the old numbers included ' Good Hearted Woman', ' Speed Of The Sound Of Loneliness', ' Send Me The Pillow You Dream On' and ' You're My Best Friend'.

  New songs included Trace Adkins' ' I Left Something Turned On At Home' and George Jones' ' I Don't Need Your Rockin' Chair'

Other favourites included ' You Are No Angel', ' Memories Are Made Of This', ' One night At A Time', ' If Tomorrow Never Comes', ' Storms Never Last' and ' Old Flames '.

   I particularly enjoyed Gene Watson's ' Where Love Begins', ' Living And Learning',  a 1971 hit for Mel Tillis and Sherry Bryce, Clinton Gregory's 1991 smash ' If It Weren't For Country music I'd Go Crazy', Carl Smith's ' Let Old Mother Nature Have Her Way' and Johnn's own composition ' How Much Is The 'Bus Fare To Heaven'.

The Line and Partner Dancers were kept busy all night, and Listeners and those who love to join in to sing a long were well served all evening. Once again Johnny gave us a truly splendid show.

  Cyril Insley

     

 

February 17 th 2005 Johnny Marks

One thing is certain when Johnny Marks appears at our club, a large crowd can be expected and tonight was no exception.

  A native of Ireland but now resident in the Mansfield area of Nottinghamshire, Johnny is not only admired in the U.K. and Ireland but other parts of the world including, Australia, but especially Holland where his fan club has in excess of five hundred members.

 Having recently toured Northern Ireland with Frank McCaffery, he graced our stage tonight to produce an outstanding performance, delivering songs melodiously, and developing a good rapport with his audience through his kindly chat and humerous stories.

One of the best parts of Johnny's show is the choice of songs / He sings many that are unique to him and not heard elsewhere on the circuit.

  He started with Lefty Frizzell's ' Step Aside'  and immediately won over his audience. Amongst the more popular songs, he included lesser known material -- Jim Reeves'  'Rosa Rio,'  Hank Snow's ' Wishing Well' and ' Merry Go Round of Love' the latter generally accepted as Johnny's signature tune, Moe Bandy's ' Picture in a Frame' and George Jones' ' These Old Eyes Have Seen It All'.

 It was inevitable that he would treat us to some Irish numbers; so he gave us Frank McCaffery's ' There's a Place in my Heart', Jimmy Buckley's ' On Your wedding Day'  The Clancy's ' Bold o' Donahue' and Brendan Shine's ' Pretty little Girl From Omagh', amongst others.

He also sang a song new to me ' She's a Heartache' which is from a dutch group  ' West Virginia Railroad Band' whom Johnny has befriended during his fourteen year association with the Netherlands .

 Throughout the evening, dancers, listeners and singers were all catered for and each and everyone went away looking forward to Johnny's return later in the year.

 Cyril Insley