JAMES BIDDLECOMBE AT THE CRAZY COQS
WITH CHRIS MARSHALL PIANO AND VOCALS
13 February, eve of Valentines
Biddlecombe has done it again. Every time I see Mr Biddlecombe I think that he could never better what he does – and yet he seems to manage it.
He and Chris Marshall receive a rousing reception at the Crazy Coqs – a venue that fits them like a glove.
He begins by mocking his old age. A song to show there is yet hope for the future. Leiber and Stoller wrote ‘Ready to Begin Again’ and this song gets Bids off to a great start.
He complains bitterly that he’s never been cast in ‘Cats’ a witty number penned by himself and Marshall . This is one of their old favourites. But after this, the jokes are over for a while as he goes into ballad mood with a song from his youth, showing off his exquisite vocal skills in ‘My heart tells me’.
This show, like all his others gives us a broad experience of all his incredible talents, vocal and comedy and most of all his love of people and life. Chris Marshall slogging away at the piano and producing harmonies, comes over as a breath of reality, yet we are all aware that he’s just as daft as his friend.
But Parody is the soul of wit and one of their other numbers which gets the audiencer falling about with hilarity is ‘Maureen’ a take on Dolly Parton’s Joleen, in which he uses a hilghly exaggerated Southern accent.
After about eighteen numbers and one change of sequins, he arrives at his final item, the one I’ve been waiting for as he wanders into the audience, inviting individual members to ‘Peel me A Grape’ . (He actually meets up with a girl that he remarks ‘has even more diamante than me’)
Of course the audience doesn’t let him go so easily and he gives us one more Biddlecombe/ Marshall song about our technological life. ‘The Broadband Bossa Nova’
This is the Monarch of entertainers. A large bejewelled and bearded grown up with the vulnerability and impishness of a wicked child.
You’ve got to love Biddie. He is a human Valentine that lasts a lifetime.
alinewaites 
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