20/10/2025
I've fond memories of SAPOS, and I was sorry that I wasn't able to attend the final dinner-dance last Saturday - a long-standing engagement that evening prevented me.
As you know, I was involved with SAPOS from the get-go in 1971 (St Annes Parish Church Operatic Society as it was in those days). Robert Atherton, organist at the church, and the company's first MD, was my piano teacher. He roped me in to play rehearsals for 'Oliver!' that autumn, and I played in the pit too, in the theatre at the end of St Annes Pier. The next two shows ('The King & I' & 'Viva Mexico') were where I cut my teeth as pianist & chorus master, and I did some chorus-mastering for early rehearsals of 'Bless The Bride' in 1974 before I took wing and did the piano-playing equivalent of running away to join the circus.
I recall you from those days (obv.!), your mum too. She always welcomed me, right from the get-go, and was still making me brews when I played a few rehearsals for Mandy Hall (RIP) and Helen Harrison (at Reg Atkins' instigation) just a few years ago. She was, quite simply, a lovely person.
I knew Barbara Haylett-Eshelby (and her sister Pam Eve) from my very first-ever show with Thornton Cleveleys OpSoc, 'Oliver!' in 1968. She had been Mrs Sowerberry in that show, Pam was Widow Corney. They were early stalwarts at SAPOS - it was quite a reunion in many ways!
One connection you may not know about was my link to Canon Clark (RIP), who was a prime mover-&-shaker at SAPOS in 1971. My mum and dad were married in 1939 at St Thomas' Church in Blackpool, when Canon Clark was curate there, at the very start of his ministry. They knew him very well, and I have a photo of my mum with my brother Les, Granny Cookson, and Canon Clark, taken in about 1947 or so - long before either I or my sister were twinkles in our dad's eye.
So, SAPOS is no more. Yet it lives on in memories, and they are precious.
