Sunday for Sammy 2012
Sunday for Sammy 2012
Posted: 12 Feb 2012
Stars shine again for Sammy
By Michael Hamilton
Auf Wiedersehen Pet star Tim Healy and his Loose Women wife Denise Welch put their differences behind them to join with a host of North East celebrities at the 2012 Sunday for Sammy concerts - at Newcastle City Hall - to raise money to help nurture local talent.
South Shields singing sensation Joe McElderry was the surprise guest and brought both sell-out three-hour shows – a matinee and evening performance – to a memorable finale with moving versions of Nessun Dorma and North East anthem Big River.
Show mastermind Tim Healy was reunited with estranged wife Denise Welch in an hilarious Auf Wiedersehen Pet sketch with his TV co-stars Kevin Whately (Neville) and Christopher Fairbank (Moxie).
They were specially penned by the TV show’s original writers Dick Clement and Geordie Ian La Frenais, who flew in from Hollywood for the big night.
The sketch saw the hapless brickies taken back in time to King Arthur’s Camelot, with Denise starring as a Geordie Queen Guinevere, in a knockabout take-off of the Arthurian romance.
Actress Julia Tobin, who played Neville’s missus Brenda on TV, also featured with comic Brendan Healy as a hilarious Merlin.
Cracking music came from a tight house band comprising Lindisfarne legends Billy Mitchell and drummer Ray Laidlaw (who also helps put the show together with former Tyne Tees Television director Geoff Wonfor,) John Hedley and Charlie Harcourt on guitars, and Tim’s godson Jamie Squire on keyboards.
Tyneside bluesman Ray Stubbs put in a guest performance on vocals and harmonica, and Tim Healy took memorable lead vocals himself on the Meatloaf classic I Would Do Anything For Love and the Beatles anthem With a Little Help From My Friends. It was all from the heart, and seemed especially poignant given his much-publicised split with Denise.
Other guests, including North East TV presenters Donna Air and Pam Royle, actresses Angela Lonsdale and Charlie Hardwick, and Fairs’ Cup winning captain and Toon legend Bobby Moncur, joined the entire cast in a moving rendition of the Lindisfarne anthem Run For Home to close the show – to rapturous applause.
The charity concert also featured some of the young performers who have benefitted from grants awarded from the Sammy Johnson Memorial Fund established in the name of the late actor who died suddenly in 1998 at the age of 49.
Jazz piano genius Adam Scott, singer/guitarist Nathalie Stern and local comedians Gavin Webster and Josh Daniels all got a great reception from an appreciative crowd.
This year’s bash was the seventh biennial show since 2000 when Tim Healy and Jimmy Nail launched the first Sunday for Sammy concert. They have raised more than £200,000 with an additional £50,000 coming from the sale of videos and DVDs. Since its inception the fund has given out more than£150,000 to 160 individuals.
* If you would like to donate to the fund please go to www.sundayforsammy.org
* This year’s DVD can be ordered now and the four previous DVDs from 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2010 are also available at www.jgwindows.com Tel: 0191 232 1356
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