Colin says goodbye, and we welcome our new bass Derek

As those who came to the last night at the Riverside will already know, we've undergone our first change in personel for over eight years. We're extremely sorry to see Colin go, after he was offered a six month tour as a backing vocalist with Robbie Williams. It was a very tough decision for him to make, and we'll miss him very much as we go forward into our new theatre show beginning in Hamburg in March.

Finding out Colin was leaving just a few days before rehearsals for the new show left us with a tough task to replace such a vital member of the group. With the help of a number of contacts we were able to bring in 8 auditionees at very short notice. All very talented, in particular we'll always remember Bruce, the 6'4, 46 year old ex-US Marine who sang Georgia to us and gave us tingles down our spines.

However, the man wot won it was the marvellous Derek Green of Derby who impressed us not only with a lovely singing voice, but fantastic dancing ability, and an irrepressable desire to make silly noises on microphones. A similar size and age from Colin, Derek has been a theatre performer and mime artist for many years. So far he's fitted in very, very well, picking up parts fast and singing low and in tune. He certainly needs to. We open in less than three weeks!!