Roll up! Roll up ladies and Gentlemen! Dracula by the one and only Pip Simmons Theatre Group! Put your hands together for Dracula 3!
It’s Paris, It’s January 1977, It’s my birthday, I’m not yet 30, I’m in these 2 shows called the Dream of a Ridiculous Man and Dracula. Tonight it’s the first night of The Dream and before the show starts I need food so run across the road in my costume to the brasserie “Jambon beurre, s’il vous plaît “
I can ask for a ham sandwich in French and the Follies Bergère are just down the road! Very exciting and I’m not yet 30. This photo was taken after the show at the bar across from Théâtre Le Palace, in the Rue du Faubourg Montmartre. This splendid bar full of mirrors and brass décor is called Le Grand Zinc. I have Chanel No 5 for my birthday and our new boy John is with us to celebrate. Pip announces that he was married last week to his beautiful Swedish sweetheart Helena, so double celebrations. The waiter takes the photo
Sheila, John, Rod, Dick and Pip in the Grand Zinc
Paris, yes Paris! We return with The Dream which we perform each evening. Sad to say goodbye to Ben Bazell, big hello to John Altman who we met on tour last year at Leicester Haymarket. John has spent his Christmas learning the songs and the script and is raring to go. We need to build an audience. An Die Musik is history for us, but not the Parisian audience who aren’t particularly interested in our new show.We manage to get full houses by the end of our 3 week run and The Dream becomes our new super star show, happily knocking An Die Musik from its pedestal.
We rehearse a new Dracula 2 by day and perform The Dream by night. Tempers fray, it’s hard work, we are looking for new Dracula characters. I go to the Paris flea market to find a new costume; a naughty white bodice and pearl choker with a flouncy skirt and tight belt. Meirave does similar. Roderick as Van Helsing has decided to be crippled with a club foot. Joan Oliver, wife of Peter Oliver, and our administrator has to carry a heavy built-up false boot from London. The usual fights erupt from Emil improvising Dr Seward with his fly-eating Maniac Pete. But… there are new songs, new words, new attitude: the re-birth of Drac 3 has priority over the Parisian spring sunshine; we are in the darkened theatre every afternoon rehearsing rehearing rehearsing Drac till it’s ready for an audience
Le Monde 1977 “Like boxers at the height of their form, the Pip Simmons Group have acquired a strength and extraordinary command that explode in The Dream of a Ridiculous Man.”
Pete John Sheila Meirave Olly and Rod recording a promo for Ridiculous Man
Roderic with his new purchase
How Roderic finds the time to buy a lovely old French car is a miracle. Here he washes his new love in front of our digs, Hotel Corona. Paris is close enough for him to be able to drive it home to London before we start our Drac/Dream 77 tour of the UK and Europe as more rehearsals are needed in London to polish and hone Drac 3. Ben has given us all a leaving present, he made us individual cassette tapes to help us on our future touring. We have hours of listening time in the tape machine in the cabin, It will save squabbles about what to play in the van; for instance, we don’t all like Jackson Brown. My tape has YES on one side and the theme from the Railway Children on the other. These tapes will be kept in the van with newspapers, books, maps, sweets, Rizla papers, cigarettes and a well-thumbed Routiers the truckers guide book for eating in France.
Pete (Renfield) and Rod (Dracula) grab an afternoon kip
All seats 50p at the Glasgow Citizens Theatre. We are happy to present an all singing, all screaming Dracula by the one and only Pip Simmons Theatre Group! Put your hands together for Dracula 3 !
This is the first night, our premier with our first audience. We are in a tableau behind an iron safety curtain on the stage of the infamous Citizens Theatre. John our new drummer boy whispers I’m f****** nervous as the iron curtain slowly grinds it’s way up. Miraev and I, the show girls, prance into position and present our superhero, Dracula, who, like a bat out of hell, hurls his way from the back of the auditorium – bald head, fishnets, bat cape – on to the stage. Off we go with our Drac 3 cabaret. Our Glasgow audience are fantastic and as noisy as us. Much fake blood was spat, much screaming and snarling as we romped home, cheered on by this fantastic crowd. Drac 3 in its 3rd incarnation is the best and is exactly 90 minutes long with no interval. John! John! John! The girls called at the stage door. They begged me to get some drum sticks from John. This is a first!! We never ever had groupies before. John broke a few spare sticks over his knee and I handed them out to the girls waiting at the stage door… Then we found out the van had been broken into and all of our travelling tapes had been nicked… This is the beginning of our Drac/Dream 5 month tour – March 1977
The Citizens Theatre – Glasgow March 1977.
Robert Jeffrey – Evening Times 15.5.77 Lord Provost Peter McCann seems to think that only “sick minded weirdos” will go to see the group – an uncharitable view of the good people of Glasgow who turned up last night, and wait a minute, the audience didn’t stab or mug anyone at all. It might be of interest to our would be censors to hear that no one walked out and the company were warmly applauded. My advice to Mr McGann and his fellow protestors is to relax. The Pip Simmons Theatre Group will go away soon. Will the violence and social deprivation in Glasgow do the same?”
All photos and blog ©Sheila Burnett.