The Bobby Show by Michael K. Myers & The Real Gone Cats Sunday, 23 May 2010 00:31 Live Performance Review Show: The Bobby Show Venue: The Wellington Street Theatre Where: Kingston, Ontario When: May 22, 2010Watch out Michael Bublé! Smooth, suave, sophisticated, 60ish Michael K. Myers is a charismatic crooner, who after spending 40 years playing music might just have hit his stride and caught a wave to glory with his brilliantly conceived and orchestrated The Bobby Show!The Bobby Show debuted last night to a sold out room at The Wellington Street Theatre and left an audience full of fans of the great “Bobby” singers of the late 50’s and early 60’s smiling from ear to ear and showing their appreciation for a superb night of entertainment with a standing ovation.Written by Kingston, Ontario songwriter and performer Michael K. Myers who sang lead vocals and played guitar for 95% of the show, and joined by his seasoned band The Real Gone Cats: Tim Hallman (music director, keyboards), Gary Barratt (drums, percussion), and Bob Arlidge (electric bass, stand-up bass) – The Bobby Show is a night of nostalgic hits from “Bobby” singers Bobby Vee, Bobby Darin, Bobby Helms, Bobby Day, Bobby Sherman, Bobby Vinton, Bobby Curtola, Bobby Goldsboro, and Bobby Rydell that will appeal to not only my parents’ generation, but mine as well.Myers, whose musical inspirations include Burt Bacharach, Lennon & McCartney, and Rodgers and Hart has experience performing music in almost every genre including rock ’n ’roll, country & western, jazz and pop. He’s a skillful guitarist, witty and warm public speaker, and his tenor voice is clear, powerful and as delicious to the ears as Baileys to the tongue. The Bobby Show opened with Myers performing two of the last of the Bobby singers, Bobby Sherman’s hits, including Julie, Do You Love Me? Myers had obviously done his research as he punctuated the show with a brief career recollection of each of the Bobby singers. I didn’t know that Bobby Sherman, who I definitely remembered from my childhood, had given up music in the 1970s and become a cop in Los Angeles. The show was filled with interesting tidbits like that and about 30 infectious hits of a bygone era in music that was largely underrated.Myers used a few props for his show to accompany his enthusiasm and great sense of humour and changed ties for several Bobbys, from the groovy paisley tie he wore for Sherman’s songs to a bolo for Bobby Helms, a skinny black tie for Bobby Day, and a cardigan for Bobby Vee. Myers and The Real Gone Cats performed Fraulein and My Special Angel by Bobby Helms, as well as his 120 million copy seller, Jingle Bell Rock, even though it was slightly out of season on an exceptionally warm May evening.Bobby Day was the only African-American Bobby who used to perform with bands The Satellites and The Hollywood Flames and had success with songs like Buzz Buzz Buzz, Little Bitty Pretty One, and Rockin’ Robin.The audience tapped their toes, swayed in their seats and hummed or sang along while Bobby Vee took his place in the spotlight with Devil Or Angel and the Carole King/Gerry Goffin penned classics Take Good Care Of My Baby and Run To Him. Of particularly interesting note, keyboardist Tim Hallman once played keyboards for Bobby Vee, as did the little known Bob Zimmerman (who later became Dylan). Myers also covered The Night Has A Thousand Eyes and Wild One.I caught myself grinning like a Cheshire cat throughout the show and thinking about how much my Mom would love it and wishing that everyone I know over 50 had been there.We got to hear wonderful renditions of Bobby Rydell’s Forget Him, Sway With Me, and Volare which placed third in the famous Eurovision song contest in 1960. There was a brief intermission and we were treated with Canadian Bobby singer, Bobby Curtola’s 1962 Gold selling Fortune Teller, as well as Aladdin, Hitchhiker, and Three Rows Over. A Member of the Order of Canada as well as a former representative for Coca Cola, Bobby Curtola is a Canadian legend I had not been familiar with.One of the most memorable Bobbys has got to be Bobby Vinton whose hits Roses Are Red, Blue On Blue, Blue Velvet, and Melody of Love were expertly performed by Myers and The Real Gone Cats. Myers held up a white board with the Polish lyrics to Melody of Love on it for the audience to sing along and memories of the Polish Prince flooded the room.Next Myers, who hopes to tour The Bobby Show in small theatres across Canada, offered the audience a box of tissues before sitting down to play acoustic guitar for the classic Bobby Goldsboro tearjerker, Honey.My favourite part of the whole show came at the end when Myers paid tribute to the late, great Bobby Darin, as Myers’ voice compliments his music perfectly. He covered the playful Splish Splash, Dream Lover, Things (which Darin had written for his one time girlfriend, Connie Francis), Once Upon A Time, If I Were A Carpenter, and my favourites: Beyond The Sea and Mack The Knife, both superbly rendered by Michael K. Myers.The band had to come back after their standing ovation and we were gifted with Bobby Freeman’s Do You Wanna Dance?Did I?! You bet! If The Bobby Show doesn’t put a spark in your shoes, I don’t know what will. Encore, encore!!Press+1 Entertainment May 23,2010http://www.pressplus1.com/concert-reviews/the-bobby-show-by-michael-k-myers-a-the-real-gone-cats-a-superb-evening-of-entertainment.html http://scullylovepromo.wordpress.com/2010/05/23/the-bobby-show-by-michael-k-myers-the-real-gone-cats-a-superb-evening-of-entertainment/  ” - Christine Bode

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from Kingston Life

 

Roots. Mike Myers is a sentimental guy. How else would you describe a musician who

looks to Burt Bacharach for inspiration? And who has a soft spot for the first guitar he

played as a teenager in the 1960s? (Yes, he still owns it — “I took my first lessons on it,”

says Myers — although it’s his six-string, acoustic Guild that gets played these days.) It

was that same 14-year-old who cut his chops with a first band called The Growing Pains.

More than three decades later, three of the original four members reunited and

reclaimed the name, and the grown-up version of The Growing Pains has been playing

’60s music and filling dance floors since 2000. Myers fronts the band with vocals and

guitar.

Style. “I make my living playing other people’s music and I gravitate toward the jazz

standards of the greats like Nat King Cole and Sinatra,” says Myers. “But I’m a serious

songwriter and I do get a lot of pleasure out of recording my own songs.” His latest CD,

My Kind of Play, is filled with touches of the classic songwriters who inspire him: Cole

Porter, Rodgers and Hart, Bacharach, and Lennon and McCartney.

Onstage. It’s the passion for songwriting that sparked a love affair with musical theatre.

In the early 1970s and ’80s, Myers worked as a musical accompanist with Theatre 5,

writing and playing the songs for the troupe’s classic fairytale shows. His show tunes are

still being performed, although Myers has since handed over the role of accompanist

and turned his onstage energies to performing a wide range of music styles, from rock

and roll to Celtic to jazz in venues that range from wedding receptions to barn dances.

Where you’ll find him. Performing tunes from the ’60s with The Growing Pains at

local venues including Raxx Bar & Grill and Brandees • Aboard the Island Queen with

The River Cats, for afternoon cruises from May to October • As part of Paddy Whack, a

duo with Greg Forbes, Myers performs Celtic and Irish tunes Saturday evenings through

July and August at the Stonewater Pub in Gananoque