"Live Python found at Belgrade Theatre, Coventry!
By Colin Richardson
The 1971 Lanchester Arts Festival bill included many well-known artistes on the 10 day programme of events, including Elton John, Ralph McTell, Caravan, blues legend Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup, Leon Russell and Andre Previn (conducting the London Symphony Orchestra) and jazz legend Ronnie Scott but the high point of the student-run mixed media festival that year was, without doubt, the first 'Live on Stage' performance of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
How did a modest little Polytechnic in Coventry come to be favoured with such a prime coup? Here's how it happened:
I had been the Festival's booking consultant in 1970, working closely with Ted Little, the student organiser. We made a good team, as he was always open to my ideas and suggestions, though quite firm of mind when it came to making final decisions as to which acts were selected. I guess he must have been pleased with my efforts, as he retained my services for the following year.
At some point during the planning of the 1971 programme, he asked if it would be possible to book one or two of the Monty Python team to perform a couple of sketches from the cult TV show, as they were immensely popular with the student fraternity. I was pretty doubtful, as none of them, as far as I knew, had ever made any live appearances as Python characters hitherto and I was fairly sure that they only produced their unique humour for the TV show. However, I said I would try and find out any of them might be interested in doing something. I had no idea who their agent was, but, as luck would have it, there fell into my lap a circuitous conduit to one Python ear. It went like this: I had a little band going at the time...a quintet playing jazz and dance music around the club/college circuit and we had an American singer by the name of Jean Hart, who happened to be the girlfriend (and later,wife) of the comedian Bill Oddie. Bill had, in fact, on one occasion 'sat in' with the band, singing (if memory serves) a credible version of "Summertime". He knew most, if not all, of the Python team, so I asked him (through Jean) if he knew how I could go about contacting their representative. To my astonishment, he offered to introduce me to Eric Idle (it's possible that he was sharing a flat with him at the time, though I'm not certain about that) and eventually I was invited to meet Eric at his apartment. Being something of a fan myself, it was with considerable trepidation, awe and downright nerves that I presented myself, but Eric very quickly put me at my ease with his relaxed and friendly attitude. He asked a few questions about what dates we had in mind, the Festival organisation, its history etc. I threw as many 'names' of artistes that had already been booked, or who had appeared in the previous 2 years and described how well-run it was. I was expecting him at that point to indicate who, if anyone, might be up for taking part, when he said something that had me almost breathless with excitement. It was along the lines of: "Well, your timing couldn't be more fortuitous (he might even have used the word 'serendipitous') as we've been discussing the possibility of doing something live on stage and, if we did, we it would definitely be away fro m London, in case it didn't work for us. Now, if you can find out whether the Belgrade Theatre is available for, say, a 3 night run, that would certainly increase the odds of us agreeing to do it, as we've all worked there before and know that it would be an ideal venue for us".
Where it happened.
In something of a daze, I promised to get back to him a.s.a.p. and left to find a phone to call Ted Little and give him the astounding news. He didn't seem to take it in at first and kept asking which of the Pythons was I talking about. I said "All of them...the 'tout ensemble'.. the whole damn Circus!" After they brought him round, he checked the Belgrade's availablity and phoned me back to say that we could have Sunday 31st January, Monday 1st and Tuesday 2nd of February, just a few days into the Festival. I passed this on to Eric and, soon enough, the dates and the deal were agreed. For the life of me, I can't remember the fee or any other contractual details, except that the shows would start at 12 midnight and that the fee was extraordinarily reasonable. In a cloud of euphoria, I passed the good news to Ted. Tickets went on sale a few days later...and all three nights sold out in about 20 minutes!
Needless to say, every show was a fantastic success, as the student audience was a proven fan base which already knew most of the sketches, sometimes word-perfect... not that this in any way diminished their noisy enjoyment of them. I recall that,on the first night, the entire front row was wearing 'Gumby' style knotted handkerchiefs...to the astonishment of the first Pythons onstage.
An interesting coda to this story is that, a couple of weeks before the premiere, I received a phone call from the plummy-voiced P.A. of an illustrious music biz heavyweight (no names, no pack-drill!) who, after ascertaining that I was, indeed, the person responsible for this 'showbiz' coup, informed me that Mr. ******** would 'like a box, for the first night' ! After a deep breath and summoning my most innocent of tones, I asked: "What kind of box would he like? Orange do?". Well, that went down like the proverbial lead balloon. A few moments of silence, then: "You do realise that it's Mr ******** we're talking about?" To which I politely replied: "Even if it was the Queen Mother, I still couldn't get you a seat, let alone a box. It's completely sold out." A gasp of incredulity and frustration, followed by the crash of the phone going down at his end. I have to admit that I got a degree of quiet satisfaction from the exchange, which just added to my feeling of pride at helping to facilitate the very first 'Live on Stage' appearance of Monty Python's Flying Circussss!
1971 Lanchester Arts Festival Programme
