Tom Carradine

COCKNEY SING-A-LONG

Many members from Tonbridge u3a met in the large bar and club room at Tonbridge Rugby Club for a brilliant session with Tom Carradine and his programme of old songs and anecdotes.

The Tom Carradine Event in 2025 had been such a great success, so it was decided to hold another this year but using this larger venue which enabled considerably more members to join in!

We were treated to seats at large round tables where groups could not only sit together but also meet with new friends- a great way to encourage socialising amongst our members.

Tom Carradine was an experienced and professional performer. In previous years, the words of the songs were distributed upon paper leaflets. A new support this year was a large screen showing the words of the songs to be sung which enabled everyone to join in and have a lot of fun. Anyone who had forgotten some of the words did not have to worry! In fact, it appeared that EVERYONE was joining in and having a thoroughly good time!

The whole evening generated laughter and camaraderie from everyone and all appeared to leave with smiling faces. Thanks go to those members who were able to assist with the clearing up and many thanks to the organisers for another very successful event.

Many of our u3a members showed exceptional knowledge of things from the past. We were also asked to name famous past performers, when their photos were shown on the screen.

We were impressed by the member who recognised Marie Lloyd - we might all know the name but would we all have recognised the photo?

Tom managed to entertain us for two 45 minute sessions with a welcome break in-between to refill our glasses and discuss what had gone before.  The second session was slightly different from the first and particular fun came when we realised how many of the "old" advertising by-line we recognised

(e.g. beanz meanz ????) and many more ....

The whole evening generated laughter and camaraderie from everyone!