Sir Cliff Richard at the Royal Albert Hall Dec 2025
I always enjoy my annual trip to Cliff’s latest London tour date and this time the venue was my favourite, The Royal Albert Hall, surely the most magnificent concert hall in the U.K.
As a special bonus this time round there was a post show reception, something that since Covid has been off the menu so the evening was something to look forward to. On top of which my ‘plus one’ was the ever gorgeous and seemingly ageless Anita Harris. With Anita on my arm we made a rather lovely couple I thought.
The show was jam packed with hit after hit after hit. No surprise there and when you have a catlogue of successes like Cliff you have a lot to choose from. It was probably more memorable for the number of huge hits that had to be omitted because of time constrictions, not to mention the personal effort and strain that such an event is imposed on him.
But The Lights, sound, atmosphere, it was all terrific and there was a buzz about the place. There always is at a Cliff concert. Before we knew it the two hours had flown by and it was down to the 1871 bar for champagne and a chance to say hi, which of course we did. Only a brief meeting of course because the guest list for the after show bash must have been a hundred or more.
Sir was as gracious as ever and Nitty and I got the selfie with no problem. I hope you enjoy the photos.
Whilst enjoying the excellent backstage hospitality I ran into a very old chum, Cindy Kent who used to be with the folk pop group The Settlers who enjoyed their time in the sun with songs like The Lightning Tree and who is now the reverend Cindy Kent having taken up holy orders when the pop life somewhat lost its earthly appeal.
As it happens Mike Jones, the guitarist in the Settlers, stood in when a spot on Thank Your Lucky Stars in 1964 clashed with a planned holiday in the Bahamas for me. The band decided that it wouldn’t be the end of the world if I went on my holiday while Mike Jones stood discreetly at the rear virtually out of shot. I wonder how many people noticed. He was much taller than me – but then, who isn’t? The release at the time was What Have They Done To The Rain?
The single alas only reached number 13 in the charts, a bit of a disappointment after the success of When You Walk In The Room, but I don’t think my absence made any noticeable difference. We would probably have done much better if we had stuck to something more up tempo. But ‘Rain’ has remained one of our most loved hits and has been in virtually every show since it first saw the light of day.
Cindy kindly forwarded a photo from the gathering. Left to right is Katherine Mansi (a dancer and dance teacher), me, Anita Harris, comedian Tim Vine and of course the reverend Cindy Kent.
