Music To Watch Girls By

It’s the summer of love. 1967. Sergeant Pepper, the Stones bust, the death of Brian Epstein, war in Biafra. But this is all a long way from this summer in sunny sedate seaside Sandbourne. Steve is a student who gets a holiday job doing lights at the Maxie Vincent Show. This is not a seedy end-of-the-pier show, but a full scale, successful all-star production filling a 2000 seat concert hall twice nightly for months. Steve spends his evenings shining limelight on the stars and the mornings teaching English to German students.

The other stagehands are mainly moonlighting bank clerks . Maxie Vincent, who had hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s is the star of the show, supported by bad-tempered comedian Stanley Micklwhite and Merseybeat group, The Sheriffs. Larry, the stage manager attempts to keep things running.

Things are bubbling under the surface. Who is the mystery star dating one of the chorus line? Is Steve going to get together with Tina, who is dancing for the summer season before going on to study in New York?

This is a comedy romance set squarely in 1967. Steve and Tina yearn to be part of the 1967 scene, as do some of The Sheriffs, but they’re firmly stuck working in Showbiz as it was before …