Bakewell Show

It is rare that I have to report a poor performance but this was one.

Firstly let me thank Julia, Lynda and Pearl for their stirling work.

The Bakewell Show is a big event and we have never been to it before. However we went this year and signed us just three members! This netted just £25, against a cost for the stand of £64. We were in a poor place with little passing traffic and most of the people we talked to were not from the area. Anyway you live and learn.

Gregor

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Pavilion Restoration Reaches the Phil Grey Door

Here are Julia and Keith by the door to the Grey Room. They have just stripped the paint of the door ready for refurbishment.

During the summer Keith has led the refurbishment teams whilst Les has been having the second knee replacement operation. Les is nearly recovered from the operation and will be back soon. Whilst he has been away the team has carried on working and made a significant number of small improvements, which will be noticeable when you next visit the building.

Gregor

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Starkholmes "Follies" Step In!

20 former members of Phil Grey's Follies musical group meet in the "Grey Room" to discuss how to raise money to buy curtains for the completion of this restoration project.

The Follies put on a number of shows in the Starkholmes Village Hall,until just before Phil died in 1993.

They agreed a number of actions and projects to raise the money. The first was on me; to find out how much the curtains will cost! 

The Operations Committee named the room after Phil Grey, who saved the Pavilion.....twice!

Gregor

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Fantastic Evening from Matlock Musical Theatre

Matlock Musical Theatre put on A Little Shop of Horrors and created a great show.

On Friday there was an audience of 200. This made the Pavilion feel very full and it certainly was hot!

Gregor

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Matlock Bath Panto!

What an event!

Nearly 500 watched over two nights and had a great time.

The acting was incredible.

We took £900 on the bar.Which helped make it a financial success.

Gregor

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Belper Food Fair

Although we started with rain the day got better as it developed. By lunchtime it was gloriously warm. Dick & Carol arrived at lunchtime and gave us a break, which was spent in the park listening to music.

For the Pavilion it was a superbly successful day with 33 New members, 66 for the ten previous days.

Gregor

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Matlock Bath Music Festival

A really great evening was had by all especially by those who watched Beth McCarthy.

She ran out of battery in her guitar, so jumped off the stage and "played busking". The audience loved it!

We took around £900 for the two nights, so should show some profit for the two nights.

Gregor

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Ambergate Carnival

I think this is the fourth time we have done this carnival and this was one of the best. Eight new members and an enormous interest, especially from a younger group. It seems as though younger people (under 40) did not believe that we could do it. Now, however, they have seen that we can really make a go of the Pavilion, to create a super venue.
The Carnival had a Brazilian theme and was really good; lots of people in the parade!
As usual my raffle tickets failed to come up; so I left empty handed!
Gregor

Matlock Bath Music Festival

This is the first night of the Matlock Bath Music Festival. Lots of bands and lots of fun.

We have five bands tonight including a Jake Thackeray tribute.See you there.

Gregor

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Matlock Bath Music Festival

This is the first night of the Matlock Bath Music Festival. Lots of bands and lots of fun.

We have five bands tonight including a Jake Thackeray tribute.See you there.

Gregor

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Saturday Night Fever at the Pavilion

A truly great night! We had about 200 people watching this classic film. There was then a dance troop doing a medley of Bee Gee songs. This was followed by general dancing until we closed.

We need more evenings like this!

Gregor

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Bakewell Carnival Again

After a lot of rain overnight it seemed as though the day was going to be dank and wet. As usual the incompetent weather forecasters got it wrong again! It was a lovely day with sun shining for most of the time.

The carnival floats were great, although I don't think I have ever seen so much cross-dressing! Girls dressed as drum majoretts, boys dressed as girls dressed as drum majoretts! The most beefy nuns that I've ever seen.

We did well with membership, signing up 12 during the day. This is double what we did last time I was there.

Lynda was in Winster, more about that when I hear from her.

Gregor

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Events Committee Meeting

Here is Andie and his events team meeting in the Pavilion Cafe working on future events in the Pavilion later in the year.

We will have the premier motorcycle event in Derbyshire here on the Pavilion in August! Look out for more details.

Gregor

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Strait Shooters

Here is Kevin and the boys doing their stuff in the Pavilion! A really great evening with a small but enthusiastic audience.

At 5 pounds per ticket it is a great evening!

Gregor

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Friends of the Grand Pavilion AGM

We had a successful AGM with presentations from out Treasurer Nick Whitehead, The Friends' Chairman, Alan David, and myself.
The success of the friends group can be measured by the fact that we had three new additions to the committee, bringing it up to 12 in strength.
Gregor

Derbyshire Open Arts

Derbyshire Open Arts got off to a slow start, due to the weather, however artists have almost all sold something and I have signed up 23 members; 14 today!
The weather has been atrocious and, as a result, Matlock Bath was almost empty yesterday (24th). It was bad this morning with considerable rainfall until about 11am. After that it cot steadily drier and by 3.30 the sun came out.
This year we have fewer exhibitors, but a better average quality. We have a potter, whose work can be seen on the left of the photo, and a number of artists. Pollyanna Pickering again put on a super display of pictures.
Thanks to all who are helping in the Café. Judy is training them all well!
Gregor

The Derbyshire Open Arts Café

Here is Judy with her merry band of helpers!
You can see Clare, with her "found penny", Pearl and Liz.
They have helped keep the café happy and productive on the first day.
The Weather has been atrocious! I only signed up 8 new members, which is a sign of how few people came through the door!
Gregor

Ashover Carnival

Carnival time is here again and so the Friends of the Grand Pavilion is here with the stall signing up members.

The Ashover Carnival is one of the best carnivals in the area.

Our stall is shown here behind the carnival procession .

We signed up 7 new members and got two renewals.

Gregor

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Welcoming Guests for A Night at the Opera

Here is Oliver Gerrish and Lynn Allison greeting guests arriving at the Night at the Opera. This will be one of our biggest events this year.
Gregor

Belinda Behind the Bar

Here is Belinda Heaney behind the bar at one of our events. Thanks to all of you who have helped so far. Those who have not yet come and helped, come and have fun! It is not hard work.
Gregor

A Night at the Opera - A Full House

We could have fitted a few more people, but not many! Here is the Grand Pavilion full of guests to listen to Meeta and Ollie after enjoying cava and canopies, provided as part of their ticket price.
The audience loved the evening and we really had a super night. I heard someone saying that it was rather like the "Lord Lieutenant's Ball"! Quite a complement for a building which is a "little bit scruffy".
Gregor

Here comes the Piano

This is the piano arriving at the Grand Pavilion for our Night at the Opera. It was quite a job getting it up the stairs, but we managed it quite quickly and got it onto the stage in no more than 20 minutes.
Gregor

Les gets his Overalls

Here is Les getting his Overalls for the Pavilion. He has do so much to help us to get the Pavilion to the position that it is now; open active and full of people!
Gregor

Theatres Trust Conference

This is the Leeds City Varieties Music Hall and the Theatres Trust Conference. It was extremely well attended and although the lunch was poor, as usual, the conference was informative and relevant. This time they concentrated on small theatres and there were lots of delegates from small venues like the Grand Pavilion.
The big "take home" for me was the need to get Grade 2 Listing for the Grand Pavilion. I hope that we can do this; which will help to get a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Gregor

Bon Jovi UK

Here are Bon Jovi UK at the Grand Pavilion. They had a great set and attracted an audience that made the Pavilion look full. We had a good night on the bars, which has meant that we made a profit from the event.
Gregor

Lucy Ward Plays

Lucy did a super set with lots of interesting takes on other artists' work, as well as her own compositions. There were two sets with an interval; quite a lot of work for one evening!
My favourite was their take of Dexy's Midnight Runners's "Come on Eileen".
Gregor

Lucy Ward

Here are punters queuing to get into our Lucy Ward event. We eventually had 200 at this seated event, which gives us a useful profit, once the bar and café takings are added.
Gregor

Mick in a Silly Hat!

This is Mick Hirstwood in my bowler hat! I wear it to the Steampunk events and have a lot of fun. This time I managed to get Mick to wear it and got this snap before he took it off.
Mick does a fantastic job ensuring that the electrical facilities in the building are safe.
Gregor

Our Brochure is Launched

This is the front page of our Brochure.
We have printed 10,000 copies of this 28 page brochure, so you should find one through your door or in your local pub or restaurant.
We have 30 events throughout the summer and autumn. There will be more so watch out website for details: www.thegrandpavilion.com.
Gregor

BB Blackdog at the Pavilion

No Steampunk event would be complete without BB Blackdog appearing in the Pavilion. Here they are with their new guitarist Molly.
Gregor

Village Shop of the Future?

Without your support, this is how our village services could end up; a grocery machine behind the village pub. This is great if the village shop has already gone, but I hope we don't all loose our shops to this kind of a machine.
We need to support our village services or risk losing them!
This applies to the Pavilion as well.....
Gregor

Chernobyl Event

This was afterwards in the Fishpond. A really great band raised money for Chernobyl Children.
Gregor

Showtime again

Here is another photo from this great event. The Main Hall felt full.
Gregor

Our 2014 Programme

Here is our listings sheet for the next six months. We have such a wide range of events from Opera to Pop and Rock, Theatre, Cinema, Arts Exhibitions, Markets, Heritage Events and even a Beer Festival!
I hope you can come to something.
Gregor

Showtime!

Here is the Wirksworth Area Community Orchestra in action at our Showtime event. A great free evening for members. It has been a good introduction to the full listing of events that we have for Matlock Bath and the surrounding area during the next six months.
Also highlighted during the evening was the Wirksworth Community Choir.
We had a well-attended evening and even managed to fight off the cold! One day we will get heating.....
Gregor

Pavilion Restoration Work

Here is Peter Fox working in the new "Heritage Room". This will provide an archive and office for all the information that we have been donated by people around Matlock Bath and further afield.
We have been able to do this thanks to a Heritage Lottery Fund bid. After we have finished our work, we will have an archive, of all the memories and memorabilia from the history of the Pavilion, that we have managed to find.
Gregor

University of the Third Age - Matlock Talk

I gave a speech to the Matlock Branch of the University of the Third Age. It was more of an update from the speech I gave three years ago. There really was a lot to say and it was appreciated by the audience.
I included photos from the first visit we did to the Pavilion and compared them to what you can see now! This proved very interesting to the audience, which included a couple, who had helped to achieve our success.
In the end I signed up no less than 10 new members! There was also one who renewed on the night.
Since then we have had a further 3 new members in the post!
Gregor

Pavilion Tidy-up Carries On!

The work in the Pavilion carries on apace! We are currently working in the Grey Room and here you can see the ceiling being got ready for painting. We did one magnolia coat two years ago to make the room a bit lighter (it was black!)
Now we are doing a proper job of repairing the ceiling and painting it white. The paint pot is there to assist with a larger repair of a hole in the ceiling. We put a piece of wood above the hole, attach it to the paint pot to hold it in place and then fill where the plaster is missing. In the end we will cut the string and make good before painting.
We have seven weeks left to get the work completed; if you can help phone Les on 01629 760599.
Gregor

Pavilion Plans Rethink

The Operations Group have just had an away-day to review our plans, after the rejection of our Heritage Lottery Fund bid. 

It was made clear that we would not be able to bid successfully for the larger National fund and will be limited to an application of no more than £2m.

We have decided to divide the project into a number of phases and apply for each individually, rather than doing it all in one big application. 

We have also made an alteration to the plans that will mean not making such a big change to the 2nd floor. 

Gregor 

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Heritage Lottery Fund Visit

Jeremy Fenn of the HLF visited the Grand Pavilion to see for himself the plans we have and advise us on how we can progress them. 

He was enormously impressed by our enthusiasm and skills, a well as the number who  came and presented to him. 

We hope that this will lead to a more successful Bid when we make it again. 

Gregor 

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