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The Road to Karaoke
To be honest, up to 5 years ago I knew very little about karaoke, I had heard of it and had a vague idea of what happened at one but that was about it. Now it is my second job!!!!
So (in my best Max Bygraves voice) I wanna tell you a story!!!!!
When I was at school I knew I wanted to be in entertainment, I could sing and had been in plenty of shows and eisteddfods for both singing and Drama (my grandma ran a small Speech and Drama school and my Dad was a part time kids magician so it was kind of in the blood as they say….).
I went on to the local college and started their performing arts course, fully intending when I left there to go onto one of the London drama colleges. However in my second year my Dad saw and audition in “The Stage” for Haven-mates who could sing and I decided to go along just of the experience of an audition….then followed 12 years of Holiday park life!!!!!
During this time I also got married and had two kids who got dragged along to the various parks we were working at. During the winters I worked in the clubs as a Cabaret singer and also with my then husband ran a touring panto company.
By the time my daughter was about to start school it was no longer practical to move about so much. I had by now also split up with my husband and was left wondering what to do with my life.
I had picked up face painting skills while on the holiday parks and for a number of years worked doing that but really missed performing.
With an old friend we applied for a lottery grant to run workshops for kids who were interested in entertainment. We got the grant and taught singing and performing skills, then put on shows round the local old peoples homes. It got me back into performing and I also met my fiancé David.
During this time I started a singing duo with another girl Julie. She frequented karaoke with her husband Richard and dragged me along (to one of Scatmans). I wasn’t really sure if I would like it or not but ended up having a great time and went back a few more times.
Julie and I were getting quite a few gigs by this time but felt we could still do with some extra cash (nothing changes!!!!) so we toyed with the idea of running our own Karaoke. David and Richard thought it was a great idea and we came up with a business plan hoping to get a bank loan to start up the business. However after begging from a few different banks we realised that there was no way we were going to get the money we needed that way. At this point David’s parents stepped in and loaned us the money to start up. Julie and Richard ended up not being part of the business as they were concentrating on their own duo. So David and I went to the local dealers and came back armed with loads of equipment which we had no idea about!!!!!!!!
David then spent a month going round to loads of pubs to try and get us going, and blagging it a bit!!!!!!
We used the time to learn how to run the gear and soon had a couple of regular gigs.
The holiday park grounding really helped me (I am actually quite shy if you meet me on the street but give me a mic and a room full of people and I am a very happy bunny!!!) and David is an accomplished musician so was great at the mixing side of it, and so Kaleidoscope was born….
During the last five years there have been some changes David no longer does the gigs with me as he concentrates more on his music now ( actually he doesn’t like lugging gear about!!!!) so I run the night with another girl. We did at one time go out every night of the week and for a while ran two rigs but it all became a bit much and I found I was never seeing the kids (sometimes a good thing!!!!). So we cut back, sold one of the rigs and now have 10 regulars a month (one weekly venue, two venues which we do every other week, and two venues which are monthly). We do the occasional one off but on the whole find that this is enough.
In the last few months we have updated all the equipment so now have more loans to pay off!!!! We try to keep as up to date as we can with equipment and lighting and buying as many discs as we can afford.
I really enjoy what I do, I still get to do a bit of performing ( on a good night a song at the beginning and one at the end, but if it is needed then I am quite happy to do a bit more!!!). I love the social side of Karaoke and meeting new people, encouraging newcomers to have a go and hopefully making sure people have a good time.
I hadn’t realised what a big part of my life it was until Easter this year when I injured my leg (in an attempt to get fit at the gym!!!!) I was literally off my feet for two months and David had to take up the reigns again. By the time I got back to work I was suffering withdrawal symptoms!!!!!
So there we are, that was my road to karaoke (bumpy and swervy but got there in the end!!!!!)
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