 The Leagues Club's affable entertainer Frank Foster celebrates 25 years of Tuesday get-togethers With enough cream sponge cake to feed 150 fans, Frank Foster recently celebrated a remarkable record - thousands of Tuesday morning singalongs in the Prince Edward Lounge.
Frank is as well known at the club for his up-tempo standards as he is for his favourite greeting: "It's nice to see nice people".
But what is as noteworthy as his success - Frank regularly fills the Lounge to capacity for performances of such hits as Fly Me To The Moon and Side By Side - is the fact the singalongs started on a whim back in 1983.
"Laurie Doust was the manager and the Prince Edward Lounge was always in darkness every Tuesday," Frank recalls.
"I was in the main auditorium MC'ing the big shows and he called on Warren Carr and myself and he said "let's try something different. How about a singalong show for the people?"
"He asked us to give it a six week trial and if it didn't go well then we wouldn't worry about it, but we're still going."
Frank says the success of the singalongs is also due to "first class musicians", piano player Billy Hucker, bass player Les Young and drummer Alan Gilbert, who have been playing together for years.
He said there were much laughter and many friendships formed each Tuesday.
"We have a big range of music, from songs like Are You Lonely Tonight or Singing In The Rain, to more modern ones from Frank Sinatra songs and Perry Como," he said.
"We get people that come from community centres, the general public and we get some groups who come from some of the local homes.
"It's my job really to look after people and sing songs and make sure everybody is happy and all that sort of thing, and then we do the morning show."
He said he altered the songs each week: "I can't afford to have a favourite", before a guest artist performs each Tuesday afternoon.
"They tend to do more up to date stuff like Tom Jones songs," he said.
"But I'm very lucky, I get to sing songs that are done by the best singers in the world every week. It's wonderful."
At 79 Frank said he couldn't quite see himself notching up another 25 years of singalongs, but added he would be around "for a while yet".
"I don't want to disclose how much longer we'll be playing together, but I reckon we've got a few more years to go. As long as the people are coming I guess," he said.
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St George Leagues Club
LEAGUES CLUB JOURNAL
