Super fan sisters join Sir Cliff at arena show

Nov 28 2008 by Jon Tunney, The Journal

YOUNG at heart rock ’n’ rollers will descend on the Metro Radio Arena tonight to Move It with pop stalwart Sir Cliff Richard.

And when the concert ends the hardiest of the fan club will be unravelling their sleeping bags and bringing out the Thermos flasks ready for Sunday morning, when tickets go on sale for the Peter Pan of Pop’s first tour with The Shadows in 20 years.

The tour, dubbed Reunited for the Very Last Time, will bring Newcastle’s Hank Marvin and Chester-le-Street’s Bruce Welch back to their old stomping ground – half a century since their first performance at Newcastle’s City Hall in 1958.

Super-fan sisters Margaret and Jessie Louth will be itching to snap-up tickets for the reunion tour, due to come to Newcastle in October 2009.

They were in the crowd at City Hall for the concert in 1958 and have been to every Cliff concert in the city since, even when a tour has made a two-night stop.

Margaret said: “We can’t sit at home knowing that we are missing out on Cliff. We’d be too excited, and even when it’s the same concert two nights in a row some of the songs are different.”

Margaret, 67, and Jessie, 64, both of Bedford Avenue, Barley Mow, Chester-le-Street, will be four rows away from their idol tonight when he takes to the stage to belt out their favourite songs, Move It and Angel Eyes.

In 1958, a 17-year-old Margaret and her 14-year-old little sister, Jessie, were stage door regulars at City Hall, but failed to meet their new favourite band, Cliff Richard and the Shadows after the concert.

But the disappointment only spurred them on. And in 1962, Margaret won a competition to meet her hero stage-side. The two sisters, dolled-up in suits they made themselves, finally got to chat and pose with their main man.

Margaret said: “He was a lovely man, even then. His every move was watched by his manager and he was on his best behaviour, but since then we have met him at least a dozen times when his manager isn’t around and he has been so polite and always has time for his fans, we wouldn’t like him so much otherwise.

“When I won the competition I insisted my sister had to come along, I even said I’d give away our tickets if they would let her meet him too, which they did and we got to keep the tickets.

The unmarried sisters, who live together in their parents’ old house in Barley Mow, have spent their whole lives in Chester-le-Street. They went to Cestria primary school and Chester-le-Street modern before leaving school at 15 to get jobs.

Margaret made window displays for Timothy White’s, which later changed its name to Boots, and Jessie owned her own self-titled hair-dressing salon in Chester-le-Street.

It was while working there that she once met County Durham-born Shadows member Bruce Welch, who was out shopping with his aunt Sadie.

The two now work together as specialist computer cleaners for Rentokill, and are well known to all their colleagues and friends for their love of all things Cliff Richard.

Margaret said: “The girls at work are always asking us when the next concert is, but no-one laughs at us.

“We have nine bottles of his brand of wine and we get his calendar every year.

“He was on a daytime television show once and I called in and got to ask him a question.

“Of all the things in the world I could have asked him, I asked if he knew how to change a plug. He laughed, and said ‘yes’ in a Geordie accent.”

Tickets for Cliff Richard and The Shadows Reunited for the Very Last Time, playing on October 12 2009 will go on sale from the Metro Radio Arena box office from Sunday at 10am.