‘Sunny Afternoon’ in Stoke-on-Trent

The Kinks revisited, nostalgic, moving and fun.

It wasn’t a sunny afternoon and the Christmas shoppers had filled up all the car parking places so getting to the theatre on time was making our stress levels rise. Not the best start to a matinee performance of The Kinks ‘Sunny Afternoon’ hit musical being performed at the Regent Theatre in Stoke-on-Trent.

However, in the foyer we bumped into a few old friends and began to relax as we managed to reach our seats in time.  The Regent Theatre is a lovely old fashioned theatre, the type with boxes at the side and a lot of art deco architecture. Special.  

Regent Theatre ceiling

The show tells the story of the Kinks rise to stardom from humble beginnings and is crammed with their songs from the swinging 60s such as ‘You Really Got Me’, 'Dead End Street' and of course ‘Waterloo Sunset’ which brought a tear to the eye.  Everyone was up on their feet, singing and clapping the beat by the end.  A wonderful acapella version of ‘Days’ was one of the highlights for me, and everyone joined in singing ‘Lola’ with enthusiasm.  

The story of their highs and lows, their infamous American tour and the record industry's dubious business methods was an eye-opener and quite captivating. 

I was intrigued to discover that Ray Davies married a girl from my home town, not only that but she went to my school and they got married in the same church that I got married in!  What a surprise revelation that was.

The cast were excellent, the musicianship spot on, the sets believable and impressive and everyone appeared to have tremendous fun. A cracking show, as a friend put it, not bad for a cloudy (and cold) afternoon in Stoke.