The Recording of the 80th. Birthday Show at the ITV Studio

Saturday night was the recording of the 80th. birthday show at the ITV studio in London with host David Walliams.

Dame Shirley performed 7 songs and sounded great and looked gorgeous. The recording took about 3 hours. It was a small studio and there were about 500 people in the audience. Unfortunately lots of people had to be disappointed and could not get in.

I had a very good view on the stage and sat close to Tim and Paul Joseph (It’s got to be Bassey)

The show will be broadcast on Christmas eve on BBC 1.

Host David Walliams did a few interviews with Dame Shirley Bassey but it was a bit of History Repeating as they were the same questions (and answers) as in former shows. In that sense a bit of a missed opportunity in my opinion. Don’t know if his jokes were all appreciated by Dame Shirley as she said she just wanted to sing. Of course some parts had to be done over and over again and Dame Shirley was being very patient. She also clearly stated there will be no more concerts and tours. Of course I don’t know what will be edited out once shown on TV but we can only hope that no songs will be edited out. The orchestra was conducted by Michael Alexander and sounded fabulous. Unlike on the 60th. Birthday Show in October 1996 we did not get a chance to sing Happy Birthday for Dame Shirley. On the Message Board and on other social media you can read how other fans experienced the recording of the show.