Last night was a special Variety Night at Benidorm Palace and all for a very special cause - to raise funds for the Help for Heroes charity. The event was sponsored by Coastrider and Rioja Properties from Torrevieja and jointly organised by "Stevie Spit" - Torrevieja´s top Drag Queen and Evie Walker and VivaTV were there to record the show. Stevie plans to send copies of the DVD to serving forces abroad - what an absolutely fantastic gesture!

 

Doors to the Palace officially opened at 8pm but there was already a sizeable queue of people waiting to get inside half an hour beforehand. Seats quickly filled up and anticipation built for the 9 o´clock start - and it was a total sell out. There was a raffle with some great prizes - all donated by local businesses with the top prize of 6 tickets to see the show at Benidorm Palace with a return limo service - though it was quickly to point out that it didn´t include the free pick up if anyone lived in the UK as there were an awful lot of holiday makers in. 

 

Stevie Spit took to the floor in the most incredible outfit - all sparkles and feathers to compere for the night and was accompanied by the Compania de Flamenco dancers. He entertained in only the comical way which Stevie can, with some great audience participation. He then came out to introduce each act - typically like any woman would given half the chance, in a different outfit every time!

 

First act onto the floor was the very energetic Sister Act and they finished to great applause by singing "You Raise me Up". Local girl Nikki G, who regularly performs around the Torrevieja area followed with some classic numbers from various West End musicals with her velvety notes and finished with the Les Mis and now recognised Susan Boyle hits "I Dreamed a Dream".

 

Next followed a small representation from the Spanish dance troupe "Compañia De Flamenco JM" - led by Jay Markwick, the Director, Choreographer and lead dancer who formed the company only 2 years ago, having performed with numerous top professional company´s both in Spain and across the world. It was a visual delight enjoyed by all...

 

Then it was "Chico Time" to the delight of the entire audience - particularly the female contingents! He really is an all round crowd puller and even jumped onto the tables in the auditorium! He then stripped off his top and got crowds of ladies onto the stage to dance alongside him - that will be a lasting memory for most of them. 

 

Next onto the stage was singer Dee and to follow another local singer Paul Michael, who opened with the Pavarotti classic "Nessun Dorma" and followed that up with Andre Bocelli´s "Time to say Goodbye" - an amazing powerful voice.

 

The last act before the interval was Benidorm favourite Crissy Rock - she had the audience in stitches and told some excellent jokes and gags, particularly poking fun at a certain orange logo´d airline. Surprisingly she also sang - and as she told the audience, bet you weren´t expecting that now were you and they certainly weren´t - even I didn´t realise that she could sing that well!

 

Just before the interval organiser Evie Walker came onto the stage accompanied by John Gill - a volunteer for Help for Heroes at the Tim Hut in Tidworth Wiltshire, which is home to the external operations team who answer the phones for the charity. He explained a little about what the charity does and what any money raised is used for - he has a home in Altea and was delighted to be asked along to attend the amazing evening on behalf of the charity. terval the in

Organiser Evie with Help 4 Heroes volutneer John

During the interval I went backstage and chatted with Chico, Ray Quinn, Mick Miller and Angie Brown - and what a hilarious bunch they were. In fact, Mick and Angie sat next to each other on the flight over and only when they started chatting did they realise that they were both heading to Benidorm Palace to perform at the same event! Mick is flying up to northern Spain tomorrow and boarding a cruise whilst the others are unfortunately all heading back to Blighty!

For any Chico fans you will be delighted to know that he´ll be playing in panto - Aladdin, at the beginning of December in Bradford and he is almost ready to bring out a new mind, body and soul dancersize technique which will be called "Chicomba" to inspire positive mental attitude. You´ve all heard of Zumba - well the next big craze will be Chicomba and you heard about it here!

 

As for Ray Quinn - after hearing his voice it´s surprising that he only made it as runner up in X-Factor in 2006, but he did win Dancing on Ice in 2009. It is his very first time here in Benidorm and he told me that he´d love to come back with his wife and 1 year old son... we´ll be waiting Ray!

 

The flamenco dancers opened the second part of the show then stand up comic Mick Miller came on with his trademark bald head and long hair down the sides and soon had everyone laughing - he certainly knows his trade. Even though many of the younger members of the audience had probably never heard of him it never stopped them laughing at his gags!

 

 

Ray Quinn took to the stage next and belted out some great hits and closing the show was the powerful voice of Angie Brown. She has performed backing vocals for some legends including Grace Jones, Beverley Knight and even The Rolling Stones - and she was here on the stage of Benidorm Palace - wow! Angie was last in Benidorm 2 years ago when she performed at the very first Pride event and has very fond memories of it. 

It was well after 1am before the show finished and then there was an after show party at Showboat, which really did go on until this morning. Me, I had to get home to bed to be up for a 6.30am school run! 

 

It was an absolutely fantastic night and both Stevie and Evie should be very proud of what they managed to achieve... as soon as I have an indication of the money raised from Evie I shall update everyone - but well done to everyone that came and supported this great event.