Singer celebrates decade of success with homecoming gig

MUSIC production Lipstick On Your Collar is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

Singer Nikki Seekings-Smith and her band will return to the Kenton Theatre next Sunday for its homecoming show.

Nikki, who lives in Woodley with her husband and co-producer, Adrian Jones, says: “Coming back to the Kenton is a joy because it’s our chance to see all our family and friends.

“The show itself has just got bigger and better and busier. We’ve got a flamebar inside the piano so in Great Balls of Fire it sets light and off it goes, you can toast some marshmallows on that at the end of the show.

“There is new stuff in this show and we’ve got some new cast members. It just goes from strength to strength.”

They have created a new production company. “We’ve formed LOYC Entertainments which is quite exciting, we’re doing bookings and marketing and tech for other tours that are just breaking into the theatre circuit. Our really exciting one is Ben Thompson, ‘Elvis The Ultimate Experience’, that’s coming to the Kenton a few weeks after us.

“Ben has been working in the industry for years and he has got an amazing reputation. He’s one of the top Elvises in the world.”

For Nikki’s own show, she loves the way audiences join in.

“People don’t just sit there, they’re up, dancing and singing. We do an opening medley which is basically a kind of selection of songs from the Fifties and Sixties and it shows what the show is going to be about. They’re all singing and dancing and up and smiling and I think that’s incredible.”

Nikki’s personal highlights include Shirley Bassey’s I Who Have Nothing and Cilla Black’s You’re My World. “When you’re belting those ones out you can hear a pin drop. I can almost feel the audience breathing with me and at the end they’re all up on their feet.”

l Lipstick On Your Collar is at the Kenton Theatre on Sunday, November 2 at 7.30pm. Tickets cost £29.50. For more information, call the box office on (01491) 525050 or visit thekenton.org.uk