Same Lot As Last Time

SLALT began in 1961 when half a dozen Old Time Music Hall enthusiasts got together, meeting originally at the Coach & Horses in Draycott. Gradually, friends & relatives of the original members joined the cast. One of the first of many good causes to benefit from the fund-raising shows was an Oxfam appeal.

Ken Bates recalls: "When we performed in the Conservative Club 40 years ago (or thereabouts), it seemed a very transient activity. After the Wild West show (an early one that I attended as a visitor), there was a meeting in the Breaston Pub (the Navigation?). I went with Clive (Watts) and some members were talking about preparing for the next show. The subject of a name for the group cropped up, but most of the discussion treated the subject with levity. The last thing most of them wanted was a formal organisation with a 'high-faluting' title, hence the informal, derisory, 'same lot as last time'..."

In 1968, SLALT was summed up quite well in a review in a local newspaper: "Unashamedly sentimental, unscrupulously daring, unspeakably corny - and undeniably successful!"

The rest, as they say, is history.