Gary Wilmot has been part of our TV and musicals viewing and watching for many, many years. I remember seeing him live in the first sell out national tour of ‘Me And My Girl’, then as Elliot Garfield in ‘The Goodbye Girl’ by Neil Simon, Marvin Hamlisch, David Zippell and Don Black in 1998. I saw him again in one of his solo tours. Sadly I have missed seeing him live in many other musicals. I was one of the thousands of TV viewers hooked by his one-hour TV special for the BBC – ‘Showstoppers’ which went on to a further six.

I was unaware of Mike Alexander until our recent purchase of Gary Wilmot’s CD ‘Double Standards’ recorded in 2004. Mike Alexander has worked in just about every area of the music business, with every kind of performer from small jazz combos to symphony orchestras.

As musical director, conductor and arranger for Shirley Bassey, he has performed in some of the world's most prestigious concert halls such as the London Palladium, the Royal Albert Hall, Carnegie Hall and the Sydney Opera House alongside international artists including Liza Minelli, Ray Charles, George Shearing and many others. He is regarded as one of the most experienced musical directors in the world.

Together they perform a large variety of numbers from musicals, through jazz, classical, TV themes, even opera. They not only follow a path through Gary’s musical history, as well as Mike’s personal history but display numbers from favourite composers. Number after number brought back memories and glimpses into shows we had not seen Gary in. Some of Mike’s repertoire was a little surprising, as I did not know he had anything to do with theme tunes. Mike is also a composer and has written for some of my heroes in particular the late great Sammy Davis junior which later lead to Gary performing one of my all time favourite swing number “Mr Bo Jangles” I must say his performance moved me to tears.

They have some writing experience together and Glenrothes being the first night of this 35 night tour, we were the first ever audiences to hear these collaborations performed. We were also treated to one number totally created by Mr Wilmot himself and I am delighted to say all of these songs were superb. Sadly though these gems are not yet recorded, or at least not available on CD at present.

This is a superb evenings entertainment provided by two gentlemen of British Musical Theatre and although Gary’s humour and comedy is well documented, Mike’s was somewhat surprising.

We met Gary after the show and he is as lovely as I remember from previous meetings, but as Mike requires a rest after the show we did not get to meet him to thank him for such a fabulous show.

See the show if you can for more information on Gary look up his website www.garywilmot.com.