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The first Scout Gang Show was performed in London during 1932. It was produced by Ralph Reader, a well known composer and choreographer of the day. He had become successful in America, producing shows on Broadway. When Ralph (an ex-Scout) was asked by the Scout Movement to produce a Scout Show he readily agreed. The style of the show was to be a revue containing songs, dancing and sketches and afterwards, the Daily Mail wrote, "The best revue in the West End". Gang Show was born. During the war years Ralph was asked to produce similar shows for the RAF to raise morale. Over the years, both the Scout and RAF Gang Shows have played a significant part of many early careers in show business - Tony Hancock, Dick Emery, Roy Hudd and Peter Sellers, to name but a few. Since then, Scout Gang Shows have snowballed all over the world. The Scouts and Guides of all nationalities produce high quality shows that provide first class entertainment. A platform for the youth of today enabling them to contribute to charity as well as their own funds. It was once said that "Every night of every year, somewhere in the world a Gang Show is playing". Sadly Ralph died in 1982, but he left us with a wealth of material which Gangs all over the world continue to use.
The first Christchurch Gang Show was presented at the Priory Church Hall in 1960. We moved to the old Town Hall in 1963 for our second show and played there annually until 1967. In 1966 Ralph Reader came to Christchurch to present us with our scarlet scarves bearing the coveted Gang Show emblem, an honour given to only those Gangs that uphold the high standards set by Ralph. In 1969 we moved to Twynham School where we played until 1995. In 1985 we celebrated our Silver Jubilee and decided to do 'something different'. After much discussion it was decided to take the entire show (including 75 cast and 75 back-stage crew) to our twin town of Aalen in West Germany for a week, to include one performance of the show. This was to take place immediately after our own show during Easter week. After clearing Twynham School during the early hours of the morning, the 14 stage sets, 750 costumes and a host of other equipment were loaded into a removal van. The Gang piled into two luxury double decker coaches and off we went! A wonderful reception awaited us and a fantastic, if tiring, time was had by all. Our German audience, numbering over 600 were superb and all our effort in translating various items into German (including one entire sketch) were not in vain!
The 1998 show included for the first time ever, girls from the local Guide Association and was the first Gang Show ever to hit the highlights on stage at the Regent Centre Theatre. With a cast of over 60, the Christchurch Gang Show was a great success and received rave reviews.