OLD scout John Kirby became hooked when he first performed in the Oxford Gang Show in 1952 and says he will play a part until he is called to the "big campfire in the sky".

The amateur show, back then in the Clarendon Press Institute, Walton Street, only had about 40 people on stage with 20 or so backstage. But it has grown so much that there will be about 250 people on stage for the finale of the 20th show at the Apollo in George Street next week.

John, 63, of Yeats Close, Cowley, has been riding along on the Crest of a Wave - the traditional song found in every gang show - for the last 47 years either as an actor, writer or producer.

The gang show fanatic gave up scouting three years ago when he was group scout leader for 15th Oxford at Botley and is now the Isis District Secretary.

He is also the dedicated county scout archivist who started the Len Launchbury Museum, which is full of scouting memorabilia, four years ago at Youlbury Scout Camp, Boars Hill.

John, who is one of the producers in the 47th show this year, is also playing a small part at the end and has written the words for a song in it called 90 Years Ago which celebrates the scouting movement's 90th anniversary. He knows so much about gang shows that people call him and write to him from countries as far away as Australia and Canada.

He met Ralph Reader, the founder of the gang shows, when he and the late Oxford gang show producer, Bill Barnes, would go to London to ask his permission to make changes in the script. The museum has got a complete set of everything the former Broadway producer ever wrote for gang shows - some 1,400 items.

John said: "They say there's a gang show being performed every day of the year somewhere in the world. I think it's marvellous for the kids and adults. It's a great atmosphere and you make lots of friends. It's the only sort of inter-district activity there is.

"I will go on until they chuck me out or until the Lord calls me to the big campfire in the sky." It is a mammoth all-year round task to prepare and produce the gang show which is performed by Scouts, Guides, Cubs, Brownies and leaders from all over Oxfordshire - the ages of those taking part range from nine to 64. There is also a 16-piece orchestra and there are about 100 people working backstage on make-up, wardrobe, props, sound and lighting as well as the ushers.

Auditions took place in September and rehearsals started at the end of that month at Marston Middle School, Raymund Road.

They continued every week until everyone finally got together for the first full rehearsal last Sunday and the producers are already planning the show for 1999. Director Keith Tong, 42, first took part as a clown in 1966, the last time the show appeared at the Oxford Playhouse in Beaumont Street. He was then aged 11 and a cub with 43rd Oxford and is another one who caught the bug.

He has been the warden of Youlbury, the oldest scout camp in the world, for five years and the director of the gang show for four. His two sons, Barry, 20, and Darren, 16, who are both venture scouts, are both in the cast. He says backstage is 'absolute bedlam' with performers, most are in an average of seven items out of 18, rushing around getting changed as quickly as possible. The preparation is a lot of hard work but all his nerves are gone when the show starts its first night.

Keith said: "The feeling of achievement and satisfaction is tremendous. Building up from nothing a team of 350 people with one goal to put on the show is the nuts and bolts of it.

"It is a challenge and some days I do lose my temper but I have been told I'm too nice and they take advantage of me. My job is to make sure the overall balance is right.

The show runs from Monday to Saturday next week. Ticket prices range from £1 to £6. Children are half price. What's in the show SOME people like gang shows to follow a fairly set format, but at the Apollo this year there is a mixture of the traditional and the modern.

Director Keith Tong said: "Gang shows have the reputation of being amateurish which is something we are trying to get away from."

The Oxford Gang Show will feature songs from the hit musical, Les Miserables. A rendition of the theme tune from the TV programme Friends will open the show with Land of Hope and Glory finishing the first half.

The second half will begin with a song from the film Sister Act. It is an Oxford tradition to perform Birds of a Feather with Crest of a Wave together at the end.

The Oxford Gang Show was first performed in 1952 and is one of the longest-running in the country - this will be the 47th, and the 20th at the Apollo

The founder of the gang shows, Ralph Reader, a famous theatre impresario who died in 1982, came to see the Oxford show a number of times as a friend of the late producer Bill Barnes, who started them in the city

Gang shows were an all-male domain until 1968, so men used to dress up as women. In one show a man in a slinky black dress was so convincing that Reader complained to Barnes that there was a girl in the show

Traditional gang show songs include Crest of a Wave, Birds of a Feather, Highland Swing, Money and Friends, Strolling, Top of the Morning Feeling

The amateur Oxford show, which is entirely produced and performed by people in the scouting movement, will be watched by about 9,500 people during the course of next week

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