Hervey minstrel still gigging

Those who remember Julian Pellatt in Hervey from 1969 to 1973 may recall him being just a tad musical. Well nothing has changed, except now he can be found gigging with the Helsby Mountain String Band. Here’s one of their latest uploads to their YouTube Channel – that’s Julian on the ukulele.

None of us should be surprised by this. In 1970, the Falcon Magazine reported on the school’s performance of Twelfth Night and said about Julian:

The star of the play was undoubtedly A. J. Pellatt, who played the part of Feste, the clown. He held the whole play together and has one of the best singing voices we have heard at Falcon for a long time. He acted quite unselfconsciously and avoided overacting.

…and that was not just a one-off either. He won Citations for Acting in 1972 (as KoKo in The Mikado) and 1973 (as Berenger in Rhinoceros) and his role as Hervey choirmaster resulted in Hervey winning the Inter-House Singing Competition in both 1972 and 1973. Again, The Falcon Magazine waxed lyrical:

The honours this year went again to Hervey, whose well turned out and well trained choir was still fortunate enough to be coached by Pellatt. His clever arrangement and the confidence and enjoyment shown by his singers in their rendering of attractive music usually sung by Cat Stevens and Donovan, immediately appealed to both the adjudicator and the audience alike.