Last Updated on February 6, 2026
Musical nostalgia on steroids as this crowd-pleasing standby embarks on a 40th anniversary tour
3.0 out of 5.0 starsCast your mind back forty years to 1986 and I’m sure you’ll agree that the world was a very different place. The Berlin wall (and the USSR) had not yet fallen; smartphones did not exist; Margaret Thatcher was still Prime minister; and we were all watching movies on VHS. But in a world of constant change, once in a while you will encounter an anomaly that seems improbably resilient in the face of the winds of change. Trevor Payne’s That’ll Be The Day is such an anomaly: a musical retrospective variety show which has survived in broadly the same form for an astonishing forty years.
Trevor Payne started his career like many other youngsters in the late 1950s in a band called Medium Wave Band which won a TV talent show and became popular on the UK cabaret circuit. From there he founded a musical variety act called Fizzical and eventually created That’ll Be The Day (TBTD) in 1986, an amalgamation of music and comedy sketches, which initially ran as a purely seasonal show at British holiday resorts and clubs in the mid to late 1980s. The show’s popularity won it a regular weekly slot at Butlins in Minehead and eventually it became a year-round show. In the mid 1990s it became established as a theatre production relentlessly touring the country and has remained so ever since. It is estimated the show was running over 200 performances a year in the years leading up to the Covid 19 lockdown, which is impressive given that its writer, director and producer Trevor also performs in the show – despite now being almost 80.
Obviously a production that has run for this length of time has built connections that resemble a family. Central to the cast is the interplay between Trevor (who doubles as vocalist and narrator/compere) and the second longest serving cast member Gary Anderson who joined the cast 30 years ago on a one month trial… and never left. On lead guitar is the impressive Ollie Gray, the son of one of the original cast members, who joined 20 years ago and worked his way through various jobs in the crew before graduating to lead guitarist. One of the two talented female lead vocalists is US-born Nikki Renee Hechavarria who was part of the London Lion King cast and joined the TBTD cast 14 years ago. Drummer Mark Street has also been with the cast for over 20 years and backing singer Jodie Lawson for 18 – you get my drift. It’s not just a show, it’s family. Add to this the fact that the cast have raised over £1 million for various charities over the years with collections after each show and you have something that is clearly nudging National Treasure status in some circles.
This week TBTD returned for one night only to the London Palladium theatre, a stage they last played on in 2016 for their 30th anniversary tour. The stage is simple and entirely filled by the band, which is extensive: drums, piano, 3 guitarists, a percussion section with bongos, a flute player, and a number of backing vocalists. The main devices to enliven the fairly static stage are the excellent and dynamic lighting design, and a large screen behind the band which is used for a number of audiovisual sequences during the evening (all created by the multi-talented bass guitarist Jarrod Loughlin). These sequences are very effective at scene setting and especially the opening sequence prepares the audience for an evening’s deep dive into nostalgia. It’s also useful for interludes like the Jukebox Jury recreation (a TV show that aired in the UK in the 1960s allowing studio audiences to vote “hit” or “miss” on a track) which provides a useful framework the cast to play a number of songs from a similar era.
After the cleverly done opening audiovisual montage where the decades literally roll back on screen accompanied by images from each era and snippets of contemporary songs, Trevor steps on stage to enthusiastic applause. Things may have been more muted in the upper balcony but the stalls were ready to party. “Does anyone remember 1960?” he asks and there is a ripple of excited bobbing heads in fifty shades of gray. Trevor knows his target audience and homes in on them unswervingly. And then we dive headlong into the music.
The show covers the full gamut from the early rock ‘n roll rhythms of the ‘50s through the birth of Britpop 1.0 (the Beatles), rock, a bit of psychedelia (The Beach Boys’ Good Vibrations) to some solid 80s anthems. It’s not wrong to say that the show provides a joyous journey through the songs and artists that have defined the history of popular music. The show includes around 60 nostalgic hits that are played either in their entirety or as part of medleys. The challenge comes in the form of cohesion: in the absence of a plot or characters, how does one make a covers band gig into a show? Unsurprisingly, given the show’s genesis, this is done by interspersing the music with either video clips like Jukebox Jury, or artist montages, or (more problematically) comedy sketches both live on stage and pre-recorded on screen. This was, for me, the weakest part of the show. The closest I can get to a description without spoilers is that it is like being trapped in a cross between panto and an endless Carry On film. The humour is of the “oo-er, missus, whoopsie daisy!” variety with Gary dressing as a woman for some segments; and Trevor doing an exaggerated and cringe-inducing impersonation of Mick Jagger (which I am told has become an integral part of the show). Ditto the jokes – there is one about the modern birds and the bees, bees now wanting to be birds, birds with stingers etc etc, that made me positively squirm. But I am guessing I am not the target demographic: below us in the stalls, they were rolling in the aisles by the sound of it.
Things fare better musically though. The band is truly outstanding – a tight, world class outfit where a couple of the members are multi-instrumentalists and produce some terrific vocals to boot. Drummer Mark steps out from behind his kit to demonstrate a cracking falsetto for Walk Like a Man and Sugar Baby Love, both of which were show highlights for me. Vocal harmonies are also a strong point and everyone seemed in particularly good form with note-perfect Beatles covers. Elsewhere there was an outstanding Eagles cover of Take it Easy; a glorious version of The Marcels’ doo-wop take on Blue Moon that reminded me of the nostalgia-fest Happy Days TV show; and a hippie-tastic cover of The Beach Boys’ Good Vibrations. The two female lead vocalists (Nikki Hechevarria and Lotty Anderson) were both standouts with very different vocal styles, each perfectly suited to the their solo songs. Lotty’s slightly husky tone and spunky stage presence was perfect for her renditions of Dusty Springfield, Madonna and Blondie’s Sunday Girl as she strutted about in a red mini and boots. But it was Nikki whose voice impressed the most with its tone and power, effortlessly coping with the smooth elegance of Diana Ross as well as being a dead ringer (both the vocals and the stage-owning strut!) for Tina Turner as she belted out Simply the Best.
Trevor has said in interviews that each singer in the show gets to sing the songs that suit their voice best and this was largely the case with Gary. He has a particular vocal range and performs solidly in it, making up in humour and stage presence for any shortcomings. His takes on Tom Jones and Roy Orbison are spot on, and the impression is only enhanced by good costume choices. I found his Elvis to be less convincing but to be fair, most people lack the voice to cover his velvety tones. But visually, Gary gave it a good crack. The weakest link vocally is (unfortunately) Trevor. I imagine he once had a lovely voice (a baritone I am guessing?) but at nearly 80 it isn’t what is used to be and although this matters less where he is singing in a group, it is pretty painfully apparent in his solo numbers. The second half of the show kicked off with a recorded message from Sir Cliff Richard himself followed by Trevor’s truly awful cover of We don’t talk anymore. As the final notes faded, even Trevor himself ruefully muttered: “well, Cliff Richard is bloody hard to cover”. This was followed by an odd, seemingly unrehearsed rambling monologue about guitars, rather like the uncle at the wedding who has had one too many sherries and taken over the mic. (The rambling story did, however, yield some charming images of a young guitarist Ollie clutching a guitar as a foreshadowing of his future career.) Things fared little better with Trevor’s Rolling Stones covers, with the exception being a serviceable rendition of Satisfaction. But he was vocally on surer footing again as he duetted with Lotty on the lovely You don’t bring me flowers. It feels a little churlish to criticise his performance as: a) he is by a fair margin the oldest person on stage; and b) this has clearly been a lifelong passion project for him. But the risk of being surrounded by a crew of such excellent vocalists is that any vocal flaws are magnified.
Still, it was a feel-good fest as the entire band came on stage, together with children who have benefited from the Make A Wish Foundation and BGT star Tom Ball, to sing the TBTD charity single which they recorded in 2018. Trevor also handed over a cheque on stage to the charity for half a million pounds. The show finishes with a few good singalong numbers including Pretty Woman, Sweet Caroline, and a finale of That’ll be the Day (obviously!) complete with pyrotechnics, bubble cannons and giant balloons. The stalls were in raptures. Like I said, Trevor knows who the target audience is and the show is reliably bang on target – and I am aware that the target isn’t me. That said, if musical nostalgia from a bunch of excellent musicians is your thing, and you want a straight up jukebox rather than a musical where songs are shoehorned into an unlikely plot, then make sure you catch That’ll be the Day on Trevor’s swan song national anniversary tour this year.
That’ll Be The Day will be on tour throughout the UK from now until Autumn 2026 – book tickets here.
The London Palladium
8 Argyll St
London
W1F 7TF
Tel. 020 3925 2998
Box office
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