Carradine's Cockney Sing-A-Long

Carradine's Cockney Sing-A-Long comes to Wilton's Music Hall in Wapping on Monday 11 January, with the night starting at 7pm. It's a sing-a-long in the old-school sense: the lyrics are projected on the back wall, there's Union Jack bunting overhead, and the whole thing is built around the audience joining in. The songs run from the 1890s through to the 1950s, so it's a long stretch of music to pull from.

At the centre of it is Tom Carradine, a pianist and showman who lives in Tonbridge. He's born in Coventry and trained in biochemistry at Imperial College London, and he found music through his university's operatic society. From there he spent about eight years touring as a keyboard player in shows like Blood Brothers and Les Misérables. The sing-a-long format came later, when he was playing at a vintage festival at a Bedfordshire airfield, in an out-of-tune Nissen hut where he played hall and wartime songs to an appreciative crowd. The show took off from there.

He performs with his mobile piano, Kimberley, and turns up in vintage clothes that mix eras — a 1920s jacket and Edwardian spats. The result is an audience-participation knees-up of songs from the 1890s to the 1950s, with lyrics projected on the back wall and a flutter of Union Jack bunting overhead. It's been described as a 'deceptively simple, winning formula, brilliantly executed' and a 'terrific night out'.

Tickets are £9 to £18, and the night starts at 7pm on Monday 11 January at Wilton's Music Hall in Wapping.