Grateful Tommy Cannon continues to be ‘rocking on’ for Bobby Ball

When Robbie Williams invited Tommy Cannon to deliver his household to his Manchester AO Arena present final October, the veteran comedy star had no concept what would occur subsequent.

“We were about 150 feet from the stage; Robbie walked over, seemed to look right at me and saluted,” Tommy tells me in that unmistakable Oldham accent.

“I said to my wife, ‘Was that for me?’

“Then, at the end, he said ‘I want to dedicate this show to a legend’. We’re all looking round for the legend and Robbie said, ‘Mr Tommy Cannon’ and 20,000 people started chanting ‘Tommy! Tommy!’

“I was in buckets; I’d never known anything like it.

READ MORE: Tommy Cannon pays tribute to right-hand man Bobby Ball

“Later Robbie whispered ‘I love you Tommy’ in my ear. That was a night I’ll never forget.”

Tommy, born Thomas Derbyshire, misplaced his comedy accomplice Bobby Ball to Covid-19 in October 2020. He was past devastated.

As much-loved double act Cannon & Ball, the ex-welders as soon as commanded TV audiences of twenty million. Tommy, who turns 85 in June, contemplated retirement.

“I didn’t know whether to say ‘That’s it’,” he tells me. “Then I thought of all the stories we had, and what we went through, and thought people would love to hear it – the ups, the downs. And I decided, I’ll do it for us, partners.”

He will carry out chosen dates on the Legends Of Variety tour, which kicks off in Bradford Alhambra subsequent month, adopted by his personal Rock On Tommy tour working from September into subsequent 12 months with anecdotes, clips, songs, tales and a Q&A section.

When Tommy began work on the store flooring of the Crane Fruehauf engineering manufacturing facility in Royton, fellow welder Robert Harper was the primary to speak to him.

Bob was performing as membership singer ‘Stevie Rhythm’ and invited his new pal to look at him sing at a working males’s membership. The Cannon & Ball story begins there. After briefly performing with a keyboardist, they grew to become the singing Sherrell Brothers, then The Harper Brothers.

Finally, Tommy took the stage identify Cannon from US rocker Freddy Cannon; the Ball naturally adopted.

Early working males’s membership gigs weren’t all the time pleasant. “We did the Dial House in Sheffield which had just had new curtains fitted. We were singing and every time we walked backwards the curtains would start to close, so we’d walk forward and they’d open.

“But when we walked back, they came in again. Afterwards, we complained to the club secretary and he said ‘Nowt wrong with our curtains, we were trying to get you off – you were crap’.”

Ouch. Tommy laughs. “You had to learn your craft and you learnt it quickly as possible.

“It was all men at lunchtime shows, working men – a lot of the lads were from the pits, a tough audience. If you were good, they came back at night and brought their wives. If you were paid off at lunchtime, that was it.”

The change to comedy was financially motivated. Getting paid at a Yorkshire social membership, they noticed the comic pocket £12 in comparison with their £3 every.

“He told us, ‘Do a little comedy and get paid more’. So that’s what we tried… and we died and got paid off.”

They’d auditioned for Hughie Green’s TV expertise present Opportunity Knocks as singers, however by the point they had been referred to as again for the 1969 collection they’d determined to provide comedy a go.

“We were rehearsing our spot and Mr Green – as you had to call him – asked what we were doing. We explained and he said, ‘But when you auditioned you were singing’. I said, ‘Yes, two years ago, this is what we do now’.

“He said ‘Be it on your own heads’, and we came last. He was very much in control.”

They stored at it. Early TV appearances on The Wheeltappers & Shunters Social Club showcased their pure comedian chemistry.

LWT boss Michael Grade pronounced them “sure-fire stars”. The Cannon & Ball Show ran from 1979 to ’88 with spinoff specials.

“Fifteen years of clubs and then our life changed… it took a long while but Bobby always had funny bones.”

Brace-twanging Ball and the “Rock on Tommy” catchphrase grew to become a part of widespread tradition, together with “piggin’” and “You little liar”.

In the summer season of 1985, their Blackpool summer season season put extra British bums on seats than Bruce Springsteen. Their 1988 pantomime broke London Palladium field workplace data.

They did Royal Commands, a Children’s Royal, and a Royal Albert Hall present for then Prince Charles.

“It was an absolute joy to go to work,” says Tommy. “The public treated us as part of the family. They didn’t use to say a right lot, they would give you a hug.

“It felt like the world was our oyster. Lordy. We had such a wonderful relationship with our audiences. It always felt like you were going on in your front room. And that were all over the country.”

At first, the South resisted. “Our Lancashire accents were so strong they couldn’t pick up what we were saying but that changed with TV.

“I remember one agent, a lady, saying to me ‘You didn’t do very well, Thomas, I think you need elocution lessons’. We laughed our heads off after she’d gone.

“Can you imagine me talking like this [adopts plummy, Downton Abbey accent] ‘Oh Robert, what are you doing?’.”

Tommy performed the strict straight-man foil to the disruptive comedian vitality of Bobby’s anarchic nitwit. It made him the unhealthy man.

“I used to literally throw Bob on stage – he had a hold-all he used to land on. The audience gasped, they thought I’d really hit him.

“When I got booed, Bobby would say ‘Tommy, that shows you’re doing your job’. I said, thanks for that Bob.”

But their knockabout stage act closed warmly with Tommy crooning The Wind Beneath My Wings and carrying sleeping Bobby offstage in his arms to standing ovations.

The duo went from £20-a-week manufacturing facility staff to nationwide fame and a swimming pools’ winner way of life – forking out on matching gold Rolls-Royces and cabin cruisers. Bobby purchased a Rochdale nightclub, Tommy snapped up Rochdale FC.

Bad instances ensued. Bobby later admitted that he misplaced himself in an orgy of alcohol-fuelled affairs. The two friends fell out so badly they barely exchanged a phrase off-stage for years.

Salvation got here via religion. Bobby was born once more in 1985; Tommy discovered Christianity seven years later however treats it as a personal matter.

As TV trend turned towards old-school comedy, they continued to tour efficiently, promoting out pantos and gospel exhibits.

More current memorable TV appearances embody Last Laugh In Vegas, Coach Trip and I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here. Bob performed Lee Mack’s father in Not Going Out.

Twice-married father-of-five Tommy lives close to York together with his second spouse Hazel, an ex-dancer, and is philosophical about fashionable TV comedy.

“Change is good if change is for the better,” he says reflectively, mentioning at the moment’s comedies are deemed profitable with two million viewers.

“I love Peter Kay, a great comic in the variety style,” he provides.

Lovers of that custom will take pleasure in his Legends Of Variety tour. “We did it a few years ago with the Krankies and Frank Carson and all the theatres sold out.”

This 12 months’s forged contains Billy Pearce, Bernie Clifton, Freddie Davies and the Grumbleweeds.

“We’re doing matinees for the elderly. It’s the comedy they grew up with. It’ll be lovely.”

Tommy’s final present with Bobby was at Blackpool’s Viva membership. “Bob said he wasn’t feeling too special and within two weeks he’d passed away. An unbelievable shock.

“I visited him in hospital on the Monday and thought he’d be all right. He had six nurses around his bed. He said ‘These nurses want to wave to you’. That was the last time I spoke to him.”

He pauses and provides. “I’ll never forget Bob. I’ll always miss him but time doesn’t stand still for anybody.

“You’ve got to move on.”