Dave Benson Phillips takes his online sing-along show into live venue
Worthing-based TV presenter and entertainer Dave Benson Phillips is back on the stage for a sing-along music show on Saturday, February 21 at The Ropetackle Centre in Shoreham at 1.30pm.
Dave is bringing his YouTube show SING WITH ME, DBP! to a live audience for the first time, and he is hoping that if things go well, the show will develop considerably from here. The dream would be for it to tour.
Dave started SING WITH ME during Covid to give parents some free content to enjoy with their children. He now offers it as a one-man sing-along music show for families with young children and for people young and old who love to sing.
“I haven't done a solo children’s show since 2013. I've done a lot since then. I've done panto and various things and TV for other shows but this will be my first solo show for children for a long time and the fact that I'm doing it up the road in Shoreham is a coup.
“It began online. The whole world was affected by Covid and by the lockdowns especially. I realised that I didn't have much to do and it was driving me slightly mad. As an entertainer you need people to entertain, and in the lockdowns you couldn't entertain anybody. People were staying in or they were just able to go out for a short walk but then a friend of mine contacted me. She has a daughter with special needs and she said one of the things that she used to do when her daughter couldn't get into venues was to do something on something called zoom. I'd never heard of zoom before then, like most people in the world, but she gave me a tour and we did some music sessions. It started like that. She would get children together and I used to sing to the children.
“I did some more of them. It was just me and a guitar and I literally just used to sing to the children and any adults that were there who wanted to listen and the whole thing just snowballed. All of a sudden I was doing lots of shows like this online for children and it was going international. I got to the point where the shows were being watched from all sorts of other countries.”
Now for the first time Dave is doing the show live in a venue: “Some of it is educational but really it is just a lot of fun. There is no real science behind it. The emphasis is on the fun. It is just me and a bunch of children and a bunch of adults and a guitar and my delusions of adequacy!
“It is aimed at children under six but I've been entertaining children for a long, long time and I'm kind of multi-generational! There will be grandparents there who remember me and their children will remember me as well – and also there will be the children who are children now.
“I would love to expand this. I would love to do more of this show and I'd love it to tour. I used to love touring. I'm one of those performers that loves to tour. Like all things this is a try-out and I'm really excited about it. I truly am and the thought that it might tour would just be fabulous.”
Tickets are available for SING WITH ME – DBP from the Ropetackle Centre in Shoreham (£9 and £11).