Paul Daniels' Wolverhampton variety show cancelled after ticket flop

Sep 26 2010 by Paul Suart, Sunday Mercury

Promoters of a tour featuring Paul Daniels have been forced to cancel their big Midland show – because of poor ticket sales.

The Best of British Variety Tour boasted magician Paul Daniels, comedy duo The Krankies, The Grumbleweeds group, funnyman Syd Little and Eurovision winner Dana.

To quote the Irish songbird’s winning entry, the concert was going to feature ‘all kinds of everything’.

Instead it only lived up to half of Paul Daniels’ famous TV catchphrase: “You’ll like it, not a lot, but you’ll like it.”

Fans were asked to cough up £26.50 a ticket for the show, presented by Tony Denton Promotions.

But so paltry were sales that Sunday night’s show was first moved from the 2,200-seater Wolverhampton Civic Hall to its smaller sister venue, the Wulfrun Hall, so the place would not look so deserted.

It soon became clear that the showbiz veterans could not fill the 1,130-capacity venue either, and the event was cancelled altogether, with organisers blaming lack of interest. Rumours had circulated that the show had been threatened by fears headliner Daniels would not be available after signing up to the new series of Strictly Come Dancing.

But last night a spokesman came clean. “I’ve spoken to the promoters and it all boils down to the fact that sales were not great,” she said.

“It was a cost decision and was nothing to do with Paul’s appearance on Strictly Come Dancing.”

Tickets are still available for the remaining shows, which are staged in Huddersfield tomorrow and Buxton, Derbyshire, on Tuesday.

No other dates on the tour, hosted by 2007 I’m A Celebrity winner Christopher Biggins, have been cancelled.