John Virgo - 27/05/05
MEMORIES from 30 years of the Embassy World Snooker Championships and a lifetime in the on the green baize are coming to a city theatre.
MEMORIES from 30 years of the Embassy World Snooker Championships and a lifetime in the on the green baize are coming to a city theatre.An Evening With John Virgo and Friends is at the Broadway Theatre, in Peterborough, next Friday (3).
The eponymous star spoke to The Guide from his Surrey home about the show, the game and how Steve Davis changed it for everyone.
John Virgo's voice is unmistakeable now from his commentary of the snooker matches at Sheffield's Crucible, and his droll delivery when you speak to him is both thoughtful and funny.
He was still in recovery from a charity golf week with Henry Cooper, which he confessed had been hard on the elbow.
But he was looking forward to coming to Peterborough after a successful first show alongside fellow snooker player Willie Thorne in Epsom.
He said: "There is no snooker table there, it is more about anecdotes from myself and Willie.
"The first half is anecdotes with a few back projections showing a few funny things from our careers.
"Then there is a second half with questions and answers from the audience, we put out a few slips of paper so people can ask questions."
The show was inspired by similar sporting shows, usually involving footballers like George Best.
John said: "I still believe snooker is very popular, looking at the viewing figures proves that.
"It is nice to be able to do this in the surroundings of a theatre with a nice atmosphere."
Young John, the son of a Salford docker, started his snooker career playing at a local club.
He said: "I had been in it about three months, the manager had been giving me a bit of tuition. He entered me into a boys championship and within three or four months I became the Boys Champion of Great Britain."
It took John 14 years to turn professional as in the early days of the game there was no money to be made in it.
John said: "In the early days when the game started there were a couple of tournaments but the bread and butter for most of the players was the exhibition circuit.
"They were doing holiday camps and things because there wasn't as much money. Players were trying to sell the game to the public and make it appealing."
That early period was when a lot of snookers most famous characters, like Alex Hurricane Higgins, reigned supreme.
John finally joined the professional ranks in 1976 and became UK Champion three years later, beating the likes of Tony Meo, Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor to the title.
But the game changed with Steve Davis's run of form in the 1980s.
John said: "You start playing a game because you love it, when it becomes your livelihood then it can get on top of you. That said I had some great times and travelled around the world.
"If it wasn't for Steve Davis winning all the tournaments in the 1980s I probably would have enjoyed it a bit better. He changed the game.
"Prior to him players hadn't taken it that seriously, they were serious in the fact that they wanted to win but they used to have a few drinks after the game.
"Steve Davis came along and he was a real dedicated player - probably the first. Since then because of the consistent results he had over those years he brought a new type of snooker player that was very serious and focused."
He pointed out that the game was always changing, and was in fact coming to the end of a 30-year era in 2005 with the end of the Embassy World Snooker Championship, after new rules about tobacco advertising.
His career has changed too over the years after a bit of clowning about led to his literal Big Break on television.
He said: "I used to do impressions of other snooker players in my local snooker club. I was doing a charity evening one night and drew the short straw as when I got on everyone had done every trick shot known to man.
"I decided to do impressions instead. I did them again at the World Championships one year when the sessions finished early, and the BBC obviously remembered this as they approached me to do Big Break."
The snooker quiz show, which was hosted by Jim Davidson with John Virgo as the referee, trick-shot master and wearer of appallingly tasteless waistcoats, ran for 11 years.
John said: "It was the chemistry between the two of us that worked so well, we had a great time. I will be sharing some of the incidents when we do the stage show."
The show is also providing some valuable back-up for another project John is working on at the moment - his autobiography.
He said: "This is giving me material that I had forgotten, the show allows me to go back."
An Evening With John Virgo and Friends is at the Broadway Theatre, in Broadway, Peterborough, at 7.30pm. Tickets cost 15 and are available from the box office on 01733 316100 or online from www.thebroadwaytheatre.co.uk
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