Autobiography?

Apparently Jodie is set to release her autobiography next month, at the grand old age of 29.

I don't know about anyone else but I reckon Rachel's autobiography would be an excellent read. And if she needs a ghost writer....

Rachel at the Spirit of NI Awards

Rachel was one of the celebrity guests at the 'Spirit of Northern Ireland' Award ceremony, held in Belfast's Ramada Hotel on January 20th.

Also present at the event were Niamh and Ruth Lorenzo.

Needless to say your intrepid blogger wanted to be there, but at £50 a head, January funds couldn't quite stretch, particularly since his wife and daughter wanted to go too.



The good news though is that the good people at the 'Sunday Life' paper did a great job of covering the event and snapped some excellent pictures. Thanks guys!





The awards ceremony was for Northern Ireland's 'unsung heroes' and pictured here with Rachel and Niamh is the overall winner Billy McCrory. Billy, who's 'Shine A Light' charity does incredibly good work with young local cancer sufferers, was presented with a car, which he promptly put up for auction in aid of his charity. It's people like Billy who make the world a better place and the photo here of Niamh and Rachel congratulating him on his win says it all.




Rachel and Niamh are pictured here with award nominee Jo Murphy.

You can watch a video report on the event by clicking on the link below. There is a very short interview with Rachel right at the end.

SPIRIT OF NI AWARDS

There were performances on the night from Signature, those amazing guys from 'Britain's Got Talent' and of course Ruth Lorenzo who performed five numbers, including 'Purple Rain' and 'Always.' I'd like to thank the Sunday Life reporter who apparently thinks 'Knocking on Heaven's Door' was written by Led Zeppelin. Best laugh I've had in ages. I just hope Bob Dylan isn't a regular reader.

Last Chance to Vote!

The 'Whats On Stage' poll closes on 31st January, with the awards ceremony being held on 15th February.
If you haven't already voted or if you can vote from a different ISP, follow the link below:

VOTE FOR RACHEL

Rachel is in the 11th category from the top ('Best Takeover in a Role').

It isn't possible to see the state of the voting any more, but Rachel was running fourth the last time I looked, so she really needs as many votes as you can manage.

There are still tickets available for the awards ceremony, and if anyone is going, please let us know. Amongst other performers will be Jodie Prenger, Sam Barks and Sarah Lark, so it will be a great night.

When Rosie Met Kerry!

OK so it's slow news month on the Rachel blog, so I thought it would be nice to feature this great pic taken last night of Kerry Ellis and Rosie.

There is of course a tenuous link with Rachel, as Kerry was the original Meat in WWRY and also oversaw the 'Wicked' task during IDA, when she was highly complimentary of Rachel.

Rosie was lucky enough not only to see Kerry and Dianne Pilkington in 'Wicked' last night, but also managed to meet them both afterwards for the first time.

Understandably she's well chuffed and let's be honest, we're well jealous!

Gallery Update

I have added a few screencaps from the 'Oliver' opening night video interview - see post below - to the gallery.

RACHEL TUCKER GALLERY

Obviously because the size of that video is so small and Rachel is having such a great time dancing around, taking clear shots was pretty difficult. In the end I managed to get 5 that I thought were worth posting.

Rachel at the Oliver Opening Night

By all accounts last night's official opening of 'Oliver' was a huge success and we want to congratulate Jodie and the rest of the cast.

As a little bonus, we have some (very brief) footage of Rachel from last night.
Click on the link below -- about halfway down the page a little video will start playing.

OLIVER OPENING NIGHT

At 1 minute 16 (how sad are we!) Rachel and Niamh appear and disrupt Sarah's lovely interview! It's a genuine ROFL moment.
And at 3 minutes 40 Rachel does a little vox pop.

Great to see the girls had such a brilliant time.

Top photo courtesy of Epcot from the Internet Forum.

IDA The Video Game?

Not sure if anyone thinks this is a good idea or not?

Andrew Lloyd-Webber plans videogames projects
Musicals by famed composer Andrew Lloyd-Webber could see videogame adaptations hitting consoles.

Phantom of the Opera and Cats are just two among many of Webber's successful projects and, following the growth of the karaoke games such as Sony's SingStar and Lips for the Xbox 360, his entertainment company, Really Useful Group, is said to be in talks with multiple publishers, according to paidContent:UK.

The titles are rumoured to allow gamers to substitute any character in the featured musicals and could involve some form of audition game akin to the talent show component of Webber's BBC programme I'd Do Anything.

"With the video gaming audience having moved from its male-dominated roots towards a more family-oriented demographic, now is the perfect time for us to take some of the best-known names in musical entertainment in a more interactive direction," said Really Useful Group's digital director Douglas Glen.

'Oliver' Press Night

Tonight is press night for 'Oliver' and rumour has it that more than one Nancy may be attending! Watch this space.

We'd like to wish Jodie and the rest of the cast all the very best for the performance, and if like us you won't be able to go tonight, here's a little taster in the form of a BBC interview with Jodie, complete with some stage shots.

If anyone is lucky enough to be there tonight, we'd love to hear from you.

Watch Jodie's interview by clicking here:

JODIE BBC INTERVIEW

We Have a Winner!

Our competition play off poll has ended and it's finally time to announce the winner of that fantastic signed WWRY song book me and David picked up at Scaramouche night way back on November 15th.

We decided on the play off when Emily and Lois were both equally close to predicting the results of our original 'Favourite Queen Songs' poll.

This time we asked them to guess whether Rachel's fans prefer the role of Meat or Scaramouche and how many votes each would get.

Yet again there was very little to choose and at one point I was beginning to think we were going to have another draw. However a few votes on the final day meant we do now have a winner.

FINAL SPOLL STANDINGS
(39) MEAT
(19) SCARAMOUCHE

EMILY
(40) MEAT
(25) SCARAMOUCHE
(07) PREDICTION SCORE

LOIS
(22) MEAT
(18) SCARAMOUCHE
(19) PREDICTION SCORE

As you can see Lois was only 1 away from guessing the amount of votes Scaramouche would receive but was 18 away from accurately predicting Meat's. That gave her an overall difference of 19.

Emily was only 1 away from guessing the amount of votes Meat would receive and was only 6 away from predicting Scaramouche's too. That gave her an overall difference of 7 and therefore makes her our winner.

Congratulations Emily, your signed songbook will be with you shortly.

DAVID SAYS: Congratulations Emily -- can you email me your address please on dlar193076@aol.com

Brian May at WWRY + Another Milestone!

It was an exciting day for WWRY fans yesterday as Queen's Brian May made a special appearance. He performed a solo during 'Bohemian Rhapsody', gave a short speech and spent ages at the stage door making sure everyone got autographs.
Unfortunately Rachel was off on holiday yesterday (would have been a great photo op).
If anyone has any pics, please let us know.

I went to see 'Flash Harry', the Queen Tribute band in Belfast's Odyssey arena last night. They were backed by the Ulster Orchestra, a full choir and even featured an opera diva during 'Barcelona.' Not bad at all, but to be honest, nothing can compare to WWRY, and although they didn't perform 'No-One But You', Rachel's version of 'Somebody to Love' knocked them right out of the ball park.

Our blog has passed yet another major milestone today -- 60 000 hits! I've run out of things to say on these occasions, so I'll just quote this comment a WWRY fan recently left on the WWRY Facebook Group. 'Rachel Tucker -- the nicest person in the world.'

WWRY News

Article from the London Theatre Breaks site -- note positive Rachel mention!

We Will Rock You New Year Record Breaker

We Will Rock You has already turned 2009 into a record breaking New Year. It achieved the highest number of paid admissions in one week for any West End show last year. More than 20,000 tickets were bought in the six days following the 29th of December.

Brian May to Appear in We Will Rock You!
Brian May, one of the co-creators of We Will Rock You will be visiting the show on Saturday the 10th of January. On his site brianmay.com May says:

‘I usually try to keep it casual, because really it’s all about me bonding with the cast and band and crew, and sharing a little bit of their load … but I always get stick from people saying “You didn’t tell us you were going to be there!” So this time, I’ll say it quietly but clearly … I WILL be there Saturday 10th, and I will be making a small appearance (or is it “apparition”?) in the matinee and evening shows. It’s not an advertised part of the show - it’s just a fun bonus, which happens about once a year … but it’s always a blast. It will be doubly exciting this time, since the last time I tried it, the lift got stuck, and I ended up in a very dark smoky cage under the stage for the whole of the solo in Bohemian Rhapsody. So we will be trying not to repeat that effect !!!’ ‘This Saturday is WWRY Party day … we will be celebrating between shows, and afterwards, entering our 8th year of Rocking London in 2009, with The Greatest Show In Town !!! See ya there … let’s rock into the New Year.’

Wish I had tickets for tomorrow’s show!! We had a real blast when we went to see We Will Rock You last year. It’s definitely on my list to re-visit. Ideally I’d like to see Rachel Tucker’s occasional Scaramouche but seeing Brian May in the production would be good too!

We Will Rock You Special Offer
It’s worth mentioning that there are some very special offers available at the moment for We Will Rock You theatre breaks, with a free hotel included in the £60 per person ticket price for weekday performances between now and 26 March 2009.

For details of the free hotel offer, click on the link below:

FREE HOTEL OFFER

Last 2 Days for Voting

Our competition poll is drawings to a close and it's still not clear whether it's going to be Emily or Lois who ends up winning that fantastic signed WWRY song book.

I can reveal that they both predicted Meat would finish first and as that now looks almost certain it will come down to who was closest to predicting the votes to decide the winner.

This will work as follows:

PREDICTION
1ST MEAT (40)
2ND SCARAMOUCHE (30)

ACTUAL RESULT
1ST MEAT (45)
2ND SCARAMOUCHE (20)

The above prediction would give you a score of 15 (5 Out on Meat & 10 Out on Scaramouche) and it will be the person with the lowest score - smallest difference - who ends up victorious.

If you haven't yet voted then please do so because although the poll result looks a forgone conclusion the winner of our competition certainly isn't.

Whatsonstage Awards Update

As we mentioned last month, Rachel has been nominated in the 'Best Takeover in a Role' category of the Whatsonstage.com awards.

If you haven't already voted, you can do so by clicking the link below. One vote per ISP address. Rachel is in the eleventh category from the top.

VOTE FOR RACHEL

Further details have been released of the winners concert, and several of the performers look rather familiar!

Voting in the ninth annual Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers' Choice Awards continues until 31 January ahead of the Winners' Concert, which will be held on Sunday 15 February at the West End's Prince of Wales theatre. Amongst the starry line-up of performers for that event are: Elena Roger, Jodie Prenger, Samantha Barks, Sarah Lark, Leila Benn Harris, Suranne Jones, Julie Atherton, Jimmy Johnston and the stars of Jersey Boys and Spring Awakening.

To book your tickets for what looks like being a fantastic evening, click on the link below:

WINNERS CONCERT TICKETS

It's unlikely any of us bloggers will be able to go (though never say never where Rosie and the West End are concerned!) but if anyone is lucky enough to be going, please send us your review and/or any photos you might be able to take.

Digital Spy Awards

This really must be the most democratic blog on the web, as we're asking you to vote again!

This time Rachel has been nominated in the 'Favourite Reality Contestant' category on the Digital Spy site. She is on page two of the 13 page survey, so you know what to do!

To vote click here:

DIGITAL SPY AWARDS

Thanks to Katie for spotting this.

Just in case you'd forgotten how brilliant our girl was on IDA, here are a few memories courtesy of Andy.

Rachel is having a well-deserved holiday abroad this week. Have a great time guys!

West End Whingers 'Oliver' Review

Lest we forget, IDA was all about winning the role of Nancy. Only one person could achieve this of course, so the trick for the rest was to make as good an impression on the public and the theatre world as possible.
Some didn't quite manage this, but I think it's fair to say that the final five at the very least did, and have all done very well since.

Our own Rachel has, in my humble opinion, achieved infinitely more by not winning than she would if she 'had been Nancy.' Her career has gone into orbit, with PAs, Proms and Hyde Park appearances, job offers and West End stardom and acclaim.

So what of the recently opened 'Oliver'? A few weeks ago we featured the story of the cancelled preview shows. Since then we've been waiting for a reasonably definitive review. I've finally found one in the shape of the 'West End Whingers', who provide a witty and honest account.

I'll let you draw your own conclusions but let's just say Rachel is doing very well where she is thank you.

Full review here:

OLIVER REVIEW

Just to balance it up, here's a nice review from 'Show & Stay':

SHOW AND STAY REVIEW

Weakest Link Pictures

Just a quick note to let you know that I've added 10 pictures of Rachel from last nights Weakest Link to the gallery.

Sorry about the floating cursor. My desktop PC died last week so I am currently using my laptop and had to download a new screen recorder program. I'm sure there must be an option to ask it not to copy the cursor but as you will see I forgot to check before taking these shots. Thankfully it doesn't affect them too much.

THE GALLERY

Welcome To 2009!

First of all, I want to say a huge thank you to Andy, who has come up trumps yet again by posting all of Rachel's Weakest Link footage on the blog for posterity.

I was pleased that Rachel was on for slightly longer than I'd expected. Her early exit certainly wasn't unanimous (names have been noted lol) and certainly wasn't fair either.

Rachel -- if it's any consolation, I asked a certain wife of mine the question you passed on and she got it wrong!
Rachel also answered her second question correctly AND banked £5000, which is something I've never managed to do, so she should have stayed a lot longer.

But never mind, she managed to rally the stunned audience with a stirring version of WWRY and also slipped Anne a small explosive device whilst leaving. This may have been a WWRY toothbrush.

It was great to see Rachel on TV again, and I'd personally like to see an IDA Weakest Link, or failing that, Rachel and her family on 'Celebrity Family Fortunes.' If either happens, you read it here first.

A big thanks to everyone who has sent in their review of 2008 -- Jess' review has just been added. Jess, though a major IDA fan, has the slight geographical disadvantage of living in Massachussetts. However that hasn't stopped her being a regular reader & commenter, and above all, making some incredibly memorable and professional fan videos, including of course 'Dare you to Move' -- the definitive Rachel video.

We also have a review from Jo, who was at both opening night and Scaramouche night. If anyone else would like to contribute, please email me.

And for the ultimate review, hop over to Jessie's Blog, where Katie has surpassed herself with a brilliant 2008 round-up of all things Jessie!

We ended the year with over 58000 hits and 300 posts -- not bad eh?


So onwards and upwards for 2009. Rachel is of course scheduled to continue in WWRY until the late summer, and many of you will be going to see her at least once in that time. As always, your reviews, comments and photos will be very welcome.

Andy, Chris and I will be going on 9th March and we can get a good deal on tickets for anyone else attending that night. Just drop us an email.

No doubt Rachel will have plenty more adventures in 2009, not least a certain wedding in September, and we'll be here to keep you up to date.

In the meantime, don't forget to vote in our 'Meat / Scaramouche' poll and also the 'Whatsonstage' poll (more of which to come).

Happy New Year Everyone!