When the curtain rang down on the last night of the final London Gang show in October 1974, a Scouting era ended. Although Gang Shows were still staged annually by local Scouts (such as the St. Helens gang Show). The London Gang Show began in 1932 and made its way into not only Scouting history but Theatre history and was the brainchild of an anonymous 'Holborn Rover' who was later revealed to be the late great Ralph Reader.

Ralph was already well known as leading director and his 1932 production ran for three nights at London's Scala Theatre and subsequently to bigger theatres in future years. Ralph not only produced but wrote the scenarios for the shows, over 300 sketches and 400 songs including his most famous - 'Crest of a Wave' (You can hear the St. Helens recording of this from 2003 in the Live and Loud section).

As the show progressed through royal command performances, royal visits, international acclaim, TV features, radio features and worked its way through over 600 costumes in 1974 the final London gang show was performed and Ralph now CBE had decided at the age of 71 it was better to finish on a high.

Ralph gave his vast store of material for the use of the Scouts of the world for all time and while the content may have changed slightly one thing is certain - there will always be a place in Scout Shows for the sketches and songs of Ralph Reader CBE.

The first St. Helens Gang Show to be held at the Theatre royal was in 1964, although there were a couple of earlier shows at the old Pilkington Theatre in Alexandra Drive, and the Methodist Church in Ormskirk Street. The name of the show was changed in 1997 to"Scoutaround" and the format modified slightly. Through all the changes one member of the "Gang" has appeared in all those early shows in fact he has appeared in every St. Helens Gang Show so congratulations to Les.

Our Chairperson of the Production Team, Mrs. Joyce Wailing has also been involved in every show and although no longer performing she can always be found in the Theatre on show nights.

Surprisingly up until three years ago our title was only the St. Helens Scout Gang Show as 2004 will only be the 6th time that Guides, Brownies, Rangers and all other members of the Guide movement have taken part and I'm sure you will agree that the young ladies of the cast have made the Gang Show more colourful.

In 2004, St. Helens celebrated 40 years of Gang Shows at the Theatre Royal, it was quite interesting that the show had to be delayed for two weeks due to the first refurbishment on the Theatre since Gang show took to the stage in 1964.

2005 was an extra special year for St. Helens Gang Show as we were assessed and successfully awarded national recognition.