FEW things in life are more satisfying than attending a concert where all the songs are familiar. 

Hexham Amateur Stage Society's Encore! at the Queen's Hall, was just that, taking the audience on a journey through popular songs from the stage, screen and film from the past 100 years. 

HASS were onto a winner with sing-a-long classics such as I Will Survive, Oh Pretty Woman, Let's Face the Music and Dance, and Son of a Preacher Man.

But this was no disco, it was a carefully packaged selection box of songs synonymous with films and musicals from Forest Gump to West Side Story. 

HASS stalwart Albert Simpson has performed a multitude of roles over the decades, and he was a star performer once again. 

Starring alongside Judith Elliott during the opening Andrew Lloyd Webber in Concert, the pair set the tone for what was to follow. 

And the society's chairman later received rapturous applause for his outstanding portrayal of Matt Monro's Born Free.

A Katy Burke led ladies group turned up the volume with a powerful rendition of I Will Survive, while teenage star Joseph Lynch combined telepathically with Steve Mobbs for Well Did You Evah from the 1939 musical DuBarry Was a Lady.

There was an emotive performance of It Had to Be You by Wynne Potts, Isn't It Romantic, featuring Gill Hall, Julie Robson and company, and the all-male You've Lost That Loving Feeling. 

Clair Caris reprised the 1968 romantic comedy classic Hello Dolly, as she built up to her big solo performance of You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, with a captivated audience only too eager to show their appreciation. 

Other highlights included the dramatic City of Stars, featuring Katy Burke, Julie Robson and Celia Smithson, Gill Hall's What I Did For Love, I Won't Dance, by Fiona Watson, and the addictive 9 to 5, portrayed by a ladies goup led by Julie Robson.  

Children from Hexham's Sele First School joined the cast and performed several memorable numbers, from Consider Yourself and My Favourite Things, to the all encompassing I'm a Believer, a fitting encore to Encore!

HASS are set to move on from concerts of this kind, as it changes its programme to introduce a series of workshops to entice new members. 

But as they look ahead to their next offering, the Sound of Music in the winter, the HASS contingent are on top of their game.