Angels with songs to fly for

Cherub’s Garden       ★★★★★

The Scotsman    August 19th 1999

The Cherub's Garden is a fantastical playground for the imagination. It is inhabited by three wacky angels dressed in baggy, blue boiler suits and jackets with large, furry, white wings attached. Herbie Treehead, Norman and Guardian Angel live in the garden along with a rubbery blue cherub with black dreadlocks, a caterpillar (or is it a carrot?) called Mee-ow and a dog wearing slippers.

Basically, the three cheerful ones contemplate thought-provoking issues such as time, outer space and why giraffes' necks are longer than cricket bats. Guardian Angel is convinced the world is flat and builds a space rocket out of two chairs and two vacuum cleaners in order to obtain photographic proof. Norman hitches a ride so he can ask the sun why it hasn't bothered to get up in the morning.

In between these sketches, the angels can't resist bursting into lively, foot-tapping songs written by Herbie and brilliantly arranged by Rob Lee.

Guardian Angel plays a mean air drum with some washing up brushes. The mischievous lyrics are just the sort of nonsensical rhymes children would write themselves given half the chance.

There is the Nonsense Song, Noisy Song, Why Song and Happy Song where you "put your finger up your nose, rake it around and wipe it on your clothes".

This reminded me of a certain three-year-old but it was all a bit above his head. He kept telling me sternly to "stop laughing". However, he enjoyed every minute of this crazy show and insisted I buy a copy of Herbie's CD, featuring sleepy songs and not very sleepy songs, to take home. We've been humming the tunes ever since.

Byline: Susan Nickalls