If you are a millennial on TikTok or Instagram, I would be surprised if you haven’t come across the nostalgic sensation that is James B Partridge. Having posted his top 10 assembly bangers online, he soon went viral and now combines his job as a music teacher with touring the country, playing everyone’s favourite assembly bangers, live. That is the premise for this show which is enjoying a hugely successful run at Gilded Balloon this summer.

The concept is simple: get an audience singing the primary school assembly ‘bangers’ of their youth, interjected with reflections on growing up in the 90s (including reflections on pop music, adverts and childrens’ TV). It is an absolutely joyous hour, filled with nostalgia and the best of vibes and is the most feel-good show I have seen at the Fringe this year.

Partridge himself is an engaging raconteur, and even if he has borrowed some aspects of the act from other viral posts (for example, the fact one can sing ‘Empty Chairs at Empty Tables’ to the tune of the Muppet Show… and vice versa) he is a natural choirmaster, a funny storyteller, and knows exactly how to get his audience singing loudly and proudly, like it’s still 1998. A wonderful way to spend an hour.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐