January
This has been a quiet month for us except that we are proud to announce that our accompanist, Rhian, is expecting her first child. Congratulations to Rhian and Ben and we all hope that everything goes well. We are also busy preparing for our fourth visit to Disneyland, Paris for the Welsh Festival taking place on March 5th and 6th.
March – Disneyland, Paris.
We completed our 4th visit to the St David’s Welsh Festival in Disneyland, Paris. This took place over the weekend of 5th – 6th March and was, as always, a great success (see the Gallery for a selection of photos).
We left Swansea on Thursday 4th and, once again, stopped off at Wootton Bassett to lay a wreath at the Cenotaph in respect of soldiers who have lost their lives in recent conflict. Although there was no repatriation that day we sang 2 hymns to a small assembled group, including the Mayor of Wootton Bassett and the chairman of the British Legion, who organised our visit. We also presented our choir plaque to the Mayor. We then had a carvery lunch at Sally Pussey’s Inn and made our way to St. Pancras International to catch the Eurostar train. We arrived in Paris and were met by Isabelle, who took us to the coach which transported us to Disneyland. This year we stayed at the Newport Bay Club Hotel – the largest hotel on the property and, with 1,083 rooms, one of the largest hotels in Europe.
We were very fortunate to have a completely free day on the Friday and some of the choristers took advantage of a day in the Park. Other members decided to go to Paris for the day, while 8 played golf at Golf Disneyland. Following this we are forming our own golf society and will be arranging further golf days during the summer.
On Saturday we went to the Disneyland Festival Stage in Fantasyland for a sound check and we then performed 3 concerts during the day. Once again, we were joined by the Urdd Eisteddfod winners at each concert and this proved a great success. The theatre was full for all three concerts and a tremendous atmosphere was created, each concert ending with the National Anthem.
Sunday morning came too early (!), and we performed another 3 concerts, this time on our own, to very good audiences. It is estimated that we sang to around 2,000 people during the weekend, from countries all over Europe. After our last concert we had a photograph taken, with ‘Minnie Mouse’ appropriately dressed in a Welsh costume, outside the theatre and presented the Disneyland staff, who looked after us during the weekend, with gifts from Wales.
We then retired to our hotel, where we had dinner in the restaurant and then had our customary ‘afterglow’, which went on long into the night. It was great to have Sue Arondel join us during the evening, as it was Sue who contacted all the choirs 4 years ago when we were chosen for the event. She is also very involved with the Urdd Eisteddfod winners performing in Disneyland and will be coming to Swansea to attend this year’s Eisteddfod.
The Welsh Festival is clearly going from strength to strength and we are delighted to be involved. We had 36 choristers this year and many say that this was the best yet and huge thanks go again, to our secretary, Alan Clewett, for his wonderful organisation. Thanks also to Isabelle, Sogwilli, and Sophie for looking after us and, of course, to Nick, Rhian and Steve for their hard work in preparing the choir.
March-April
We sadly reported the passing away of Rose, wife of Cliff Prosser, 2nd tenor with the choir.
We gave a concert at All Saints Church, Kilvey on Sunday 27th. This was organised by Rev. Andrew Meredith to raise money for the ongoing work at the church. The roof had been repaired and further redecoration work was being carried out. They must have done a great job as the roof remained firmly ‘on’, despite our best efforts to remove it! There was a good audience who thoroughly enjoyed our singing and the boys were given a standing ovation as they walked out through the church at the end. The good news from the evening was that Mr Geoff Wheel agreed to become our president. A former Welsh rugby ‘great’ from the 1970’s, Geoff is also organist at All Saints and he is delighted to be appointed. More to follow on this.
We sang at a wedding in Murton Chapel on Friday April 8th. Lynn Allderdice, daughter of Bob Allderdice, Captain of Clyne Golf Club was married. We sang before the ceremony and included ‘The Skye Boat Song, as a number of guests had travelled from the Isle of Skye to be at the wedding. We also sang 2 items during the signing of the register.
Our annual dinner was held at the Gower Golf Club on Saturday 16th and attended by over 60 choristers and partners. The evening was well organised by Lawrence Sutton and the entertainment was provided by Paul Tabram. The meal was, once again, excellent and a very enjoyable evening was had by everyone.
May
On Sunday May 1st we sang at the wedding of Anne-Marie Evans and Troy Clements at St Joseph’s Cathedral. It was an early start and unfortunately, through no fault of our own, we did not have time to sing before the ceremony. However, we sang ‘The Rose’ and ‘Calon Lan’ during the signing of the register and were then asked to sing an extra item, ‘Can You Feel The Love Tonight’. Both bride and groom were delighted with our singing and have left a message on our ‘Guestbook’ to say thanks.
We gave a charity concert at Bishopston Village Hall on May 12th for Christian Aid. There was a small but enthusiastic audience, who enjoyed our evening of entertainment.
June
 Northampton
We travelled to Northampton over the weekend of 4th and 5th June. Our first engagement was for the wedding of Jo Tyson, daughter of John Morgan, one of our 1st basses. This took place in All Saints Church, West Haddon, a small village 10 miles from Northampton. We sang a number of items before the wedding and the bride walked in to the singing of ‘O Gymru’. We sang ‘The Rose’ and ‘Can You Feel The Love Tonight’ during the signing of the register, and the happy couple walked out to ‘The Rhythm Of Life’. We then had some refreshments, supplied by John, and made our way to Northampton.
We stayed at The Lime Tree Hotel, and had a short rest before changing for our concert in Mount Pleasant Baptist Church on Kettering Road. This venue had been set up by Charles Clewett, who had previously sung there with another choir (‘Voices of Pembroke’) a few years earlier. It was also great to have Charles along with us for the weekend. We had a short rehearsal to check the acoustics, which were excellent, and then had tea which was prepared by church members.
The evening was compered by the Rev Paul Lavender, who also played some excellent piano solos during the concert. We were able to sing two new items to our repertoire, Schubert’s ‘Sanctus’ and ‘The Longest Time’ by Billy Joel. The concert was a great success, enjoyed by all, and raised over £500 for the church’s organ fund.
Following the concert we went to the Old Northamtonians Rugby Club for some refreshment and more singing, and returned to the hotel, later, to continue the ‘afterglow’.
Thanks must go to Stephen Wilson, who did a fantastic job accompanying the choir during the weekend. Also, thanks to Lawrence Sutton, who arranged the weekend in the absence of Alan, who was away on holiday.
On Sunday 12th June we travelled down by coach to Merthyr Church, which is a few miles west of Carmarthen. It was a wet, miserable and misty night, and we were sure that it was a very pretty place, but we couldn’t appreciate the scenery! In fact, the concert had been re-arranged from last November, and it felt more like autumn than summer. The evening was arranged by William Bott, after hearing us in a concert last year, and he also arranged for 4 young musicians to perform as soloists. They were all excellent and included was Osian Dafydd, who will perform with us again in our annual concert in a few weeks time. The church was full and we had a great ovation at the end of the concert. The evening concluded with the National Anthem and refreshments were provided by members of the church. Many thanks to William for organising the evening and also for driving the bus.
Annual Concert, 25th June
What an amazing night! It was held in All Saints Church, Oystermouth, which was packed to the rafters, with extra chairs being put out to accommodate the audience. We had 50 choristers on stage, the biggest choir the Gwalia Singers has ever assembled. However, it all started on a disappointing note when our compere, Kevin Johns, had to pull out at short notice due to illness, but our new president, Geoff Wheel, stepped into the breach and did a great job.
We opened with ‘Let All Men Sing’ and then sang the beautiful ‘Sanctus’ by Schubert. Our first section ended with ‘An American Trilogy’ which featured Rhian on the piano and Steve on the organ, and gained rapturous applause. The first soloist for the evening was Jonathan Lycett who is well known in Swansea for taking leading roles in many musical productions. He started with ‘Secret Love’ from ‘Calamity Jane’ and finished with the ‘Anthem’ from ‘Chess’ by Andersson and Ulvaeus. Next up was Osian Dafydd, a talented young violinist, who won the under 19 string instrumental competition at the National Urdd Eisteddfod in 2010. He played the very technical ‘Zigeunerweisen’ by Sarasate.
Before our final section of the first half, we made a number of presentations. Our chairman, Des Criddle, paid tribute to 3 members of the choir, Vernon Simons, Mal Herbert and Terry Osbourne, who have given outstanding service to the choir.
Vernon, Mal and Terry receiving presentations from Geoff Wheel
We then sang 3 Welsh items Llanfair, Ar Hyd y Nos, and Cwm Rhondda to end the first half. The last piece again featured Rhian and Steve in partnership with the choir.
We started the 2nd half with ‘Seize The Day’ from Disney’s ‘Newsies’ and followed this with Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’. Then came Robbie Williams’ ‘Angels’ and we finished with an ‘a capella’ version of Billy Joel’s ‘The Longest Time’. This features 6 members of the choir singing the solo part backed by the rest of the choir. Our next soloist was cellist, Saran Davies, who won the regional Texaco Rotary Club competition in 2011. She played ‘Rondo’ by Boccherini and ‘Jewish Song’ by Bloch, and was then joined by Osian to play ‘Passacaglia’ by Handel von Johan Halvorsen. This is a very difficult and technical piece which they pulled off brilliantly. Both were accompanied by Dr Jonathan Morgan.
Jonathan then sang his final section which ended with the very moving ‘This Is The Moment’ from the musical Jeckyll and Hyde. He was accompanied through the evening by Chris Pike. Our final section continued the musical theme when we sung the beautiful ‘Bring Him Home’ from Les Miserables and our final item was ‘Sinatra’, a medley of songs starting and finishing with ‘New York, New York’ arranged by Alan Simmons. A prolonged applause followed, which showed the audience’s appreciation for a wonderful concert. Presentations to the guest artistes followed and the evening ended with the Welsh National Anthem.
Many thanks must go to Nick, our MD, for all his hard work, and to our accompanists Rhian and Steve.
A selection of photos from the night are available to view in the gallery.
July
Congratulations Rhian
We were pleased to announce that Rhian gave birth to Mali Olivia on 26th July. Congratulations were passed on to the proud parents and she has also made her first visit to practice to see the boys during this month. More amazing was that she did not wake up during the singing!
We sang at the wedding of Anthony Davies on Saturday 23rd, at St Joseph’s Cathedral, Cimla. Staging the choir was a little problematic, as quite often happens at weddings, and we ended up singing at the back of the cathedral. However, all went well in the end despite the rather limited repertoire allowed by the priest.
We were pleased to announce that Rhian gave birth to Mali Olivia on 26th July. Congratulations were passed on to the proud parents and she has also made her first visit to practice to see the boys during this month. More amazing was that she did not wake up during the singing!
We sang at the wedding of Anthony Davies on Saturday 23rd, at St Joseph’s Cathedral, Cimla. Staging the choir was a little problematic, as quite often happens at weddings, and we ended up singing at the back of the cathedral. However, all went well in the end despite the rather limited repertoire allowed by the priest.
August – The wedding season!
We sang at Murton Chapel on Saturday 27th at the wedding of Helen Thomas and Paul Hartness. As usual, we sang a number of items before the wedding, which included ‘Sunrise, Sunset’ from Fiddler On The Roof – a very appropriate item for a wedding. We were also asked to sing ‘We’ll Keep A Welcome’ during the signing, as the bride had returned to her native Wales to be married.
On Saturday 6th August we sang at the wedding of Craig Alliss and Laura Rees at St Peters, Newton. We sang a number of items before the wedding and included ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ during the signing, as requested by the bride. There was a definite ‘golf’ theme to the wedding with the bride being the daughter of Peter Rees, who plays off single figures at Clyne, and Craig, being the grandson of Peter Alliss, the well-known golf commentator at the BBC. (more photos)
We were fortunate to sing at Llandaff Cathedral on Friday, August 5th, at the wedding of James Lewis, son of Haydn (of Mumbles!!), one of our first tenors. It was a wonderful building and the acoustics were excellent.
The celebration was conducted by Dr Barry Morgan, Archbishop of Wales, as he is Godfather to Anwen, the new Mrs Lewis. Once again the guests were full of praise for our singing and we were well looked after following the ceremony. Unfortunately, when our driver returned to collect us he reversed his bus into a tree outside the cathedral, smashing the back, and one side window. This meant that we had to wait for another bus to pick us up, so we retired to the nearby Butchers Arms, Llandaff, and had a good sing-song in the pub for an hour or so while we waited.
We were also pleased to welcome Peter Jacobs to the choir after passing his audition. Peter joined the first tenors. We also had a number of new probation members attending rehearsals, so were hoping to see numbers increasing over the next few months.
September
Our first Golf Society meeting took place at Clyne Golf Club on 2nd September. Unfortunately a number of the members were unavailable, but we enjoyed a fine morning, and some good golf. It was great to see Emil Jones playing again after some major surgery and it was his team, together with Nick and Jimmy Lamb who took the spoils. In fact the other team of John Rickard, Wally Carey and Ed Parton were not even a close second!
We travelled to Haverfordwest on Saturday 3rd September to sing at the wedding of Amy Quant at St Mary’s Church. It was a dreadful day, with persistent rain, but we sang well and Amy’s mother, Hazel, told us after that we were ‘amazing’. On the way back we stopped at The Fox and Hounds in Bancyfelin, for food and a few beers, and we sang some items. There were a number of visitors there who enjoyed our renditions and one of the families has posted a message of thanks on our ‘Guestbook’.
A social evening, organised by the Ladies section, was held on Monday, September 12th in the form of a ‘curry night’, which took place at the Mumbai Restaurant in Blackpill. There were in excess of 60 choristers and guests present and a great time was had by all. The food was excellent and many thanks went to Mo and the staff at the Mumbai. Our President, Geoff Wheel, came along and donated a number of prizes for the raffle. A total of £200 was raised for choir funds.
October
October was dominated by our visit to Kraków, Poland, which took place from Thursday 6th to Monday 10th. The first day was mostly travelling, but we were able to take in a few sights of the city during the late afternoon and evening, especially as it was quite warm.
Unfortunately the weather turned on the Friday when we had a tour of the city arranged for the morning. However, we saw the outside of Schindler’s factory (which has now been turned into a museum about World War 2) and visited the old town and square. We went into the Old Synagogue and a number of churches including St Mary’s, on the square, which had an amazing blue marble stone interior. We had some rest in the early afternoon and, later, visited the salt mine at Wieliczka. This was a magnificent experience culminating in the fantastic underground cathedral, where we sang a few hymns. The acoustics were wonderful! We had walked down over 800 steps to a depth of 300 metres by the end, but, thankfully, there was a lift to take us back to the top.
Before leaving Wales, we knew that we had to find a bar which was showing the Rugby World Cup matches, and early on Saturday morning we had 6 taxis waiting outside the hotel to transport a number of the choir to the Irish bar, Nics Nowego, which had been located. As we all know, Wales won, which left us in a good mood for the rest of the trip! We then had the rest of the day free until our first concert at St Mary of Lourdes R C Church. The concert took place straight after the mass, which is traditional in Poland. Apparently, if the choir doesn’t go straight in, the congregation will leave! However, before that, we sang Schubert’s ‘Sanctus’, during the mass, from a balcony at the back of the church which our ladies said was beautiful. In fact, it was so good they didn’t realise it was us! The concert was a great success and the choir sang well, and we had a standing ovation from the audience at the end.
The next day we went to Auschwitz II Birkenau and Auschwitz I. It was a dank, cool, still day which only added to the atmosphere of the place. We were taken around a number of the buildings and our guide gave a very detailed account of the atrocities which went on there. We had arranged to sing in the camp, but were informed that we could only sing outside the boundary fence after the tour. However, when the time arrived no-one really felt like singing, so we respectfully declined. We then went to Pijarist Church to sing our second concert of the weekend. Again we went straight in after the mass which caught out a number of our ladies, who were in the pub, as the service finished early, so we went on earlier than expected. Again, the choir was on form and another standing ovation followed our last item and we were requested to sing an encore. After the concert our MD spoke to one member of the audience who had enjoyed our first concert so much that she also came to the second one. Later in the evening we had arranged to experience a typical Polish night at a local restaurant. A group of musicians welcomed us in and we enjoyed some traditional food. The whole tour was arranged by Mark Burrows of Melody Music, Cardiff, and he was also there and bought a drink for everyone in our party.
On Monday we spent the morning at our leisure and travelled to Wroclaw in the afternoon to catch our flight home. While on board, the chief stewardess asked if we could sing to a new bride and groom, who were making their way back to Britain. We duly obliged by giving a rendition of ‘Sunrise, Sunset’, which brought tears to the eyes of the new couple and the stewardesses! A note of thanks from both the stewardess, Ewelina, and the ‘newly weds’ can be found in our ‘Guestbook’. This meant that we sang at both 35,000 ft in the air and 300 metres underground – The ‘highs and lows’ of a male voice choir!
This was the first concert tour our choir had organised for many years and was a great success. Many thanks went to Mark Burrows and Maciej Pezerwa, our guide for the weekend, and, although we had some problems with late changes to our flights, the organisation of transport, hotel accommodation and concerts was excellent. Thanks also to Alan Clewett, our secretary, who liaised with Mark and Maciej and made sure that everyone was on time for trips, concerts, etc. Thanks also to Nick and Steve, our musical team, who had worked so hard to get the choir to perform so well.
For more pictures of our visit, please visit the gallery page.
November
This was a quiet month for the choir, but it helped us prepare some music for our Christmas concerts. However, we had a social evening, to raise funds for the choir, in the form of a quiz night which was held at the Commercial Inn, Killay. Once again, Nova and Gareth did us proud with their hospitality and a very pleasant evening was had by all. Thanks to the Ladies Committee for organising the event and also to Gareth for acting as quizmaster.
We are pleased to see that we have been included in a brochure entitled ‘Royal Wootton Bassett – An Exhibition of Appreciation Gifts’. This has been produced in association with the town being granted royal patronage by the Queen, in recognition of its role in military funeral repatriations since 2007. We have stopped in the town for the last 2 years on our way to Disneyland Paris to lay a wreath at the cenotaph, and this year we presented our choir plaque to the mayor, Mrs Mary Champion.
It was with sadness that we reported that Percy Bowling passed away on Boxing Day. Â Percy was with the Gwalia Singers for 30 years. He retired from the choir just a couple of months before losing his battle with cancer at the age of 87.
December
Our first concert in December was held at The Gorseinon Workingmen’s Club to raise funds for the Gleision Colliery appeal. Although there was a disappointing turnout, the small audience was very appreciative.
We sang at the Vivian Hall, Blackpill, again, on Thursday 8th December, to a full house. We did a number of new Christmas items including ‘Mistletoe and Wine’ and ‘In The Bleak Midwinter’ along with items from our usual repertoire. Following the concert we adjourned to the Woodman for the ‘afterglow’.
On Tuesday 13th we held our annual Christmas Concert organised by the Ladies Committee at the Scout Headquarters, Brynmill. The hall was again packed and, as usual, an excellent buffet was provided by the ladies. A number of raffle prizes were donated and two big Christmas hampers were auctioned and these, alone, raised a further £50 for choir funds.Â
We sang in the foyer of ‘Morrisons’ supermarket, at the Morfa on the Tuesday before Christmas at 7pm and followed this with an evening of carols at the Commercial Inn. Once again, thanks to Gareth and Nova for providing the refreshments.
We have had a number of new members passing their auditions this month. Tony Young and Terry Green have joined the 2nd tenors and Craig Thomas has become a member of the baritone section. Our average age has dropped again, thanks to Craig, and it is really wonderful to have another younger member in the choir. We now have 56 members.
