On Saturday 17th we held our Annual Concert and we were back at our spiritual home in All Saints Church, Oystermouth. Our guests were Coppercaillie, a local ‘Ceilidh’ band who were very entertaining with their varied repertoire. The church was, once again, full and our Chairman, Clive Walters, welcomed everyone and we started with the rousing welsh hymn ‘Sanctaidd Ior’, which has been arranged by our musical team, and also featured Steve Wilson on the organ. We followed this with Robert Arwyn’s ‘Benedictus’ and A. H. Malotte’s very passionate setting of ‘The Lord’s Prayer’. We finished our first set with ‘Amen, This Little Light Of Mine’ a traditional spiritual.

Coppercaillie sang their first set which included ‘Toss The Feathers’ arranged by The Corrs and they then sang a song by their very talented singer/guitarist Lisa Taylor called ‘Abertawe’. Lisa then sang another of her own songs, ‘Lament’ which was sung unaccompanied, and they finished with ‘Step It Out Mary’.

We started our last set of the first half with ‘O Gymru’. Last year we were fortunate to sing a new version of this song with Sian Cothi, which had been arranged by Jeff Howard and we have arranged the last verse, from Jeff’s arrangement, which brings a terrific climax to the song. Then we sang ‘A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square’ and finished the half with a new arrangement by the musical team of Stephen Adams’ ‘The Holy City’. Again, the last chorus is sung with Rhian on piano, and Steve, on the organ bringing the half to a rousing end. During this set many of the choir were presented with landmark ties, which are handed out for every five years a chorister has been in the choir. There were sixteen ties presented but the longest serving ties were given to Roy Jones (30 years), Ray Pelzer (25 years) and to Mike Williams and our MD Nick who have been in the choir for 20 years.

A glass of wine was enjoyed by all during the interval and we started the second half with ‘Hey Look Me Over’ form the musical ‘Wildcat’ followed by Keane’s ‘Somewhere Only We Know’. Our next item was a new arrangement of Brian Wilson’s ‘God Only Knows’, again, arranged by the choir, and we finished this set with ‘Without You’, made famous by Neilson in the early seventies. It was also co-written by Swansea born, Peter Ham. 

Next up was Coppercaillie, who sang Paulo Nutini’s ‘Pencil Full Of Lead’ followed by two more songs by Lisa Taylor ‘Softly Flowing Water’ and ‘Refugee’. They finished this set with one of their favourite Irish  traditional ‘Ceilidh’ pieces ‘Napolean Crossing The Alps’ and ‘Cronins Hornpipe’. This was great fun and had the audience clapping along in time with the playing. A wonderful performance by a very talented group of musicians. We then joined with Coppercaillie to sing another of Lisa Taylor’s songs called ‘Billy Gibbs Song’. This was written to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the Port Eynon RNLI lifeboat disaster and is pertinent to all men and women in life saving work, who put their own lives at risk to save others. We joined in with the chorus and the words were ‘Yes he knew the sea could take him one day. But he’d rather roam free in a wild raging sea, than wait for his time in the clay’.

We then finished the concert with the wonderful Earl Brown song ‘If I Can Dream’ followed by a compilation of ‘You Are So Beautiful’ and ‘Wind Beneath My Wings’ arranged by Greg Gilpin. Our final item was the excellent ‘An American Trilogy’ arranged by Alwyn Humphreys, which ended with the entire audience on their feet in appreciation of a wonderful performance by the choir. 

A number of presentations were made to finish the evening and thanks must go to our musical team of Nick, Rhian and Steve, who put in a great deal of work to make this occasion so special. Nick mentioned during the evening about the future of male choirs and it is his opinion that they must move on from singing the old standards which are sung week in, week out. At a time when numbers are dwindling in male choirs around the country, our choir is growing and we had our largest ever choir of 56 on stage. As can be seen from our concert programme we sing a number of our own arrangements and popular ‘classics’ from the sixties and seventies and this, he believes, is the way forward.

The concert was kindly sponsored by the ‘London Women’s Clinic’ and it was great to see their chairman Mr David Williams attending with our own president, Geoff Wheel. Thanks must go to the Ladies committee for looking after the ticket sales on the night and acting as stewards. Thanks to Tony Brooks for working so hard on the programme and posters and thanks also to Walter Jones, who took care of the financial side of ticket sales.