On Saturday 1st June we held our annual dinner dance at the Marriott Hotel, Swansea. There were over 90 choristers and friends at the event and the meal was excellent. We had the usual raffle which was followed by an auction, run by Les Carmichael. Our chairman thanked everyone for coming and our president, Geoff Wheel, also spoke briefly. We also had the ‘awarding of the skull’. This is an annual ‘fun’ award for the chorister who has made the biggest blunder of the year, awarded by the chairman. There were a number of nominations but the winner was Dai Griffiths for the infamous ‘collapsing chair’ at the winery, while we were in Germany, last year. No further details are available, as ‘what goes on tour, stays on tour’! Many thanks to our chairman, Clive, for organising the event, and to the Marriott, for looking after us so well.

We held our annual concert on Saturday 15th at All Saints Church, Oystermouth. This was, again, a tremendous success, although, not without drama, as our soloist, Laura Nicholas, had to pull out the night before, due to illness. Thankfully, she was able to secure the services of a fellow student at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Fran Gregory, who thrilled the audience with her renditions. These included Mozart’s ‘Laudate Dominum’ and ‘Als Luise die briefe’, Gershwin’s ‘Someone to watch over me’ and she concluded with ‘I could have danced all night’ from ‘My Fair Lady’. Fran was accompanied by Conal Bembridge-Sayers, who was also superb, especially as he had to play a totally different programme at such short notice.

We also had 17 years old Ashley Rogers, a member of Class Act Theatre School (CATS), Swansea and Pontardawe, as a guest soloist. He sang a number of his favourite Musical Theatre songs which included ‘Being Alive’ from ‘Company’ and ‘Stepping out with my baby’ from ‘Top Hat’. He then sang 3 items from Les Miserables in the second half finishing with ‘Bring Him Home’ (‘Adren ‘Ol’), which he sang in Welsh.

A number of ties were presented to choristers during the concert. Ed Parton and Walter Jones were presented with 5 year ties; Lawrence Sutton, 15 years; Cliff Prosser, 35 years; and a special presentation was made to Vernon Simons, who has been in the choir for 45 years.

We sang a number of new items to our repertoire which included ‘What would I do without my music’ and ‘He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother’, which was arranged by our musical team. We also finished the first half with a Welsh hymn tune ‘Rhys’ with organ accompaniment from Steve Wilson. Steve had a very busy night and showed his versatility, as he accompanied ‘He ain’t heavy’ with the harmonica, and ‘All you need is love’ with the cornet. He also played the organ for our final item ‘Anthem’ from ‘Chess’.

Our concert concluded with Fran joining us for ‘You’ll never walk alone’ from ‘Carousel’. Fran did a fantastic job, as we only had a very short rehearsal with us before the concert, and she said that she had never heard the song before! The end of the song brought the audience to their feet in appreciation of a wonderful night.

Many thanks must go to our musical team for their dedication and hard work in making the concert such a success. Our accompanist Rhian Stone, who also played for Ashley, our MD, Nick Rogers and to Steve Wilson. Also many thanks to Gwalia Group for sponsoring the concert and to the many local businesses that provided us with adverts for our programme. Thanks to our Ladies committee who looked after ticket sales on the night and for providing refreshments after the concert.