January

We did not have any concerts in January, so took the opportunity to have some additional rehearsals to start learning new pieces for our annual in June. The new items are an arrangement by Alwyn Humphries of ‘What Would I Do Without My Music’ and the amazingly powerful ‘Prayer’ from Lohengrin by Richard Wagner – one for the bass section to enjoy! The music team has also been working on an arrangement of ‘He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother’ and we will also be learning a modern arrangement of the hymn tune ‘Rhys’. A lot of work to be done!

We were sad to learn that Ken Hutin passed away on January 10th. Ken was a stalwart of the choir for many years prior to leaving through ill health some time ago. We were pleased to sing at his funeral at Capel-y-Crwys, Three Crosses.

February

We performed at St David’s Church, Morriston on Sunday 3rd. It was a concert for the charity ‘Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline’, which raises funds so that children from Belarus can come to Britain to get away from the contamination, which is still prevalent, and have dental treatment etc. and take advantage of a clearer atmosphere. Joining us for the evening was Keely Morgan, with whom we sang ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ to close the concert, and Cwmrhydyceirw Primary School Choir. Over £1000 was raised during the evening and once again we did not charge for our services.

We returned to sing for the Pontardawe Senior Citizens, in their hall, on February 8th. This has been a regular place to visit for the choir over the years, but now that we have increased our numbers, we are struggling to fit on the stage! However, the small audience is always very appreciative and we have a good ‘spread’ afterwards.

On Saturday 16th we sang at the wedding of Claire Izat and Adam Knowles at All Saints, Oystermouth. Claire is the daughter of Pip George, 2nd Bass. She has left a message of thanks in the ‘guestbook’.

We visited the studios of Swansea Sound to promote the concert for Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline where Nick and Clive chatted to Leighton Jones ‘live’ on air. Apparently they should have recorded the interview so that it would be broadcast a few moments later, but Leighton decided, at the last moment, to do it ‘live’. Hopefully we will be returning to promote our annual concert at a later date. This was all organised by our new media officer, Adrian Crowley, who is being very proactive in the role.  

March

We performed again at Swansea University on March 1st, St David’s Day, at a lunchtime recital. The main hall at Fulton House was packed with diners who stayed throughout the performance and were very appreciative. Thanks again to Les Carmichael for organising the event and providing another wonderful meal for us.

April

We had our annual quiz night, organised by our Ladies Committee, on Thursday 11th, which was held at the Commercial, Killay. It was another successful evening raising funds for the choir and the main event was won by the Liles/Stone family after a dead heat between the Jones/Parton/Debbie Rogers team. A great buffet was once again provided by Gareth and Nova and raffle prizes were donated by our president, Geoff Wheel.

On Saturday 13th we sang at the wedding of Jemma Shadrack and Paul Daniels at Salem Chapel, Rhydypandy. Jemma is the niece of one of our choristers, Len Fuge. This was an interesting afternoon with the bride being 40 minutes late after being stuck in the narrow lanes outside the chapel, which were blocked by parked cars. We sang a number of extra items to keep the guests entertained on a rather wet afternoon. We also sang 3 items during the signing of the register, which also took an unusually long time. However, we were able to sing one of our new pieces ‘Prayer’ from Lohengrin, which was really well received. Eventually the bride and groom emerged from the vestry and stood in the pulpit behind the choir as we started to sing ‘All You Need Is Love’, to which they walked out. Although it was a lot longer than usual there was a lovely warm family atmosphere in the chapel, and it was very enjoyable.

We sang at the wedding of Angela Vickery and Michael Donnelly at St David’s Catholic Church on Friday 26th. Angela is a great friend of Rhian, as they have worked together in the Gowerton Veterinary Surgery for a number of years. We also had our own Stephen Wilson playing the organ for the hymns. We sang the bride in with ‘The Rose’ and ‘You Raise Me Up’ and Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ was sung during the signing of the register. The bride and groom then processed out while we, again, sang ‘All You Need Is Love’.

We have confirmed our soloists for the annual concert. Laura Nicholas is making a return to Swansea following her performance with us 3 years ago. This will be her first time in All Saints, and we are very much looking forward to hearing her fine soprano voice again. Also joining us is young 17 year old Ashley Rogers, who is a member of CATS theatre school based in Pontardawe. Ashley will be singing a number of items from ‘the shows’ in which he has performed and we also look forward to hearing him sing.

We are really pleased to be invited back to sing at the ‘All Saints Alive!’ music festival Gala Concert on Saturday 14th September. This is always a great night and is a huge compliment to us for our performance last year.

May

On Friday May 3rd we were the guest choir for the first annual concert of the Swansea Tenovus ‘Sing With Us’ choir. This choir comprises singers who are suffering from cancer or whose immediate family have been affected by the condition. Under their energetic and inspirational musical director, Shoshana Pavett, they thoroughly entertained the audience with a number of upbeat songs, including ‘Walking On Sunshine’ and ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’. They ended the concert with a song that has become synonymous with the choir, ‘Lean On Me’, a very emotional performance. We were also joined by the wonderful Bishopston Primary School Choir and pianist Joshua Stokes. We were pleased to hear that over £1000 was raised from the concert and, once again, we donated our entire fee to the charity.

We gave a concert on Saturday May 25th at All Saints Church, Kilvey. This was in aid of church funds and we were able to sing our entire programme for the forthcoming annual concert. This included 2 new items to our repertoire, ‘He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother’ arranged by our own musical team, and ‘Rhys’, a Welsh hymn tune arranged by E R Harry.
We were also joined by Ashley Rogers, a member of CATS based in Pontardawe, who sang a number of songs from the shows. The evening was introduced by Rev Andrew Meredith and we were given some wonderful refreshments at half time. Many thanks to our president, Geoff Wheel, for organising the concert.

June

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. (more photos)

July

On Saturday 20th we sang at St Hillarys, Killay. We were joined by Jonathan Lycett, who sang a number of songs from the shows. The evening was compered by Rev. Tim Williams and funds were raised for the church.

Our rehearsal venue was changed on Tuesday 30th, as we had been asked to accommodate 35 visiting students who wanted to hear a male voice choir. It seems that we may be the only male voice choir in the Swansea area that do not break during the summer and we did not think that we could fit them into the Swansea Sub Aqua Club, so we moved to Swansea Metropolitan University for the evening, where the students were staying. Nick gave them a brief talk about the history of the Welsh male voice choir and we then carried on with our rehearsal, as usual. Nick did explain that the first part of the rehearsal may be boring for them, as it was ‘note bashing’, but nevertheless they listened very attentively. We gave a short concert for the second half which they all thoroughly enjoyed.

August

Although we did not have any performances, we carried on with rehearsals, as usual, and attendances were very good. We are pleased to announce that Cyril Garbutt has passed his audition and has joined the 2nd tenor section.

September

We had a very busy weekend to start September. On Saturday 7th a ‘cultural’ trip around Gower was organised by Hefin Jones. A bus picked us up at the Uplands Tavern and we stopped at a number of public houses on the way, having a late lunch in the ‘Brittania’ in Llanmadoc. We finished up in the ‘Plough’ in Murton, although some went into ‘town’ to complete the day. Thanks to Hefin for arranging the day out and, although not very well attended, we’re sure that this will become an annual event.

We sang at the wedding of Gemma Barry and Robert Kendal on Sunday 8th at St Illtyd’s RC Church in St Thomas and the following evening the Ladies committee held a curry night at the Mumbai, Blackpill. This was very well attended with 83 people turning up and funds were raised for the choir. Thanks to Mo and the staff at the Mumbai for the excellent food and for being one of our sponsors for the annual concert. We also managed to sing a few songs and we have been informed that this was the first time that singing has been heard at the Mumbai.

On Saturday 14th we sang at the Gala concert to end the All Saints, Oystermouth, Music Festival. This was the second year running that we performed at this prestigious concert and were joined by Joe Gorvett and Holly Anne Lloyd. Both sang excellently and they finished with a duet from ‘Spamalot’, called ‘The Song That Goes Like This’ which is a send up of the final song of a musical.

We were sad to learn of the passing of Ken Richards’ wife, Maureen, after suffering a number of illnesses over the past year. Our thoughts are with Ken and his family at this sad time.

We sang at a ‘Celebration of Life’ for Haydn Crosby on Wednesday 18th. Haydn was a member of the choir for 11 years before meeting and marrying Cheryl Tommey, from Colombus, Georgia, US, and moving there in January 2010. Haydn tragically died a year later and his wife had organised a memorial service for Haydn at St Peter’s Church, Cockett. It was a very moving occasion with a number of eulogies reflecting on his life being spoken. Although Haydn had left the choir over 3 years ago, we managed a good turnout for him.

Another sad announcement is the passing of Joy Osborne, wife of Terry, who was a very active member of the Ladies committee until she became ill a few years ago. Joy had fought her illness with tremendous courage and our thoughts are with Terry, Charles and their families.

Tour to Bruges

We went to Bruges, this year, for our annual concert tour. We had a party of 64, made up of 37 choristers, wives, partners, and friends and left Swansea on Thursday 26th September and travelled to Dover, where we stayed overnight. On the way we had lunch in the ‘Sally Pussey Inn’ just outside Royal Wootton Bassett, which has become a regular venue for us to eat. In the evening we gave a concert at SS Peter and Paul, Charlton-in-Dover RC Church in aid of the Kent Air Ambulance. The church was a fine building in which to sing and we had a great reception following our performance, which ended with ‘An American Trilogy’ and enabled us to use the fine organ. The concert raised £350 . It is hoped that we can return one day to sing again.

The next day we boarded the ferry to Calais and made our way to Bruges. We booked into the Park Hotel and settled into our rooms. In the early evening we went on a canal cruise, which was paid for by the Ladies committee. This was very enjoyable and enabled us to see some well known landmarks from different sides. The rest of the evening was free for everyone to relax and enjoy the local hostelries.

On Saturday we had an early start and took the coach to Ypres. We had pre-booked a visit to the Flanders Fields Museum, which proved to be a very moving experience. We also saw the Menin Gate, and it is sad to see so many names, etched into it’s walls, of soldiers who gave their lives during the first world war. Later in the day we visited Tyne Cot cemetery, and again, to see the lines of grave stones, so many unnamed, was a stark reminder of the terrible loss of life. We returned to the hotel and changed for our concert which was held at the OLV church in De Panne, about an hour’s drive from Bruges. This was another fine building with a fabulous acoustic and organ. The church was nearly full and, again, we gave another fine performance. We were treated to a glass of wine during the interval, but, unfortunately, had to return to Bruges straight after the concert, as our bus driver was short of hours! This was a pity, as we had a tremendous ovation following our singing, with the audience standing and shouting for more. During the concert we sang ‘There Is No Death’, as our tribute to the men and women, who lost their life during the ‘great war’.

We had a free morning on Sunday and met up in the early afternoon to give our final concert, which was held at St Salvator’s Cathedral at 3pm. This was the largest of 12 churches in Bruges and was another fine building. It wasn’t the easiest of places to sing, as the sound disappeared to all parts, but the echoes filled the church for a long time after each line. However, again, we had a tremendous ovation at the end of our concert, which was richly deserved for the fantastic effort that all the boys had put in during the weekend. Thanks must go to Nick, Rhian and Steve for all their hard work throughout the weekend. We had the rest of the day to relax and everyone met up at the hotel to spend a great evening together to enjoy a good ‘afterglow’ and joke telling session!

On Monday, we left just after midday to return to Calais for the ferry back to Dover and arrived in Swansea about 10pm. A thoroughly enjoyable time was had by all and we must thank Rayburn tours for organising the trip and also Joanne, for looking after us so well during the tour. Also thanks to Alan, our secretary, for all the work he did liaising with Rayburn from our side. (more photos)

October

Following our trip to Bruges, we had a week off from rehearsal, but then went straight into another concert at Holy Cross RC Church, Gendros, on Sunday 13th. The concert was organised by Tony Young and was in aid of the Northern Cleft Foundation which is a charity set up to relieve sickness, and preserve the health, of poor persons by providing free cleft lip and cleft palate surgery in developing countries. We were joined by soprano, Teresa Hacche, and the evening raised £560 for the charity.

We are pleased to report that Tony Brooks has passed his audition and joined the 2nd bass section. He says that he really enjoys the choir and, although unable to read music, has bought a keyboard and is having lessons, so that he can learn items quickly. A great example to all members – new and old!!

November

On Saturday 23rd November we went on our travels again – this time to Holy Trinity Church, Llandrindod Wells. We sang at a concert for the Twinning Association between Llandrindod Wells and Contrexeville, France, and Bad Rapennau, Germany. On this occasion there were a number of dignitaries from Contrexeville present, including their mayor, and the evening was compered by Rev. Geraint Hughes. Joining us were the Mid Powys Youth Choir and their musical director Eleanor Madoc Davies. Some of the choristers enjoyed a game of golf in the morning on the great Llandrindod course and we took the opportunity to stay overnight at the Commodore Hotel. A lovely buffet was provided by the Twinning Committee before we sang and the concert was a great success. The evening ended with an ‘afterglow’ in the Commodore which went on until the early hours of Sunday morning!

We are now into our final preparations for the Christmas period and are looking forward to a busy schedule.

December 

We are pleased to welcome Glyn Williams to the choir following his audition. He has joined the baritone section and we wish him a long and happy stay with us. We have also started planning a trip to France for next year’s concert tour. We have arranged to go to St Paul Les Dax, which is about an hours drive inland from Biarritz. Our chorister, Walter Carey, has been very involved in organising this, as he has a property in the town which he regularly frequents. We are really pleased that, after booking 70 seats on a flight from Gatwick next September, all places have already been taken!

Our annual Christmas lunch was organised by Hefin Jones, and held at The George, Mumbles. We had a lovely meal and were able to watch the Wales – Australia match after. Thanks to Hefin for organising the event and congratulations to him and Molly Malan, who announced their engagement on the day. We all hope they have a long and happy life together.

We started our Christmas concerts at the Vivian Hall, Blackpill, on Thursday 5th where we sang a mixture of Christmas items and some from our usual repertoire. We also sang a number of carols and invited the audience to join with us. Following the concert we adjourned to the ‘Woodman Inn’ to continue the singing.

The next day we sang a lunchtime recital in Fulton House at Swansea University. Again we sang a mixture if items and it was pleasing to see the hall full of students, many of whom stayed for the entire performance. Les Carmichael organised the event again, and he provided a lovely buffet following the singing. Many thanks to Les.

On Tuesday 10th we sang at the annual Ladies Christmas concert, organised by the Ladies Committee. We always use the event to raise money for charity and this year we raised over £400 for Prostate Cancer. The event was held at the Scout Hall, Brynmill, and was full to capacity. We enjoyed a buffet provided by the ladies and the evening ended with community carol singing.

We had a social evening on Tuesday 17th at the Commercial, Killay, where we sang a number of Christmas items interspersed with community carol singing. Steve Wilson provided the accompaniment on his keyboard and Gareth and Nova provided an excellent buffet and an enjoyable evening was had by all.

On New Year’s Eve we sang at the wedding of Ed Bevan and Diane Putica at St Peter’s Church, Newton. We sang a few items, as arranged, before the ceremony, but the bride was not on time. There was a great atmosphere in the church and we were encouraged by the guests to sing a few more songs and ended up doing 9 in total! We also sang at the signing and had a huge ovation when we finished with ‘All You Need Is Love’. It was a great end to a very busy year and just reward for the choristers who turned out on a ‘working’ day.

Just before the end of the year, a couple of newspapers came across some information about a recording the choir made in 1981 along with the Cory Band – a version of Jona Lewie’s “Stop The Cavalry”. The song is still quite popular in the USA but unfortunately the choir receives no royalties from any copies that may be sold. An article appeared in both Wales on Sunday and the South Wales Evening Post.