February
The choir teamed up with Marie Curie Cancer Care to promote the charity’s annual Great Daffodil Appeal. Each year the charity sells daffodil pins in exchange for donations. We were keen to represent Wales at Disneyland, Paris by wearing the Welsh emblem of the Daffodil whilst performing. Having heard about the Marie Curie Cancer Care appeal we contacted the local fundraising office to make a donation of £50.00 for 50 daffodils.
Marie Curie Cancer Care provides high-quality nursing care for people diagnosed with terminal cancer and other illnesses, in their own homes. Community Fundraiser for the charity, Katy Tadayon, said it is wonderful that the Gwalia singers have chosen to support Marie Curie Cancer Care at their performances by wearing our daffodils. Every daffodil helps us continue to provide end of life care for local people who need it.
Disneyland, Paris.
We have completed our second St. David’s Welsh Festival in Disneyland, Paris, which took place over the weekend March 6th – 8th.
A total of 35 choristers, together with our MD and accompanist, left Swansea on Thursday evening and stayed overnight in London before departing on the 6.30am Eurostar from St. Pancras to Paris. We had requested a later departure time this year, but unfortunately, this did not materialise. We arrived in our hotel, The New York, which was in the Disney Village, and were then taken to the Park to spend some leisure time and have lunch. After returning to the hotel to book into our rooms, our accompanist, Rhian and deputy, Steve, decided to race each other around the hotel’s ice rink. Nick, MD, looked on anxiously, but, thankfully, there were no accidents!! We were then taken back to the Park at 5pm for rehearsals, firstly in the Fantasy Theatre, and then on to the stage outside Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. This was followed by an early night in readiness for our heavy workload the following day.
Saturday morning saw a few of us starting the day in the hotel swimming pool before being picked up to go to the Park. Luckily it was dry and reasonably still so we were able to sing on the outside stage at the Castle. We were so pleased to do this, as last year we were confined to the theatre, due to poor weather. This was an instant hit with both the organisers and the general public who turned up in their hundreds to listen to our performances. We sang 4 times during the day and each performance was greeted with a great ovation and it was good to see so many people over from Wales for the occasion. After our final concert, some of us stayed on to see a performance in the Fantasy Theatre from the excellent Pembrokeshire School philharmonic wind ensemble. An early(!) night followed, as there was another busy day ahead.
We woke to heavy rain on the Sunday morning and the first 2 performances at midday and 1pm were in doubt. However, the organisers were convinced that the weather would improve and, unlike last year, were prepared to wait a little longer to decide where we would sing for the day. In the end, we went to the Theatre for the midday concert and then the show at 1pm was cancelled. We had lunch and, as forecast, the sun came out, and we were able to sing on the outside stage for the 2 afternoon shows. It was obvious that the organisers really wanted us to sing outdoors due to the success of the previous day. Both shows went very well again and our work was complete.
Unknown to Rhian, who is getting married this May, we had arranged a surprise ‘stag’ night for her on the last night and everyone had brought white shirts, black ties, dark glasses and a trilby for a ‘Blues Brothers’ theme night. We managed to ensure that Rhian was last down to the bar and everyone was waiting, appropriately dressed, and a rendition of the vultures’ song, ”We’re Your Friends’ from Jungle Book was rendered. We had learnt this especially for the trip and it was just right for the occasion. Rhian was gobsmacked, and her face was a picture. We had booked a table in our favourite restaurant for the evening, and a great night of singing and drinking followed.
We returned to Swansea on Monday 9th and, once again, the trip was a huge success. Thanks must go to our music team of Nick, Rhian and Steve and also to Alan Clewett, our secretary, who organised everything so efficiently. Thanks also to Martine, Caroline, Antonio and Graham, from Disneyland, who looked after us so well during our stay.
Click here to see some pictures from the weekend
March – MRSA Concert, Birmingham
We travelled to the Royal British Legion Hall in Northfield, Birmingham for a charity concert for MRSA Support, which is a nationwide support group for supporters, dependants, relatives, and friends of people who contract MRSA. The concert was originally the idea of Brian Norman, who had joined our choir, but tragically died before a date had been organised. Brian suffered from MRSA and was very active within the support group in Swansea. We sang to a packed hall and were joined by Ciara and Rory McGhie who performed a number of items. The compaire was Dick Shepherd, a renowned, but now retired, stuntman. His claim to fame is that he has wrecked over 2000 cars in films and television and worked on the original film of ‘The Italian Job’. We finished our programme to a rousing ovation with many requests for our return in the future. Many thanks to Tony Field, the national chairman, for organising the event and looking after us so well.
May 2009
On 9th May 2009, the choir performed at the very special wedding of Rhian, our accompanist, married her fiancee, Ben. It was held outside in the lovely setting of the grounds of Penrice Castle. Hopefully we have not lost an accompanist, but gained a drummer!
Click here for more photographs.
