Sandra Knight
was appointed as the new Musical Director of the choir
starting in March.She
was appointed from several applicants and we are very lucky
to have found a person with her qualities.She gave her first
full rehearsal with the choir in preparation for a concert
at the Brangwyn Hall, Swansea for the Young Singer Bursary
Winners with West Glamorgan Youth Music. However,
unprecedented events took over. Toward the end of
March, the Coronavirus Pandemic came into being.As a result,
"lockdown" throughout the UK was brought in by the
government with self-isolation and gathering of people
strictly banned. Government
rules were to "Stay at home and Stay safe".
This had a profound effect on all choirs- unable to meet and
rehearse! 2020 was to be a very busy year for the
Gwalia Singers. All
future concerts were cancelled. This included a
retirement dinner in honour of former MD Nick Rogers, a
combined concert with the Kronshagen Choir from Germany, a
choir tour to Cornwall as well as singing at several
weddings and at other events.
With the new MD eager to commence her appointment and no
choir rehearsals, technology came to the forefront. Regular monthly
newsletters from the Chairman, Clive Walters and the Music
Team were forwarded to choristers along with new pieces of
music to add to the choir's repertoire.This was important
so that sectional parts could be learnt in readiness for
when rehearsals could resume. (Also to keep everyone busy
during lockdown). Zoom has come to our aid – we had a
committee meeting, a social gathering and a quiz, thank you
Gareth John for being our Quiz Master.Sandra also met
with the four sections of the choir over a period of weeks
via "Zoom". A new chapter had begun.......
Dr Carl Sullivan, who sings with the second tenors and a
former committee member, is leaving the choir.He was a doctor at
Morriston hospital and is now taking up a promotional
position in Sheffield.He leaves with our thanks and good wishes.
Unfortunately, a very loyal and participative
member of the Gwalia Singers – Edwin [Ed] Parton passed away
on 20th March this year. He
had been unwell for some time with lung cancer and was
having regular treatment in hospital where he contracted the
coronavirus.
He was a very much loved and intelligent member of the choir
which he joined in May 2008. His potential was soon
recognised when he was elected to the committee at the AGM
in 2011. In the
same year he took on the role of Patron’s Secretary,
communicating regularly with all those many individuals who
support the choir. In 2013 the choir Chairman at the time –
Clive Walters, invited him to be Vice Chairman which he
gladly accepted and was elected Chairman in 2015. He added a special
mature and hard-working dimension to this role which he held
for the normal two years. On
completion of his chairmanship he continued to serve as an
experienced committee member.
He will be greatly missed by all the choir, especially the
second tenors and certainly by the many golfers who played
with him. Our
deepest sympathies are with his wife Janet.
February 2020
Our first performance of the year was at the Three Lamps, on
Saturday 22nd, to provide entertainment for the
Wales v France rugby match. We sang for about half an hour
before the game and managed to squeeze in a few items at
half time. After the game we moved around the various floors
singing a few songs to each group of people, including a hen
party on the top floor! The response we get from these is
amazing and most of the partygoers are youngsters who would
probably never hear a male voice choir singing.
On Saturday 29th we were back at All Saints,
Oystermouth for a fundraising concert for the choir and a
local charity ‘Therapy for Swansea Kids’. The concert
entitled ‘March into March’ feature d the choir and the
newly formed ‘Rock Choir’, which comprises members of choirs
from Swansea, Mumbles, Neath, Carmarthen and Llanelli. The
concert started with Roger Gadd presenting a cheque of
£2000.00 to the charity which has established a Therapy
Centre at Hill House and is entirely run by volunteer
parents, therapists and friends. We opened the concert with
‘Cwm Rhondda’, with Steve joining Rhian on the organ, and
also performed ‘Pacem’. This is relatively new to our
repertoire and is accompanied by Rhian and Gareth Widlake on
viola. During this set Nick presented our service ties to
Geoff Jones, for completing five years, and Adrian Crowley
and Anthony Marmont for ten years. There was also a tie for
our youngest member who was actually celebrating his 18th
birthday! Mike Phippen received his tie for five years’
service and we all sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to him. We finished
our first set with ‘The Impossible Dream’. The Rock Choir
then sang and started with ‘Since You’ve been Gone’ and
included ‘Super Trouper’ and ‘Don’t Stop me Now’ in their
first set. The first half finished with a terrific solo by
Lee Ellery who is the ‘Special Ambassador’ for the charity.
He sang ‘I Dreamed A Dream’ from ‘Les Miserables’ and
received a deserved standing ovation at the end. The Rock
Choir started the second half with Justin Timberlake’s
‘Can’t Stop the Feeling’ followed by ‘Only You’. Their
performance is always very lively and are well directed by
Dan Rogers, who’s enthusiasm is affectious. They finished
their second set with ‘Shut Up and Dance with Me’. We
finished the concert with our second set, and we started
with our ‘Abba Medley’. It was great to see our previous MD,
Simon Oram, in the audience, who arranged this medley for
the choir. We sang a number of our favourites and finished
with ‘An American Trilogy’ to a standing ovation from the
packed audience. This was possibly Nick’s last concert and
it was a fitting end to all his hard work over the past 13
years. Special thanks must go to the sponsors of the concert
Swansea Building Society, Liberty Homes, Designer Outdoor
Lighting, RDM Electrical and Mechanical Services, and
Morganstone. Also, to our Ladies Committee who looked after
‘front of house’ and CD sales. Lastly to our fundraising
committee who put the concert together. Following the
concert, we all adjourned to the West Cross Inn, arranged by
Meirion Howells, and they provided a lovely buffet for us.
Nick Rogers, our outstanding MD for the past 14 years, had
announced that he would be standing down after the concert
at the end of February. Nick is staying with the
choir and has joined the second bass section.
January 2020
We had a quiet January, with regard to concerts. We
were sorry to hear the sad news that Alan Short had lost his
battle with a short-term illness and had passed away. Alan
was a keen sportsman and a very good 2nd tenor and had been
with us for nine years. He leaves his wife Eileen, children
and grandchildren and will be sadly missed by the choir and
his family. It was great to sing at his funeral at Swansea
Crematorium.
December 2019
Once again, we had a very busy Christmas period. On December
7th we performed a concert at All Saints,
Oystermouth for the ‘Maggies’ cancer charity. This is fast
becoming an annual event and we were joined by the Thomas
Coaches Mid-Rhondda Brass Band. The church was packed, and
the first half was made up of both the choir and band
performing items from their normal repertoires and ended
with the two joining together for ‘Morte Criste’. The second
half started with everyone joining in with ’O Come All Ye
Faithful’ and the band played ‘Christmas Festival’. There
was a wonderful atmosphere in the church and the band ended
with an audience participation piece ‘Christmas Swingalong’.
Band director Alan Gibbs had his work cut out to get
different areas of the audience to sway to a ‘round’, in
time with the band, to great hilarity. The band were once
again wonderful and fully contributed to a great night. We
then finished the evening with our Christmas items which
included many of our popular items such as ‘Rockin’ Around
the Christmas Tree’, ‘Stop the Cavalry’ and ‘Merry Christmas
Everyone’. Dr Pat Steane thanked the choir and band for the
entertainment and announced that they had already raised
£2500 for the charity from the concert.
The next Tuesday we sang at the Scout Hut, Brynmill, which
is a concert organised by the Ladies Committee. Again, this
is an annual event and the ladies very kindly provide a
buffet and raised money for a local charity. The Ladies
committee work very hard for the choir and their
Chairperson, Linda Lewis, deserves so much credit for
organising this event, and others, during the year. Two days
later we sang at the Pier Café, Mumbles, again, raising
money for charity. This also seems to be an annual event and
the café provides a lovely atmosphere.
On Saturday 14th we sang at St Hillary’s church,
Killay. This is a new event for us, and the church was
holding a ‘Christmas Tree Festival’. There were many trees
around the church, but we did manage to squeeze into the
small area in the nave and the on the chancel steps. The
concert was introduced by Rev Phillip Gwynn and, again, we
did a mix of our normal repertoire and Christmas items.
Our last concert was at St Stephen’s church, Port Tennant.
This has also become an annual event but was moved from the
main St Thomas church due to ongoing alterations and
renovations. Once again, the three local school choirs took
part, St Thomas Community School, Danygraig Junior School
and Cefn Hengoed School. Each choir was introduced by their
headmasters and, as usual, were absolutely fantastic. We
finished off the evening with everyone joining in with
‘Merry Christmas Everyone’. Thanks go to Rev Steve Bunting
for running the event and, hopefully, next year we may be
back at St Thomas’ if the work has been completed.
After a busy few weeks we had a relaxing afternoon and
evening at the Queen’s on Thursday 19th. A good
number of members turned up and we had a good old sing-song
which the locals really enjoyed. A great end to a busy
December!
November 2019
We have rehearsed well for our forthcoming Christmas
concerts, although not introducing any new items this year.
We have also had two new members in Richard Jones and Peter
Cooke who have passed their audition. Both have joined the
2nd tenor section and we hope that they will enjoy their
stay with us.
However, the biggest news was that Nick has decided to
retire/step down as Musical Director with the effect from
March 2020. He has been ‘in charge’ since November 2006 and
has overseen a huge change in the choir, as can be seen from
this website. He has also maintained the style of the Gwalia
Singers in arranging many modern songs and some old
favourites. Applications are now being received from
potential replacements and, hopefully, we will be able to
announce a replacement over the next few months. More news
on this to follow.
October 2019
On Saturday 12th October we went on our travels to
Llandrindod Wells to sing in Holy Trinity Church. We
supported a local charity ‘AGLMUK’ which partners a school
and church in Uganda, to enhance the lives of children and
young people from poor backgrounds. We were joined by Mike
and Chris Clarke, who sang a number of ‘songs from the
shows’ and Ann Smith and Jan Swindale performed the
monologue ‘Albert and the Lion’. The church was full, and we
received a standing ovation after singing our last item. We
helped raise over £1200 for the charity and, of course, we
gave our services free of charge. Following the concert, we
went to the Commodore Hotel where we stayed for the night. A
large buffet was provided, and we had a great afterglow
which went on until the early hours. There were a group of
young men from the South of England staying at the hotel who
had intended having an early night, but instead, they joined
in with us and many said that it was the best night that
they had ever had!!
September 2019
On Saturday 7th September we sang at a dinner of the Boy’s
Brigade of UK and ROI at the Marriott Hotel, Swansea. The
Boy’s Brigade were holding their Annual Conference in
Swansea and they had organised a number of events over the
weekend. We sang our usual varied repertoire and were
thanked at the end by the President of the Brigade, Lord
Griffiths of Burry Port. He said that they had all enjoyed
our singing and revealed that he was a founder member of the
Burry Port Male Voice Choir and felt that he had ‘come
home’! He was a bottom bass and the first piece he remembers
singing was ‘Morte Criste’ and, as we were asked for an
encore, Nick duly sang this and asked ‘Les’ to join in with
our basses, which he really enjoyed. Thanks also to Rev
Steven Bunting for asking us to sing at the event.
Patrons’ Concert. We had St Stythians Male Voice Choir,
from Cornwall, as our guests at our first Patrons’ Concert
held at St Mary’s Church, Swansea on Saturday 28th. The
choir was founded in 1947 and their MD was Ken Downing, who
has been directing the choir for 33 years! They opened the
concert with ‘Let There Be Light’ arranged by Cornishman,
Goff Richards, and sung a varied repertoire throughout
including the lively ‘Georgy Girl’, a ‘Cole Porter’ medley
and ‘Bring Him Home’ from Les Miserables. They concluded
their singing with the rousing ‘We Rise Again’. We sang
items from our usual repertoire but included ‘Pacem’ for the
first time. This is a beautiful piece sung to the Latin text
‘Donna nobis pacem’, and has been composed by an American,
Lee Dengler. It also features an additional string
accompaniment and we are lucky to have Gareth Widlake in our
baritones, who played the viola, with Rhian. This really
adds an extra texture and we gave a great performance. We
have also added Mark Hayes’ arrangement of ‘The Impossible
Dream’, which is a great sing with a number of key changes
throughout. This was the last piece we sang on our own and
the choirs then joined forces to sing ‘Morte Criste’ and ‘An
American Trilogy’, which featured Steve on the organ,
resulting in a standing ovation. Considering the atrocious
weather outside the church was almost full and the
appreciative audience were treated to a fine concert. During
the concert we presented some service ties. Rob Smith was
presented with his 5 year tie and Haydn Lewis with his 10
year tie. The last presentation went to our hard-working
secretary Alan Clewett, who has been in the choir for 25
years. We battled through the wind and rain to the
Railwaymen’s Club in Wind Street following the concert and
we were treated to a wonderful buffet provided by the choir.
August 2019
We sang at the wedding of Steven Geaney and Danielle Malson
on 17th at Oldwalls, Llanrhidian. It was a warm day and we
had to gather in a portioned off, dark area of the reception
room as, unknown to us, we were there as a surprise to the
groom! It was a bit claustrophobic, but the secret was
achieved.
July 2019
Following our adventure to Barbados we had a quiet few weeks
before singing at Dobbies (formerly Wyevale) on the Swansea
Enterprise Park on Saturday 13th. This was a short recital
in the afternoon, as a ‘thank you’ for allowing us to
advertise and sell raffle tickets for our fundraising
concert earlier in the year. We had a good turnout and a
small, but appreciative audience, gathered to hear our
singing.
On Saturday July 20th we sang at the Memorial Hall in
Penllergaer for the 50th wedding anniversary of Ian and
Diane Smith. Diane is the sister of our baritone, John
Davies, and is a great supporter of the choir, having
travelled with us to Barbados, in May. Ian was also there
but suffered quite severe burns to his foot, much to the
amusement of many of the choir! He has now recovered. It was
a lovely evening and was enjoyed by all.
May 2019
Barbados Celtic Festival
2019
Well. What can we say?! This was the biggest and, surely,
the most exciting venture that the choir has ever
undertaken. The Festival has been running for nineteen years
and has not had a male voice choir since the very first
event. We took 42 choristers, which was an amazing
achievement, and the party totalled more than 70 altogether
with wives, partners and friends. This was originally put to
the choir over twelve months previously and the dedication
and financial commitment by the choristers, committee, and
musical team, was outstanding.
We left Swansea at 4.00am on Monday 20th and travelled to
Gatwick for our flight to Grantley Adams Airport where we
were met by Carol Anderson, the festival organiser. When we
arrived, we had a quick change and went to the opening party
at the hotel, The Coconut Court Beach, where we received
some free cocktails and were entertained by a local band.
The following day was spent acclimatising and enjoying the
lovely weather. In the evening we were invited across the
road to ‘Jake’s’, where we met the Minister of Culture and
the Creative Economy for Barbados, Mr John King. We were
entertained by ‘Riddell Fiddles’, from Selkirk, and lead by
Sheila Sapkota, who were also taking part in the festival,
and there were more free drinks on offer.
On Wednesday we had our first concert at St Patrick’s
Cathedral, and met up with Sister Pauline, who was the head
of St Patrick’s Junior School. Sister Pauline was also from
Scotland and had been playing guitar with Riddell Fiddles,
the night before. The concert was scheduled to start at
1.00pm, and this was the first time that we realised that
Bajan time was fairly relaxed, as the buses to take us to
the concert didn’t turn up until 12.45pm…and then there were
not enough seats for everyone, so they had to make 2
journeys!! The concert eventually got underway at 1.15pm.
However, it was a lovely event where the local school choir
sang ‘Loch Lomond’, in a wonderful Scottish accent,
accompanied by Sister Pauline and they also did a few
dances. They then sang ‘Beautiful, Beautiful, Barbados’,
which we had learnt and were able to join in with them. We
then sang three items, but, because all the windows and
doors were open and a breeze was going through the
cathedral, the acoustic was lost. Rhian and Nick also had
problems with their music being blown around! The concert
finished with the combined pipers from the Reading Scottish
Pipe Band and the Strathallan School Pipe Band, under their
Musical Director, Craig Muirhead. What a wonderful sound!
The rest of the day we had to ourselves, so it was back to
the beach for more sun.
On Thursday we all made our own arrangements. Some of
the party went on the ‘Cool Runnings’ Catamaran and had a
wonderful day swimming with turtles and taking in the lovely
coastline of West Barbados. They stopped outside the Sandy
Lanes Resort, where all the celebrities go, and had lunch on
the boat, followed by more swimming. Another small group
went on a trip around the island provided by ‘Dale’, a local
driver, and organised by Pete Beales. This was quite an
experience where Dale took them around several Rum Shacks,
and they met with Nigel Benn’s auntie! They also visited the
oldest church on the island and saw where Rihanna was
brought up - and visited more Rum Shacks! Others just stayed
by the pool and beach and soaked up the sun.
Our main concert of the tour was held on Friday evening. It
was at the Walled Garden Theatre, which is a relatively new
venue. We had a sound check rehearsal at 4.00pm and
everything was fine, except that there was no staging for
the choir to sing on. The event was organised by the Rotary
Club of Barbados South and started at ‘about’ 7.00pm. The
concert was opened by Donny Hughes, a well-known Scottish DJ
and we sang our normal items and included ‘Yellow Bird’
which we had learnt for the tour. The concert also featured
‘Sing Out Barbados’, under their director, Keith Squires.
They were beautifully dressed in colourful costumes and sung
a variety of Caribbean songs, many being acted out and very
funny. They finished with ‘Beautiful, Beautiful, Barbados’,
a song which was far more popular than we thought, when we
learnt it. We were going to sing it as our
penultimate item in this concert, so Nick made a bit of a
joke about the fact that we had learnt this song, had been
beaten to sing it, twice, already, and had travelled 4,000
miles!! We were not going to leave without singing our
version - so we did, and the audience loved it. We ended
with ‘An American Trilogy’ and received a standing ovation
from the large audience. Attending the concert was the
British High Commissioner to Barbados, Ms Janet Douglas, CMG
who enjoyed it very much.
For our last official concert, we travelled to St Thomas
Church, in the district of St Thomas, which was about 30
minutes away. We were informed that the concert was to start
at 6.00pm, but, again, we were in Bajan time and we did not
leave the hotel until 5.30pm! However, when we turned up at
the church there were only a few cars in the car park, and
we were informed that the concert did not start until
6.30pm! We had a few problems when we arrived, as the
keyboard did not have a sustain pedal with it, and again, no
staging. A pedal was located and brought to the church, and
at first did not work, but eventually this was rectified.
Singing with us were three combined church choirs who opened
the concert. We started with ‘Cwm Rhondda’ and blew the
audience away with our ‘Amens’, with the boys, Rhian, and
Steve, on their church organ, making a fine sound! Quite a
few of the church choir’s members were singing along with us
as well. This was a lovely, intimate evening with the locals
lapping up the unique sound of a Welsh Male Voice Choir, and
the boys were on fine form. Rhian had further problems with
the keyboard later on, when it suddenly went ‘honky tonk’
halfway through one of our items!
We had some more leisure time on Sunday to soak up the
sun (boring – isn’t it!) and in the afternoon we had the
final party at the hotel. Carol Anderson and Donny Hughes
kept things under control and a few presentations were made
to the pipe band MD Craig Muirhead and to our MD Nick. We
gave a few more renditions and the pipers also played.
Further entertainment was provided by Riddell Fiddles and we
lined up around the pool to sing ‘Three Little Birds’
accompanied by them. We then went down to the beach for a
final ‘photoshoot’ and sung ‘Beautiful, Beautiful, Barbados’
accompanied by our own ukulele band! (See
the Youtube clip) We finished with our own
National Anthem. This just about brought our trip to an end,
as the next day saw our party break up, because about half
were going home
and the rest staying for another week.
We spent the morning around the pool on the last day
and the ones that were leaving were waived off and went to
the airport. What happened next was a flash of inspiration!
In the corner of the departure lounge was a piano and, after
a few rums, Nick thought it would be a good idea to attempt
a ‘flash mob’. Not everyone was keen at first, but we did it
and immediately people were recording it on their phones. Of
course, we sang ‘Beautiful Barbados’, with Rhian on the
piano and the locals loved it. Before we knew it, someone
had put it on Facebook and, after a week, it had 30k views!!
(See the Facebook clip) It has
also appeared on many other Facebook sites, including the
main ‘Visit Barbados’ page. A great end to a fabulous week.
For those who stayed a second week, the highlight must
be a visit to the hotel by Sir Garfield Sobers, a true
legend of West Indies cricket. He is, of course, synonymous
with Swansea, where he hit six sixes off one over, by the
luckless Malcolm Nash, at St Helens. He was a real gent and
spoke with the boys for many hours and even joined in the
singing.
The Celtic Festival, Barbados will be remembered for a long
time to come and we must thank Carol Anderson for inviting
us and looking after us while we were there. There are so
many other people to thank for organising this trip. Our
hard-working chairman Mike Phippen, who was not able to
come, but turned up at 3.30am on the morning we left, to see
us off, and secretary Alan, who liaised with the travel
company to get us all there. Our treasurer Lawrence, who has
handled an incredible amount of money. Our new fundraising
committee and established Ladies committee who raised a
substantial amount for the trip. Our sponsors Swansea
Building Society and Red Dragon Flagmakers, Clydach who
loaned us the Welsh flag. The choristers’ wives and partners
and the choristers themselves for making it such a success.
Finally, to Nick, Rhian and Steve for their commitment and
enthusiasm to get the choir ready for such occasions. The
choir has come so far over the last ten years or so and a
trip of this magnitude was out of the question back then.
Where many other choirs are struggling, we keep on striving
to attract new members and will try to arrange more exciting
trips in the future.
April 2019
Following our concert at St Mary’s we have had another new
member. Rhodri Jenkins enjoyed the evening and came along to
the next rehearsal and has joined the baritone section. Well
done Rhodri.
March 2019
On Saturday 2nd we gave a concert to raise funds for our
forthcoming trip to Barbados. We held it in St Mary’s Church
and our guests were the Thomas Coaches Mid-Rhondda Brass
Band and The Eclectics, from Swansea. The evening was
brilliantly compered by Paul Tabram, who is often heard at
the Liberty Stadium making the announcements at all Ospreys
Rugby matches and sometimes with the ‘Swans’. We opened with
’O Gymru’ and sung some further items in Welsh, that we have
rehearsed for Barbados. We finished our set with ‘How Great
Thou Art’. The Eclectics sang next, and, as their title
suggests, they sang a great mix of items including ‘Set Me
as a Seal’ and ‘Calon Lan’. They were a small group of just
seven singers but the lovely acoustic at St Mary’s suited
them well. The brass band finished the first half and played
a medley from ‘Oklahoma’ and ended the first half with Tom
Davoren’s ‘Pure of Heart’. They were excellent.
The band opened the second half with Gordon Langford’s
arrangement of ‘Men Of Harlech’ and their next item featured
Bass soloist Jeff Taylor in ‘Bass in the Ballroom’. They
completed their set with ‘Sospan Fach’. The Eclectics sang
next and sung five items including ‘Danny Boy’, ‘Si Hei Lwli
‘Mabi’ and finished with the energetic ‘I Got Rhythm’, to a
great ovation. In our last set we sang ‘Delilah’ and
Chicago’s ‘Hard To Say I’m Sorry’ and finished with our
‘Abba’ medley, which we have brought back after many years.
The concert ended with a joint item, ‘Morte Criste’, played
by the band and joined by the choir.
This was a terrific evening well organised by our chairman,
Mike Phippen and our fundraising committee. We had a full
church and thanks must go to our Ladies Committee who looked
after ticket and CD sales at the church. Thanks also to St
Mary’s church and especially Alan Jenkins, who is so
amenable to our requirements and to Swansea Building Society
for their generous sponsorship. Finally, to our music team
of Nick, Rhian and Steve who ensured that our performance
was to its usual high standard.
Following the concert, we all went to the Three Lamps for
refreshments and we are pleased to announce that the Thomas
Coaches Mid Rhondda Brass Band will be joining us again for
a Christmas concert later in the year.
Saturday 16th saw us return to the Three Lamps to sing at
the final match of the Six Nations, with Wales going for the
Grand Slam, against much fancied Ireland. Again, we sang
before and during the match and, once again, the pub was
full. The whole place erupted at the final whistle, with
Wales victorious by 25-7, far more comfortable than many
imagined. Once more, we went to the second floor to carry on
with the singing after the match. This has been a new
venture for us, and we know that the owner, Tim Evans, is
keen to have us back to sing at further events.
We are pleased to welcome another recruit to our ranks. Paul
Hutin has joined the second tenors where his uncle Ken once
sang. Ken was a terrific member of the choir and we hope
that Paul will be just as enthusiastic too.
February 2019
We welcomed Peter Beales to the choir, following his
audition, and he has joined the second tenors. Peter was at
the Queens the previous month and enjoyed the afternoon so
much that he decided he would give it a go! Well done SPeter
and we hope you have a long stay with us.
On Saturday 23rd we entertained at the Three Lamps before,
and during, the Wales v England rugby international.
Following a new renovation, the pub now has four floors,
with its own brewery on one floor. It was great to see it
full and there was a terrific atmosphere, especially when
Josh Adams went over in the corner, for Wales, to seal
victory 21-13. After the match we went to the next floor to
carry on the singing, as there were various birthday parties
and other celebrations going on.
January 2019
We had a quiet start to the year, but a good number of the
choir enjoyed a get together at the Queens on Thursday 3rd.
This has become an annual event and we were well looked
after by the staff at the pub. We started at 3.00 o’clock in
the afternoon and carried on during the early evening
adjourning to the Three Lamps, where we had been booked to
sing at some forthcoming Wales Rugby International matches
over the coming months.
Rehearsals commenced on Tuesday 8th and we were pleased to
see that we had attracted a potential new member following
our afternoon in the Queens. We also started rehearsing some
new items for our forthcoming trip to Barbados and, in fact,
is was good to have a quiet period so that we could
concentrate on this huge undertaking.
On a sad note, Roger Burrell passed away following a long
illness. Roger had been present at rehearsals up to his
death and will be sadly missed by his family and the choir.
December 2018
We had a very busy Christmas, as usual, and our first
concert was at All Saints, Oystermouth, in aid of ‘Maggies’,
a cancer charity. The church was full and the choir was
directed by Gareth Widlake, who is one of our baritones.
Although he has only been in the choir for a year, Gareth
was formerly headmaster at Bishopston Primary School and, as
he says, he is used to dealing with children, and this is no
different!! The choir sung brilliantly and we were also
fortunate to have Steve playing his keyboard accompaniments
to various items as well. The soloist was Anwen Pike. We
have been informed that £2500 was raised for the charity
and, again, our services were completely free.
Our next
concerts were the same as last year, also, with the first
being at the Scout Hall, Brynmill. This is organised by our
Ladies Committee and a great buffet was provided by them.
Their Chairperson, Linda, gave presentations to the musical
team and also a cheque for £2000.00 for our forthcoming trip
to Barbados, which was absolutely fantastic and very
gratefully received. The choir is going from strength to
strength; when other choirs are dwindling in numbers, and we
staged our biggest ever choir with 61 singers on stage. We
had 8 new members during the year and it is all to do with
the work of the choristers encouraging people to join. The
evening also raised over £500 for Diabetes UK, which is the
charity chosen by Nick, in memory of Debbie.
On Thursday 13th, we sang
at the Vivian Hall, Blackpill, and again the hall was full
and a great atmosphere created. However, it is getting a bit
of a squeeze in the hall for the choir with our growing
numbers! The highlight for the audience, as ever, was the
communal singing of ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’ and we also
sang ‘One More Mile To Go’, by Chris DeBurgh, again this
year among our Christmas items.
We sang at the Christmas
Community Concert at St Thomas church on December 18th. This
is definitely the highlight of our Christmas programme with
the old church absolutely packed. There was a tremendous
atmosphere with choirs from Danygraig Primary School, St
Thomas Community Primary School, and Cefn Hengoed Community
School all taking part. All the choirs sang a number of
Christmas items and we finished the concert with ‘Rockin’
Around The Christmas Tree’ which brought the audience to its
feet. All the choirs then joined to sing ‘We Wish You a
Merry Christmas’. This was the last event in the church, as
it is, because work is starting on making the church into
two floors with a community hall on the ground floor and a
church upstairs. We wish the vicar, Steve Bunting, and
everyone much success with this project.
Our last concert was held at the Pier Cafe on Thursday 20th.
This is the 3rd year we have sung at this event and, again,
it was a great success, although ticket numbers are now
being monitored carefully. However, there was still a lovely
atmosphere in the Cafe and evening was introduced by Siany
Martin, from ‘The Wave’ radio station.
Once again we had a busy Christmas and all the effort to
learn a good number of Christmas items was well worth it. We
also had over 50 singers at every event, which was a
terrific achievement.
November 2018
Our first concert following our tour to Kiel was held at
Clyne Golf Club on November 12th. The club was packed and we
had a lovely evening. The concert was in aid of ‘Save the
Children’ and we raised £1100 for the charity. Of course, we
gave our services free of charge so every penny went to the
charity. The evening was organised by Joan Jory and her
husband, Jeff, introduced the concert. Jeff was a former
member of the choir and it was great to see him there.
We sang at the wedding of Amy Staddon and Liam Jenkins on
Saturday 17th November. It took place at St Thomas church
and Amy is the daughter of our second tenor, Gareth.
We were pleased to welcome 3 new members to the choir and we
are really lucky because all 3 are experienced choristers.
Vernon Ward has moved to the area from Cheshire and has
joined the second tenors and Brian Brent and Brian Miles
have joined the first tenor section. We hope they all have a
long association with us.
We were sad to learn of the passing of Emil Jones, a
wonderful top tenor, who had been with the choir for over 20
years. He will be greatly missed by all his family and
friends and we sung at his funeral at Llanelli Crematorium.
We also had the dreadful news that Debbie, our MD Nick’s
wife, passed away following a short illness. Debbie
was a great support to Nick and knew all about his passion
for the male choir institution, having known him for nearly
40 years. She was a regular on the choir tours and had a
great friendship with Rhian and many of the wives and
partners. She will be greatly missed and our heartfelt
sympathies are with Nick.
Kiel, Germany - Sept 27th to Oct 1st 2018
Our European tour took us to Kiel, North Germany this year
and had its origins in Mannheim in 2012 when we sang with a
mixed choir from Kronshagen (a suburb of Kiel). We had kept
details of their MD, Imre Sallay, and asked whether they
would accommodate us and they dutifully obliged. Just by
sheer chance they have an annual concert on the last weekend
in September! We had 42 choristers and a number of wives and
partners and arrived on Thursday 27th at around 7.00pm and
went straight to the ‘Alte Muhle’ (Old Mill) restaurant and
had a lovely meal.
On Friday we had a guided to tour around Kiel, by coach,
which was very interesting. Kiel is a harbour city and is on
the north east coast of Germany facing the Baltic Sea. We
finished up by visiting the Laboe Ehrenmals (Naval Museum)
where, in the Great Hall; we sang 3 items and laid a wreath
at the memorial which has been set up for drowned and fallen
sailors everywhere. This was a very emotional time with many
of the choristers suffering from ‘lumps in throats’ and some
were even moved to tears. Many of our ladies were also
overcome by the occasion too. We then had a meal at the
restaurant ‘Heimathafen’ (Admiral Scheer) and many took a
lift to the top of the tower of the Great Hall, which gave
splendid views of the Harbour and surrounding countryside.
In the evening we went to Rendsburg to sing at St Mary’s
church. We were joined by the Rendsburg male voice choir and
‘Liedertafel’ (another local male singing group), who joined
together for the very first time for the concert. The
concert took a different format to what we usually do as,
following 2 sets by each of the choirs we went, with the
audience, to have the refreshments. After this we went back
to the church to finish the concert by singing another set
each! It was great to see that the audience returned too! We
finished our final set with ‘An American Trilogy’ and the
appreciative audience; together with the other two choirs,
got to their feet to give us a terrific ovation. Indeed, the
church was a lovely place to sing and we had given a
splendid performance. There were some presentations made at
the end of the concert and we then returned to our hotel
much later than we had anticipated! The next day we
were up early and travelled to the small town of Plon and
went on a boat trip around Lake Ploner. This took a couple
of hours and we returned to the hotel to get ready for the
evening concert. This was the main event of the tour and we
sang with Chor Kronshagen at the Burgerhaus, Kronshagen. It
was a very large hall and there were over 400 people in the
audience with many local dignitaries there also, including
the Mayor. It was also 99th year of the existence of Chor
Kronshagen. It really was a special event and Chor
Kronshagen sang a very varied programme with music from all
ages. They finished their first set with ‘Ar Hyd Y Nos’
(They have had a long association with a choir from North
Wales) which they sang in Welsh! We then sang our first set,
which included ‘Sanctus’, by Schubert, which we sang in
German, and finished with ‘Cwm Rhondda’ which brought the
400 strong audience to its feet in appreciation. We don’t
remember having a standing ovation in the middle of a
performance before! Following the interval it was pleasing
to hear Chor Kronshagen singing some modern songs and they
included ‘Can you feel the love tonight’ and finished with
Michael Jackson’s ‘Heal the World’. A lovely performance,
and the 50 singers in the choir made a very beautiful sound,
and were well directed by their MD, Imre Sallay. We then
sang our final set and again received a standing ovation
where another item was demanded. We obliged by singing ‘As
Long As I have Music’, which was a fitting end to another great
performance by the boys. However the concert did not finish
there as both choirs joined together to sing the amazing ‘O
Fortuna’ and ‘Fortune Plango Vulnera’ from ‘Carmina Burana’
by Carl Orff (Many will remember ‘O Fortuna’ as the music
from the ‘Old Spice’ advert many years ago!). This was
directed by Nick and accompanied by Imre, on the piano, and
Stefan Bihary on percussion. The choirs made a great sound
and did really well to keep everything together. Many
presentations were made to conclude a wonderful evening of
singing, and hopefully, we may all meet up again someday.
The most sumptuous buffet followed the concert and wine and
beer flowed which was much appreciated by everyone and many
thanks must go to Chor Kronshagen for providing this. We
even managed to sing a few more items including ’Freunde
Schenket Ein’ which we sang in German to our hosts.
We had a leisurely start to Sunday and were even more
delayed, as the bus company sent the usual two buses to pick
us up, but realised that one of them was not big enough for
our party! The problem was eventually solved and we
made our way to the beautiful city of Lubeck. The old part
was very interesting with a large cathedral and church and
the architecture of the buildings was quite stunning. When
we returned to Kiel, in the early evening, we all had a
lovely meal together at the Kiel Brewery and enjoyed their
beer, which is brewed on the premises. We then returned to
the hotel and a good number of us then went back to the
‘Alte Muhle’ and had a final afterglow. We returned to
Swansea on Monday and arrived at around 8.00pm.
This was another wonderful tour and there are so many people
to thank. The coach company was ‘Reisebyer’ and they had
organised the hotel and arranged for buses to carry us
around to every event. Apart from the one slight mishap,
they were excellent. Our own secretary Alan Clewett, as
usual, worked tirelessly before and during the tour to make
it such a success. Lawrence, our treasurer, also worked so
hard to collect monies during the year and during the trip
with his usual efficiency. We had 2 of our ladies, Patsy
Dewar and Jan Davies, to sell CD’s at the venues, and they
took nearly 300 Euros over the two concerts. Adrian Crowley
took charge of one of the buses and carried the CD’s around
with him. Thanks to our musical team of Nick, Rhian and
Steve, who never fail to bring the concerts together, and
ensure a high quality of performance. Lastly, to the members
of the choir, who committed themselves to the tour and sang
so well.
Back to the grind now and rehearsals start for our busy
Christmas period!
September 2018
On Thursday September 13th we
sang at All Saints Oystermouth for the Mumble Festival of
Music. This is a series of concerts is held annually, in
September, at the church and we were delighted to take part
this year. We were fortunate to be joined by Ros Evans, who
is always very entertaining, We were able to sing a number
of the new items that we have learnt for Germany including
Wagner’s ‘Prayer from Lohengrin’ and ‘Freunde Schenket Ein’
which went down very well. We also sung Schubert’s ‘Sanctus’
from his ‘Duetsche Mass’. Another highlight of the concert
was joining with Ros Evans to sing our arrangement of ‘The
Holy City’.
On Tuesday 18th we had some special visitors to our
rehearsal. We are in the early stages of arranging a tour to
Barbados next year to sing at their Celtic Music Festival,
which is held annually. The Director of the Festival, Carol
Anderson and the Acting High Commissioner for Barbados and
the Eastern Caribbean, Alphea Wiggins came to give us more
details about the festival. This is a really exciting time
for the choir and we are hoping that we will be able to sing
at the festival. They have not had a Welsh male voice choir
there since the first festival 19 years ago! Watch this
space for further updates.
August 2018
Again, another quiet month but we continued to rehearse and
have welcomed 2 new members to the choir. John Barnett has
joined the 2nd bass and Rogers Gadd, the baritone section.
We were also able to work hard on the items that we will be
singing in Kiel, Germany, on our annual tour. We are
learning a new item to the choir ‘Freunde Schenket Ein’, a
drinking song, which will feature a debut soloist in the
choir, Clive Dowell.
July 2018
We’ve had a quiet summer but on Sunday 29th we were asked to
sing at Stouthall (Carreg Adventure) for a group of
students, who were visiting Wales, from Kuwait. Having
previously entertained foreign students at Stouthall, we
were looking forward to singing to them and, once again,
they were a very appreciative audience. They enjoyed our
performance and. as a special request from one of the
students, we were asked to sing ‘Can’t Help Falling in
Love’. Although not in our repertoire, it is one we sing at
our ‘afterglows’, so we did our best to sing it and we were
also joined by a number of the students!
Following the concert we stopped off at the King Arthur,
Reynoldston and ended up having a short ‘afterglow’. A few
days later we appeared in the ‘Wales On-line’ website, as,
unknown to us, one of the staff had recorded our singing and
sent it to them. There was a small feature about the choir
and the video was included as well.
Annual Concert - 23rd June 2018
This was a wonderful evening –
probably the best yet! We were fortunate to have the
fantastic ‘Bella Voce’ with us, who had only 5 weeks earlier
performed at the Royal Albert Hall, London, with the massed
male choirs. They are a ladies group of 16 members, formed
in 2013 by their musical director Sarah Benbow-Thomas and
Lisa Shelmerdine Richards and come from South Pembrokeshire.
They boast around a dozen music degrees and have over 30
instrumental and vocal Grade 8’s between them and, together
with their accompanist Seimon Morris, make a brilliant
sound.
The concert was held at All
Saints, Oystermouth and we opened the evening with ‘Morte
Criste’ to a tremendous ovation from the packed church. This
set the scene for the rest of the concert. We followed this
with our 2 Italian items, ‘Ave Maria’ and ‘Nella Fantasia’
and finished the first section with ‘How Great Thou Art’.
This is becoming a very popular item and, considering all
the key changes and the fact that it’s unaccompanied, we
performed it really well. Bella Voce then started their
first set with ‘It Don’t Mean a Thing, If It Ain’t Got That
Swing’ and followed this with ‘Cwlwm Cariad’ by local
composer Alan Llewelyn Thomas. Other items in this section
included an arrangement of a song made famous by the Flying
Pickets, ‘Only You’ and their last item was ‘Who Will Buy’
from ‘Oliver’. We then sang 3 Welsh items, ‘O Gymru’, ‘Ar
Hyd Y Nos’ and our rousing setting of ‘Cwm Rhondda’ to end a
fantastic first half. Both ‘Morte Criste’ and ‘Cwm Rhondda’
featured Steve on the organ, together with our accompanist
Rhian.
Following the interval we sang
the lively ‘Hey Look Me Over’ and then we sang some more
modern popular sings. First was a new item to our repertoire
‘Hard To Say I’m Sorry’ which is the lovely song written and
performed by ‘Chicago’ in the early 1980’s. We followed this
with ‘God Only Knows’ and finished this section with the
Elvis Presley number ‘If I Can Dream’. Bella Voce returned
and delighted the audience, once again, with their items.
They started with a delightful arrangement of ‘Three Little
Maids’ and followed this with ‘Pure Imagination’. They
finished this set with an arrangement of the lovely song by
Snow Patrol ‘Run’ and their final item was a new upbeat
arrangement of ‘Calon Lan’, with a terrific accompaniment,
brilliantly played by Seimon. This was truly a memorable
performance by the ladies, full of beautiful phrasing and
musicality and deserving of their huge ovation.
Our final section
started with ‘He Ain’t Heavy He’s My Brother’ and one of our
favourites, Robbie Williams’ ‘Angels’. Our last piece of the
evening was Alwyn Humphreys’ arrangement of ‘An American
Trilogy’, again with Steve on the organ, which brought the
very appreciative audience to its feet. We then introduced
Bella Voce back to the stage and the concert closed with
everyone singing our National Anthem. A number of
presentations were made by our President, Geoff Wheel
including one to our Ladies Committee Chairwoman, Linda
Lewis, who works tirelessly throughout the year, with her
fellow members, to raise funds for the choir and steward the
‘annual’.
This was, surely, our best ever ‘Annual’ and thanks must go
to our MD Nick, brilliant accompanist, Rhian and organist
Steve, who also played harmonica for ‘He Aint’ Heavy’! The
wonderful All Saint’s Church proved a great venue again and
there were many others who contributed to the success of the
evening. We were sponsored by the Swansea Building Society
and thanks must go to Alun Williams and his team for their
financial support. Adrian Crowley arranged the writing
and printing of the programme and arranged for the concert
to be recorded by Ken Geen, from Cardiff, and also a video
has been made, by Tom and Jenna of Cardboard Donkey, of some
of the items and, hopefully, both of these will be released
soon. Ticket saleswere
again looked after very efficiently by Walter Jones.
June is always a busy month with our Annual Concert coming
closer. However, this year our minds were taken off the
concert for a while, as we were asked to sing at a 90th
birthday party on Wednesday 20th June, at Dewshall Court in
deepest Herefordshire. The venue was a bit difficult to
find, as we had to negotiate some rather narrow lanes which
were not always recognised by the ‘Sat Nav’. However,
eventually, we found the hall, via the old fashioned way of
a sign in the hedge! Although we were small in number we
gave a rousing performance which was enjoyed by all the
family members and friends. We sang a varied programme to
suit all the ages present and had to sing an ‘encore’ after
receiving a standing ovation following our last item. We
were treated to sandwiches and a ‘pint’ at Dewshall Hall and
then went to the Clytha Arms near Raglan on the way home for
further chips and beer.
May 2018
On
Friday 11th May we sang at St Peter’s Church, Newton, for
the Rotary Club of Mumbles. The church was full and we
started with ‘Cwm Rhondda’. In the first half we included
‘Nella fantasia’ and ‘How Great Thou Art’ and finished
with ‘Morte Criste’. The second half was a bit more
modern, singing classics such as ‘Angels’, ‘God Only
Knows’ and ‘Delilah’. We finished with ‘An American
Trilogy’ with Steve joining us on the organ. The evening
was interspersed with solos from Alexander Iles and Ewan
Forrest, who are both members of the Ariosa Singers. They
both sang well known items with Alexander singing ‘If I
were a Rich Man’ from ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ and Ewan ‘My
Name is John Wellington Wells’ from ‘The Sorcerer’ by
Gilbert and Sullivan. During the second half they sang the
duet ‘Ave Verum’ by Karl Jenkins. Their accompanist on
each occasion was Lisa Mears. This was a great night
organised by Doug Camp and Phillip Rogers, from the Rotary
Club, and all money raised went to ‘Ty Olwen’ and
‘Rotary’s Polio Eradication Campaign’. We, of course, gave
our services free of charge.
April 2018
On Friday 20th April we sang at the wedding of Shaun
Sturgess and Aimee Jones at St Hilary’s, Killay. It was a
beautiful day and we sang the happy couple out with ‘All You
Need is Love’.
The following night we had a joint concert with Newquay Male
Choir, from Cornwall. They were on a short tour to Wales and
had sung with Tonna Male Voice Choir, in Neath, the night
before. The concert was held at St Mary’s Church, in the
centre of Swansea, and this proved to be a great venue.
There was a large audience and they were well entertained by
our visitors who started with ‘When the saints go marching
in’. Although they were a small choir they made a great
sound and were very disciplined. During the evening they
sang a number of well known pieces and a few Cornish songs.
We also sang items from our normal repertoire but a
highlight was the singing of ‘How Great Thou Art’, which we
have been learning over the last few months. This is a new
setting and the wonderful acoustic in St Mary’s helped to
make this item, with its terrific climax, a huge success.
The concert was very kindly sponsored by Tomos Watkin
Brewery and Liberty Homes and we thank them for their
tremendous support. We finished with ‘American Trilogy’ and
then the two choirs joined to sing ‘Morte Criste’, which was
a fitting end to a lovely concert. We all then adjourned to
the ‘Cross Keys’ where a buffet had been prepared for us.
On a sad note we learned of the passing of one of our
stalwarts, Vernon Simons, following a long illness. Vernon
would have completed 50 years service this year, and had
previously taken a very active part in the choir where he
had sung many solo items, with his beautiful tenor voice. He
was also Chairman some years ago. He also served on the
committee and his wife, Althea, had given so many years
commitment to the Ladies committee. We were very happy to be
asked to sing at his funeral at Bethlehem Chapel and at
Llanelli Crematorium, where we sang Robat Arwyn’s
‘Benedictus’. He will be sadly missed.
On Thursday 26th April we sang at the Liberty Stadium for
the AGM of the Swansea Building Society. The Building
Society has been very kind to us by sponsoring our annual
concert this year and we are very grateful for their
support. This will, hopefully, lead to a long term
relationship.
March 2018
We held our AGM on Tuesday 6th and it was well attended. Our
president, Geoff Wheel, opened the meeting and our chairman,
Clive, thanked all the officers for their hard work and also
the musical team for their energy and commitment. Our MD,
Nick, then pointed out that 2017 was a record breaking year.
We had our biggest ever choir at our annual concert (56),
our biggest ever attendance at a rehearsal (56 on 2
occasions. However, this has already been broken this year
with 57 attending a rehearsal in February!) and also the
largest number of choristers on our European tour (43).)This
is a magnificent achievement by everyone, especially at a
time when male choirs’ numbers are considered to be in
decline.
On Saturday 24th March we sang at Langland Bay Golf Club for
the charity ‘Forget Me Not’. This charity runs Dementia Day
Clubs, which aims to help people with all types of dementia.
Club captain, and former International Gymnast, Lee Jones,
introduced us and we gave a lovely concert which was well
appreciated by the small audience. This was followed by
cheese and wine.
January/February 2018
Once again, following on from our busy Christmas we had a
quiet start to the year. We also found that our new
rehearsal room was not what we wanted and, thanks to Walter
Jones, we moved to Holy Cross Church, West Cross, for a few
weeks. On occasions, when we learn new items, we like to
split the choir into tenors and basses and use different
rooms for rehearsing. Unfortunately, this could not be done
at Holy Cross and we have now moved to the Linden Christian
Centre, which is just down the road. This appears to be a
great facility for us, and will hopefully become our base.
It is with great sadness that we report the death ofMal Herbert who sang
with the choir for over 30 years. He had been Part
Steward for the bass section and he taught new bass members
a tremendous amount. He was a committee member from
the very early days and became Secretary of the choir, a
position that he held for many years. He will be greatly
missed. His wife Pat worked hard for the ladies
committee, and and we send her our deepest sympathy.
We welcome Billy McCarley to our 2nd tenors. He had his
voice test and did very well, and we hope he will have a
long stay with us. We have also had a few other probationers
with us and, hopefully, we will be adding to our numbers in
the next few months.
Our quiet spell has given us the opportunity to learn some
new items. We have been working hard on a wonderful
arrangement of ‘How Great Thou Art’ which has put us
slightly out of our ‘comfort zone’. It has been arranged by
Jim Clancy, from the American chorus, Vocal Majority, and is
completely unaccompanied and has an amazing climax.
To read more of our news from the last 48 years
please click
here.
Sandra Knight
was appointed as the new Musical Director of the choir
starting in March. She
was appointed from several applicants and we are very lucky
to have found a person with her qualities. She gave her first
full rehearsal with the choir in preparation for a concert
at the Brangwyn Hall, Swansea for the Young Singer Bursary
Winners with West Glamorgan Youth Music. However,
unprecedented events took over. Toward the end of
March, the Coronavirus Pandemic came into being. As a result,
"lockdown" throughout the UK was brought in by the
government with self-isolation and gathering of people
strictly banned. Government
rules were to "Stay at home and Stay safe".
We had St Stythians Male Voice Choir,
from Cornwall, as our guests at our first Patrons’ Concert
held at St Mary’s Church, Swansea on Saturday 28th. The
choir was founded in 1947 and their MD was Ken Downing, who
has been directing the choir for 33 years! They opened the
concert with ‘Let There Be Light’ arranged by Cornishman,
Goff Richards, and sung a varied repertoire throughout
including the lively ‘Georgy Girl’, a ‘Cole Porter’ medley
and ‘Bring Him Home’ from Les Miserables. They concluded
their singing with the rousing ‘We Rise Again’. We sang
items from our usual repertoire but included ‘Pacem’ for the
first time. This is a beautiful piece sung to the Latin text
‘Donna nobis pacem’, and has been composed by an American,
Lee Dengler. It also features an additional string
accompaniment and we are lucky to have Gareth Widlake in our
baritones, who played the viola, with Rhian. This really
adds an extra texture and we gave a great performance. We
have also added Mark Hayes’ arrangement of ‘The Impossible
Dream’, which is a great sing with a number of key changes
throughout. This was the last piece we sang on our own and
the choirs then joined forces to sing ‘Morte Criste’ and ‘An
American Trilogy’, which featured Steve on the organ,
resulting in a standing ovation. Considering the atrocious
weather outside the church was almost full and the
appreciative audience were treated to a fine concert. During
the concert we presented some service ties. Rob Smith was
presented with his 5 year tie and Haydn Lewis with his 10
year tie. The last presentation went to our hard-working
secretary Alan Clewett, who has been in the choir for 25
years. We battled through the wind and rain to the
Railwaymen’s Club in Wind Street following the concert and
we were treated to a wonderful buffet provided by the choir.
August 2019
since the very first
event. We took 42 choristers, which was an amazing
achievement, and the party totalled more than 70 altogether
with wives, partners and friends. This was originally put to
the choir over twelve months previously and the dedication
and financial commitment by the choristers, committee, and
musical team, was outstanding. 
windows and
doors were open and a breeze was going through the
cathedral, the acoustic was lost. Rhian and Nick also had
problems with their music being blown around! The concert
finished with the combined pipers from the Reading Scottish
Pipe Band and the Strathallan School Pipe Band, under their
Musical Director, Craig Muirhead. What a wonderful sound!
The rest of the day we had to ourselves, so it was back to
the beach for more sun. 
it as our
penultimate item in this concert, so Nick made a bit of a
joke about the fact that we had learnt this song, had been
beaten to sing it, twice, already, and had travelled 4,000
miles!! We were not going to leave without singing our
version - so we did, and the audience loved it. We ended
with ‘An American Trilogy’ and received a standing ovation
from the large audience. Attending the concert was the
British High Commissioner to Barbados, Ms Janet Douglas, CMG
who enjoyed it very much.
band! (
re going home
and the rest staying for another week.
Our next
concerts were the same as last year, also, with the first
being at the Scout Hall, Brynmill. This is organised by our
Ladies Committee and a great buffet was provided by them.
Their Chairperson, Linda, gave presentations to the musical
team and also a cheque for £2000.00 for our forthcoming trip
to Barbados, which was absolutely fantastic and very
gratefully received. The choir is going from strength to
strength; when other choirs are dwindling in numbers, and we
staged our biggest ever choir with 61 singers on stage. We
had 8 new members during the year and it is all to do with
the work of the choristers encouraging people to join. The
evening also raised over £500 for Diabetes UK, which is the
charity chosen by Nick, in memory of Debbie.
On Thursday 13th, we sang
at the Vivian Hall, Blackpill, and again the hall was full
and a great atmosphere created. However, it is getting a bit
of a squeeze in the hall for the choir with our growing
numbers! The highlight for the audience, as ever, was the
communal singing of ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’ and we also
sang ‘One More Mile To Go’, by Chris DeBurgh, again this
year among our Christmas items.
We sang at the Christmas
Community Concert at St Thomas church on December 18th. This
is definitely the highlight of our Christmas programme with
the old church absolutely packed. There was a tremendous
atmosphere with choirs from Danygraig Primary School, St
Thomas Community Primary School, and Cefn Hengoed Community
School all taking part. All the choirs sang a number of
Christmas items and we finished the concert with ‘Rockin’
Around The Christmas Tree’ which brought the audience to its
feet. All the choirs then joined to sing ‘We Wish You a
Merry Christmas’. This was the last event in the church, as
it is, because work is starting on making the church into
two floors with a community hall on the ground floor and a
church upstairs. We wish the vicar, Steve Bunting, and
everyone much success with this project.
The next day we
were up early and travelled to the small town of Plon and
went on a boat trip around Lake Ploner. This took a couple
of hours and we returned to the hotel to get ready for the
evening concert. This was the main event of the tour and we
sang with Chor Kronshagen at the Burgerhaus, Kronshagen. It
was a very large hall and there were over 400 people in the
audience with many local dignitaries there also, including
the Mayor. It was also 99th year of the existence of Chor
Kronshagen. It really was a special event and Chor
Kronshagen sang a very varied programme with music from all
ages. They finished their first set with ‘Ar Hyd Y Nos’
(They have had a long association with a choir from North
Wales) which they sang in Welsh! We then sang our first set,
which included ‘Sanctus’, by Schubert, which we sang in
German, and finished with ‘Cwm Rhondda’ which brought the
400 strong audience to its feet in appreciation. We don’t
remember having a standing ovation in the middle of a
performance before! Following the interval it was pleasing
to hear Chor Kronshagen singing some modern songs and they
included ‘Can you feel the love tonight’ and finished with
Michael Jackson’s ‘Heal the World’. A lovely performance,
and the 50 singers in the choir made a very beautiful sound,
and were well directed by their MD, Imre Sallay. We then
sang our final set and again received a standing ovation
where another item was demanded. We obliged by singing ‘As
Long As I have Music’, which was a fitting end to another 
great
performance by the boys. However the concert did not finish
there as both choirs joined together to sing the amazing ‘O
Fortuna’ and ‘Fortune Plango Vulnera’ from ‘Carmina Burana’
by Carl Orff (Many will remember ‘O Fortuna’ as the music
from the ‘Old Spice’ advert many years ago!). This was
directed by Nick and accompanied by Imre, on the piano, and
Stefan Bihary on percussion. The choirs made a great sound
and did really well to keep everything together. Many
presentations were made to conclude a wonderful evening of
singing, and hopefully, we may all meet up again someday.
The most sumptuous buffet followed the concert and wine and
beer flowed which was much appreciated by everyone and many
thanks must go to Chor Kronshagen for providing this. We
even managed to sing a few more items including ’Freunde
Schenket Ein’ which we sang in German to our hosts.
On Thursday September 13th we
sang at All Saints Oystermouth for the Mumble Festival of
Music. This is a series of concerts is held annually, in
September, at the church and we were delighted to take part
this year. We were fortunate to be joined by Ros Evans, who
is always very entertaining, We were able to sing a number
of the new items that we have learnt for Germany including
Wagner’s ‘Prayer from Lohengrin’ and ‘Freunde Schenket Ein’
which went down very well. We also sung Schubert’s ‘Sanctus’
from his ‘Duetsche Mass’. Another highlight of the concert
was joining with Ros Evans to sing our arrangement of ‘The
Holy City’. 
This was a wonderful evening –
probably the best yet! We were fortunate to have the
fantastic ‘Bella Voce’ with us, who had only 5 weeks earlier
performed at the Royal Albert Hall, London, with the massed
male choirs. They are a ladies group of 16 members, formed
in 2013 by their musical director Sarah Benbow-Thomas and
Lisa Shelmerdine Richards and come from South Pembrokeshire.
They boast around a dozen music degrees and have over 30
instrumental and vocal Grade 8’s between them and, together
with their accompanist Seimon Morris, make a brilliant
sound.
The concert was held at All
Saints, Oystermouth and we opened the evening with ‘Morte
Criste’ to a tremendous ovation from the packed church. This
set the scene for the rest of the concert. We followed this
with our 2 Italian items, ‘Ave Maria’ and ‘Nella Fantasia’
and finished the first section with ‘How Great Thou Art’.
This is becoming a very popular item and, considering all
the key changes and the fact that it’s unaccompanied, we
performed it really well. Bella Voce then started their
first set with ‘It Don’t Mean a Thing, If It Ain’t Got That
Swing’ and followed this with ‘Cwlwm Cariad’ by local
composer Alan Llewelyn Thomas. Other items in this section
included an arrangement of a song made famous by the Flying
Pickets, ‘Only You’ and their last item was ‘Who Will Buy’
from ‘Oliver’. We then sang 3 Welsh items, ‘O Gymru’, ‘Ar
Hyd Y Nos’ and our rousing setting of ‘Cwm Rhondda’ to end a
fantastic first half. Both ‘Morte Criste’ and ‘Cwm Rhondda’
featured Steve on the organ, together with our accompanist
Rhian.
Following the interval we sang
the lively ‘Hey Look Me Over’ and then we sang some more
modern popular sings. First was a new item to our repertoire
‘Hard To Say I’m Sorry’ which is the lovely song written and
performed by ‘Chicago’ in the early 1980’s. We followed this
with ‘God Only Knows’ and finished this section with the
Elvis Presley number ‘If I Can Dream’. Bella Voce returned
and delighted the audience, once again, with their items.
They started with a delightful arrangement of ‘Three Little
Maids’ and followed this with ‘Pure Imagination’. They
finished this set with an arrangement of the lovely song by
Snow Patrol ‘Run’ and their final item was a new upbeat
arrangement of ‘Calon Lan’, with a terrific accompaniment,
brilliantly played by Seimon. This was truly a memorable
performance by the ladies, full of beautiful phrasing and
musicality and deserving of their huge ovation.
Our final section
started with ‘He Ain’t Heavy He’s My Brother’ and one of our
favourites, Robbie Williams’ ‘Angels’. Our last piece of the
evening was Alwyn Humphreys’ arrangement of ‘An American
Trilogy’, again with Steve on the organ, which brought the
very appreciative audience to its feet. We then introduced
Bella Voce back to the stage and the concert closed with
everyone singing our National Anthem. A number of
presentations were made by our President, Geoff Wheel
including one to our Ladies Committee Chairwoman, Linda
Lewis, who works tirelessly throughout the year, with her
fellow members, to raise funds for the choir and steward the
‘annual’.
for us.
