Wilburism this week

Tenby Male Choir – John a Diamond Geezer

We’ve had a few personal honours in the past few months for our choir members, two MBEs, the ordainment of a deacon, and now we have another rare personal achievement. John L. Jones and his wife Mary from Broadmoor celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary on 10^th June and received a lovely message personally signed “Elizabeth R” from the Queen along with a photo of Her Majesty. It will only be a couple of years to the Queen celebrating her Platinum wedding anniversary and no doubt John will return the favour with his photo and a card signed “John L”.

John claims to be still active and knowing he is a keen gardener, I assume that is what he means although I do recall when someone in a rehearsal asserted that "most of us are past it”, a voice in a broad Pembrokeshire accent from the middle row of the top tenors did respond cryptically with the comment “speak for yourself”.

We had a very good audience on Thursday 23^rd July at St. Mary’s church. The evening began differently with Eric Mullins standing in for our chairman to handle the choir’s entrance and exit and putting his years of police marching experience to good use to organise a very efficient “staging” process.  Perhaps this will become a regular feature so that accompanist Jill Williams may not be encouraged to play the theme tune from Dad’s Army as we exit the stage. Fortunately Eric did not ask us all to greet the audience with “Evenin All” – not this time anyway.

The main solo spot for the evening was provided by our principal soloist second tenor Paul Varallo who sang Some Enchanted Evening, Bruscia La Terra Mia, Y Darlun and Bless This House. Tom Pierce also sang solo in My Little Welsh Home. We are grateful to local butcher Andrew Rees for sponsoring the concert.

It seems we are in great demand at the moment for all sorts of engagements, we have a backlog of charities wishing to book us for a concert, we have wedding invitations, outdoor concerts at Lawrenny, Cresswell Quay and both Tenby and Saundersfoot harbours, have just sung at Pembroke Castle with Only Men Aloud and now we are delighted to be invited by Specsavers the national eyesight partnership with over 2000 branches to sing a number of concerts at stores in Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire. This is a national campaign by Specsavers to raise money for the Wales Deaf Rugby Union . This is all part of celebrating the coming World cup and has a rugby theme with the choir wearing Specsavers rugby shirts and singing at their stores. The “Specsavers’ Choir” will be singing tomorrow between 12pm and 4pm at the Dimond Street, Pembroke Dock store. It should be a great occasion so planning your weekend shopping to be in Pembroke Dock on Saturday would be a great move. The picture shows Paul Varallo with members and accompanists of the Maesteg and Caerphily choirs at a recent planning meeting for the campaign. There is a full press release on our website.

We won’t really be able to draw breath before we have two further concerts next week. Firstly on Tuesday 4^th August we will be at St. John’s church, Tenby at 8pm and then its down by the river on Friday night with an outdoor concert at Creswell Quay. There is no entrance fee for the outdoor concert and a barbecue will be available. My grandchildren haven’t stopped asking me when the Cresswell Quay event is as they enjoyed it so much last year. It’s a great family evening out – weather permitting, of course.

The new choir CD called Hwyl a Hiraeth is proving very popular with attendees at the concerts and they can also be bought on our website for which there are details below.

New members and supporters are always welcome and anyone can come along to a rehearsal or concert and learn about what choir membership is all about. Rehearsals are on most Tuesdays and Thursdays unless we have a concert on one of those nights. So come along, have a listen and discuss what it’s all about with other members with a post-rehearsal pint to learn how you can support the choir or talk to us if you have a view or some doubts. We are always interested in people’s thoughts about the choir especially those of younger people.

There is plenty of information and interesting stuff on our growing website including video clips. The website can be found at www.tenbymalechoir.org. There are contact details and different ways in which you can get to know more about it all.

Latest News ..............

Thurs 30 July  - St Mary's Tenby Male Choir Charity Concert supporting and raising funds for West Wales Prostate Cancer Care starts 8.00pm

Thurs 30 July  - St Mary's Church Fete 11-3pm. Selling Raffle Tickets and the new Choir CD

Tues 04 August  - St Johns Tenby Male Choir Charity Concert for Church Funds - starts 8.00pm

Tues 04 August  - St Johns Garden Tea Party 2-.00 - 5.00pm offering tea and cakes plus sandwiches to the public on  the afternoon before the choir concert

Tenby Male Choir – No time to rehearse

There are not many weeks in the year, even in the middle of a concert season where we have no rehearsals but last week was one of those. We had a hotel concert at the Giltar Hotel on Tuesday followed by a formal concert at St Mary’s Church on the Thursday.

The hotel concerts are usually a bit of fun for everyone involved - even the choir  -although of course we do still concentrate seriously on the songs themselves. But there is time for an interval with Eddie Stapleton and his always popular and mildly risqué turn as a stand up comedian. Most of the choir members have heard some of those jokes a few times now but they still evoke a smile. For the audience of course most of them at least are being heard for the first time and they always go down well.

Eric Mullins too is always popular with songs lending themselves to his bass voice such as the Floral Dance a very old English song made famous by Terry Wogan and the Hanwell Brass Band but does anyone remember it by the Eagles under the title “Come on Baby” in 1960? Ah, they don’t make music like that any more.

On Thursday it was back to a bit more formality although there is always a bit of fun even there and some audience participation. After our big event at Pembroke Castle and a trip down to Lawrenny it was good to be back in town and we were pleased to see a very good audience once again at our concert on 16^th July in aid of Huntingdon’s Disease. It was also a second chance to feature brother and sister Talfan and Siriol Jenkins, from Wiseman’s Bridge. Talfan is 14 and Siriol 16. These very talented young musicians performed a very accomplished set of pieces on piano and saxophone which were appreciated by the audience and the choir.

Last night we were at St. Mary’s again for a concert sponsored by local butcher Andrew Rees to whom we are very grateful for his generosity and to make it three in a row we will be at St. Mary’s church yet again on Thursday 30^th July this time in aid of the West Wales Prostate Cancer Support charity. Please come along and support this worthy cause if you can and we promise to give you an enjoyable evening. There are concessionary tickets available for those who qualify.

Look out for more details of outdoor events coming up as we will be at Cresswell Quay and also both Saundersfoot and Tenby Harbours during August, as part of a heavy month where we will hold no less than eight concerts so not much time for rehearsing in that month either. We have a few new members who are going to have to learn “on the job”.

CDs continue to sell well and you can pick up a copy of this new Tenby Male choir CD at any concert or on our website for which there are details below.

New members and supporters are always welcome and anyone can come along to a rehearsal or concert and learn about what choir membership is all about. Rehearsals are on most Tuesdays and Thursdays unless we have a concert on one of those nights. So come along, have a listen and discuss what it’s all about with other members with a post-rehearsal pint to learn how you can support the choir or talk to us if you have a view or some doubts. We are always interested in people’s thoughts about the choir especially those of younger people.

There is plenty of information and interesting stuff on our growing website including video clips. The website can be found at www.tenbymalechoir.org. There are contact details and different ways in which you can get to know more about it all.

Tenby Male Choir – Wallowing in Glorious Applause

 We had a terrific evening out last Friday at the Lawrenny Arms inn where we did one of our “out on the road” concerts. The venue was a marquee fully equipped with barbecue and bar so a good time was had by all. The concert followed on from a very successful appearance at Pembroke Castle the week before and for both concerts the crowd particularly enjoyed singing along with Eric Mullins and the choir for the hippopotamus song. Young and old enthusiastically joined in to sing Follow me Follow down to the hollow etc. As the tide was out at Lawrenny there was plenty of glorious mud in view but a lovely venue all the same.

The crowd also enjoyed Climb Every Mountain so much that there was a request to sing it again at the end of the concert and a novel deviation from the normal stage singing happened as the choir walked amongst the audience singing it as the audience joined in with what they could remember. That’s something we haven’t done before and it seemed to go down very well with the audience.

A further encore was demanded so the choir rounded off the evening with the rousing Welsh song Men of Harlech. With the words “he is bravest he who leads us” being very appropriate for a Musical Director showing the courage and determination to turn up “just a little” late following car problems. But the choir had nonetheless soldiered on alone for a couple of songs to the appreciation of an audience containing more than a few Saxons before our musical director came to the fore.

The ever smooth Dave Blackmore in his customary role of Master of Ceremonies kept the crowd informed and amused throughout this minor hiccup.

Our next concert is on Thursday 23^rd July at St. Mary’s church and tickets can be purchased on the door or via our website.

CD Spot

A few people have asked what the Greek words mean on the cover of our new CD but most local people will recognise them as the town council motto on the coat of arms and will also have seen them on the building down at the TenbyHarbour which was once the old sea water baths. The motto was then appropriate as it means “The sea washes away all the ills of men.”

This is a quotation from the writer of Greek tragedies Euripides who some say bears a striking resemblance to chorister John Morgan but John is certainly no Deacon Blue. He is in fact a very happy deacon having recently been ordained as a deacon of St. Mary’s church. Congratulations to John.

Our accompanist Jill Williams is usually the lone female performer at concerts and rehearsals as we are after all a male Voice choir but we are all very appreciative of Jill’s terrific accompaniment and we were very pleased to celebrate her birthday just the other week and to enjoy a slice of birthday cake. This picture is of Jill about to go on stage at the Pembroke Castle concert last week.

New members and supporters are always welcome and anyone can come along to a rehearsal and learn about what choir membership is all about. Rehearsals are on most Tuesdays and Thursdays unless we have a concert on one of those nights. So come along, have a listen and discuss what it’s all about with other members with a post-rehearsal pint to learn how you can support the choir or talk to us if you have a view or some doubts. We are always interested in people’s thoughts about the choir especially those of younger people.

There is plenty of information and interesting stuff on our growing website including video clips. The website can be found at www.tenbymalechoir.org. There are contact details and different ways in which you can get to know more about it all.

Tenby Male Choir Only Men Aloud Pembroke Castle

Oh what a night or day in fact. Last Sunday, may be remembered for the Greek ‘no’ vote or the christening of royal baby Charlotte but over 1,000 people should remember it for a concert in Pembroke Castle where Tenby Male Choir performed on the same bill as Only Men Aloud. The entire audience was certainly left with something to remember. 
‘Warming up’ for a superb, professional act with its sound systems, its lighting, the professional choreography and full time practice sessions had to be a challenge for a local group of part-time amateurs. But we stood tall and had a fantastic reception. 

We came armed with some 35 voices, a piano and the benefit of our regular two evenings a week rehearsals to rely on, but we also had a person to bring to life that piano in Jill Williams and our Musical Director Ian Williams to harness our limited materials and produce a stunning result of 100 per cent live singing and entertainment. 
If we were a warm-up act, then we got the audience boiling over at times and culminating in a standing ovation. We gave the audience variety in heart-rending songs like Anthem from Chess and Bring Him Home from Les Miserables. We gave them sing-a-long songs like Climb Every Mountain and The Hippopotamus Song. There was audience participation with My Grandfather’s Clock and our very own Yugoslavian trilogy and unforgettably the finale was The American Trilogy which certainly was perhaps the ‘tingle moment’ of ‘tingle moments’ for the crowd. 
There were three soloists on the night further demonstrating our versatility with Eric Mullins singing The Hippopotamus Song, Paul Varallo with Return to Sorrento in Italian where the final long held note earned a huge round of applause from an enchanted audience. Last but not least, founder member Tom Pearce in his home town appropriately sang My Little Welsh Home when you could have heard a pin drop. All of these solos can be heard on our new CD Hwyl a Hiraeth, along with many others in our wide repertoire. It can be bought at any concert or online via our website. 

Thanks also go to the highly efficient support and security staff who were always helpful and our apologies for those who had to collect up the underwear on stage at the end of the performance. 
I mentioned in a recent report that male voice choirs are having difficulties surviving in places, but in the war against survival a major battle was won in the fitting surroundings of the towers of Pembroke Castle on Sunday. If you missed out on the night, you can see us for free tonight at Lawrenny Ferry starting at 7.30. This is a great occasion on a nice summer’s evening where there will be a barbecue available. If you can’t make that, then there is a further chance to see us free at the Giltar Hotel, Tenby, on Tuesday, July 14, or at a charity concert in aid of Huntingdon’s disease which will be at St.Mary’s Church, Tenby, on Thursday, July 16. Tickets for this will be available on the door.