It’s been a few years since we ventured out to Thorpe Bay so an invitation from the friendly new priest for us to perform there was most welcome. As was the cooperation and support we received from him. Putting on a concert at a supportive, welcoming, venue makes such a difference.
Of course, Jan had rehearsed us as much as was possible. A few new pieces that we needed to get to grips with. But we were (almost, many of us) ready. The question was – would our audience be ready for us? Would we get an audience if we were performing away from our home patch? Well, as it turned out, we would. The church was almost full to capacity.
The important warm up/rehearsal
Then some down time before mingling with our incoming audience. Alan was on the door, taking in cash and keeping the credit/debit card machine busy. Our Front of House team were busy showing people to their seats and selling raffle tickets like they had gone out of fashion. Choir members had been generous in donating raffle prizes. Many were not even unwanted prizes from previous raffles! And of course, we took the opportunity to put flyers for our Recruitment Campaign on all of the seats!
With practically every seat being filled we were off. Here’s the programme:
First half
Christus Salvator
Angels Watching
Siyahambe
SOLO – Ian Leonard
Mansions of the Lord
Close Thine Eyes
You Raise Me Up
Speed Your Journey
Duet – Kay and Jan
Flying Free
We are the Champions
There was more raffle-ticket-buying during the interval so that we almost ran out of raffle tickets. With only one toilet in the church (and no graveyard to use as a substitute) when the Interval should have been coming to an end the queue for the toilet was getting ever longer. There was a somewhat red face from the embarrassed soul who had to walk back to her place, obviously from the toilet, while everyone was looking forward, waiting for the second half to start!
Second half
Neapolitan Trilogy
SOLO – Ian Leonard
With Cat-Like Tread
One Moment in Time
Unchained Melody
Rhythm of Life
SOLO – Dave Smith
Back to the 60s (5-7)
Such a poilte audience! They listened attentively while Sam told them about our forthcoming Recruitment Campaign.
Top Tenor Ian’s two solos were Vaughan Williams’ ‘Turtle Dove’ and the traditional American Spiritual ‘All My Trials Lord’. Such talent!
Deputy MD Dave sang one of his own compositions. Such skill!
And Jan and Kay played the piano duet ‘March Militaire’. Such experience!
It’s been a while since we did an encore, but such was the applause for our final number that we rolled out ‘Mag Men’. It had been so long since we last sang it that some had forgotten the words. And, let’s face it, as for the tune, some have never known that their part isn’t the tune!
What an evening! Ticket sales had been good and the church had been generous in only charging us a token amount for heating and lighting. The raffle had been a stonking success. Our coffers were being topped up nicely. That puts less pressure on needing to increase subs.
For a more serious report take a look at the Review of this concert: https://lomvc.org/autumn-concert-november-2022/