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Summer 2004 <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> LETTER FROM THE PRINCIPAL My Dear Friends What a May Concert! We certainly celebrated our 40th birthday in style. The standard of singing in both my Junior and Senior Choirs was the best I have heard so far and didn’t the Juniors sit still! Well done everyone. Some of us are now looking forward to returning to Ireland. We have a really booked week-end awaiting us. Chris and myself are going over for the week to take a short holiday as well. Can’t wait! The November Show is well under way – a roller coaster of 60 show songs. I am also featuring several new soloists. Such a talented bunch! I love ‘em all! We complete our year with the Christmas Cracker with all festive songs to start the season for you all. (Please ensure that you note the tickets go on sale for the Cracker on Monday 6th September). The new CD has brought some very favourable comments and is now available in some of the stores. However, we always have our own supply. Just ring Dave Parsons on 527372 or buy them at our concerts. I hope you are all enjoying this wonderful weather we are having at the moment (written at the beginning of June) and for those of you going on annual holidays, do have a lovely time! Take care of yourselves and see you soon. Kindest regards. Sheila <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> I thought that you might like to know what was in the boxes presented to me at the May Concert for my 40 years of singing with the Choir. I had two beautiful Stuart crystal champagne flutes each 12 inches tall, a bottle of Moet & Chandon champagne with personally inscribed congratulations on the bottle and the unique founder member certificate for 40 years service signed by Sheila and Geoff. I am sure you will all agree that it was a memorable concert with so much preparation beforehand by Sheila, Kathy and John. Thanks to everyone for a great occasion. Yvonne Walker <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> THE MAY CONCERT 2004 AT THE WYVERN THEATRE ‘40 years with the Kentwood Show Choir’ was the theme of the May Show on Friday 7th and Saturday 8th May. The concert was a trip down memory lane for everyone involved probably including a lot of the audience too! The first half of the show was performed by the Kentwood Juniors and judging by the loudness of the applause from the audience they were definitely a great hit! All of the children had worked tremendously hard and each of the classes shone, both when singing with the whole choir in songs such as ‘Hello! Hello!’, ‘Hand Me Down My Silver Trumpet Lord’, ‘Top of the World’, and the ‘Joseph Megamix’ and when singing as a class. ‘Steam’ was a wonderful mixture of narration by Charlotte Outen, medleys by the choir and soloists Harriet Blackler, Jodie Hills and Sophie Lloyd. The Bambi class was a huge success with their performance of ‘Do-Re-Me’ and they also caused a few chuckles with their little unplanned antics. (You can never predict what children are going to do!). Disney and Schubert classes performed ‘Feed the Birds’ with Yvonne Walker and I’m sure that Yvonne was as proud as punch of all of them. Mozart and Beethoven sang the ‘Nun’s Chorus’ beautifully with Abbie Bean as soloist. Solo performances were also from Catherine Forty – ‘Maybe’ from Annie and Carly Pethick sang ‘And This is My Beloved’. The first half of the concert came to a superb climax with both the Junior Choir and the Senior Choir singing the ‘Joseph Megamix’ together - the stage looked fantastic! Kathy Hobson and John Marshall did an excellent job with the collection of slides and narrations that ran throughout the show in themes with ‘The Childhood Years’ and ‘The Teenage Years’ in the first half and ‘The Twenty Something Years’ and ‘The Mature Years’ in the second half of the concert. They told the story of the Choir over the 40 years and gave the audience the opportunity to peak into the life of Sheila and Chris Harrod and everyone involved in the choir both in the past and the present. I’m sure it must have taken them at least ‘40 days’ to put it all together. We must feel very proud and honoured to have professional people such as Dame Cleo Laine and Bob Chilcott in the audience enjoying the concert and discussing their thoughts and opinions with Sheila. The second half of the concert got off to a great start with ‘Let the Earth Resound’, ‘It Don’t Mean a Thing’, with Sharon Lloyd singing a solo part and ‘Every Time I Feel the Spirit’. Following a narration ‘The Twenty Something Years’ there was a very special event with Mozart’s ‘Allelujah!’ performed passionately by Carolyn Curtis, Dorinda Dobson, Lydia Gough, Kathy Hobson, Gill May, Jane Shrimpton and Debbie Webb. This was followed by ‘Barcelona’ when the Choir demonstrated their skills not only in singing but singing in Spanish! Oh Si! Muchos gracias! Sheila then gave a speech which thanked from her heart, everyone who has contributed in some way to the Kentwood Choir over the 40 years and a presentation was made to her very dear friend Yvonne Walker, who had been by her side continually at the very beginning and throughout the 40 years. This was wonderfully complemented by the long serving members of the Choir joining Sheila to sing ‘My Way’ which brought a tear to many an eye as did ‘Chapel in the Moonlight’ in memory of Sheila’s dad, George Snook. ‘Amazing Grace’; a new addition to the Choir’s repertoire which was chosen by our President Geoff Walters (and my favorite song in the concert) brought the concert to the last narration ‘The Mature Years’. This narration updated the audience with the latest events of the Choir and was followed by ‘Can you hear Me?’ sensitively introduced by Jane and incorporating British Sign language, followed by ‘One Voice’ and a well known favourite, ‘Alexander’s Ragtime Band’. The concert was close to the finale with Geoff giving a final word and special thanks to Sheila for being an exceptional person and then Sheila followed Geoff’s speech with her prologue, telling the audience about the vast amount of money the choir has raised for various charities over the years and also her feelings of ‘what the choir is all about’. The finale songs were the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’, ‘Going Home’, which was a spine-tingling experience and finally ‘Music’ by John Miles. The audience on both Friday and Saturday nights were fantastic and thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated the amazing range and variety that took them on their musical journey of ‘The 40 years with the Kentwood Show Choir’. The choir was, as usual, accompanied by the excellent and talented musicians Geoff Walters, Mark Burton, Steve Wiltshire and Paul Ashman. As a newcomer to the choir (I joined in August 2003) I feel so proud and honoured to be part of something so special and would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their encouragement and support whilst I have tried to find my feet (and my voice!), especially to Sheila for her patience, Yvonne for sorting out my uniforms, Jan for all my music, everyone who sings my part who has helped me find my part! Rebecca for giving one to one help and to Penrose for being there at the end of the phone! I look forward to many more successful events to come! Angela Farmery <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> KENTWOOD 40 YEARS OLD!!! When Sheila asked me, about a year ago, if I would like to do something in the 2004 May concert in respect of the choir’s 40th birthday I said yes, not really knowing what I could do!! I decided on a “This is your Life” type of thing. Luckily over the years Nicola Parsons has done a brilliant job of keeping scrap books, 24 of them so far, so I though it would be quite easy for me to extract a few items and it would be done! I planned the format and several months ago received the scrap books. It was great looking through them all sitting in my little study at home with my computer and scanner. Armed with this “ammunition” I then asked John Marshall to help me. After lots of e-mailing between us and a couple of get togethers we ended up with a draft “history”. I had decided on the photos etc for the slide show but when reading through the narrative decided to put a few more in – although I had scanned them into my computer they needed modifying and unfortunately I had not made a note of what scrap book they were in so had to look through all 24 again!! I also thought it was important to try to thank all the people who had helped Kentwood over the years. As some of my friends in the choir know I like writing “poetry” so after making a list of names etc I set to writing. Some of it came easy but two lines in the third verse were causing me a big problem – inspiration had failed me! I eventually managed to finish it and took a copy to rehearsal for Clarry who had kindly accepted my invitation to read it in the concert. He read it through and quietly informed me that I had missed something out!! Back to the drawing board!! As it was hard deciding what to include in the presentation I though that a picture board in the foyer of the Wyvern would be a good idea so lots of other items could be displayed. I hope you all saw them. Of course that meant going through the scrap books again just in case I’d missed something!! Thanks to choir members and Sheila who lent me photos, to Mike Carvell for the help with checking the Power Point presentation and of course a huge huge thank you to John for bringing the words to life. It was a time consuming task but a very enjoyable one. It brought back lots of happy memories. Kathy Hobson <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> MESSAGE FROM JACKY PROTHEROE, THE CHAIR, SOUTHERN REGION OF THE ASSOCIATION OF BRITISH CHORAL DIRECTORS Dear Sheila Very many thanks for your kind invitation to your concert at the Wyvern Theatre. It was a wonderful evening of fine singing and enviable presentation. The discipline shown by your younger singers was amazing. I loved the variety of music and the unfolding of your 40 years of inspired work in Swindon. Everyone spoke very highly of your work and how much they appreciate the joy you and your performers have brought to so many. Gala night in Guildford will really sparkle for us in 2005 with the Kentwood Show Choir there! Yours as ever, Jacky <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> IRELAND TRIP 17 - 20 JUNE 2004 Having been asked to write a piece about the Choir’s trip to Ireland, I went off armed with my notebook and was provided with a story before we had even left Tesco’s car park, when someone realised that she had left her passport at home. A mad dash back to Wroughton ensued and then we were on our merry way, with Sue’s (oops) leg being a few inches longer from being pulled so much. There was also some joking about the plane we were to fly out on, and Bridget told me that she had flown on something similar back in the sixties, but the journey was fine and, after travelling from Cork to Waterford, we rested our weary bones for the night, in my case after consuming three pieces of homemade cake with my cup of tea before retiring. Whilst I felt guilty afterwards, I forgave myself when I later heard Sheila commenting that she loves her spare tyre every morning, especially as it’s getting bigger! I have to confess that I tend to associate concert venues with the refreshments that we receive and Ireland is memorable for the lovely and generous spread of food provided by our hosts, as we experienced the next day when we all met for a lunchtime barbeque. Here, some of us witnessed flying plates, rather than saucers, as the wind got up (if you’ll pardon the expression) and we had to duck to avoid being splattered with coleslaw remains. Later in the afternoon, we changed into our travel uniforms and headed for Waterford hospital where we performed several songs in the reception area, to the delight of patients, visitors and staff. It was quite a moving experience to be singing the ‘Irish Blessing’ as someone was pushed through on a trolley and Gill’s rendition of ‘Danny Boy’ was as beautiful as ever. It was then on to rehearsals at the Forum Theatre in Waterford and the show went out to our enthusiastic audience that evening at 8pm. There was a very welcoming atmosphere and it was a very enjoyable concert to perform in. During the first half, a representative from Waterford Crystal presented Sheila with a beautiful engraved vase to commemorate the Choir’s 40th anniversary. Simon Rumbold was also given a pair of crystal champagne glasses in celebration of his future marriage in Australia, which was a very nice gesture. Sheila had asked the Kentwood ‘young’ men to say a few words to the audience and when Simon was referred to as the ‘tiddler’, he was quick to point out that this was in reference to his age and, when Sheila said how well-liked and helpful he was, he added that he was ‘Mummy’s little soldier’. I had the good fortune to stay with the same hosts as Simon, which gave me a chance to enjoy his wit and charm (and he didn’t even pay me to say this). He is a very popular young man and when he proceeded to sing ‘Love Changes Everything’ after Sheila had explained to the audience how he will be missed when he leaves us soon, there were some teary eyes amongst us. We sang a variety of music as always, which was well received, with the Joseph Megamix bringing the show to a climax, and we had lots of compliments as we left the theatre to go for our well-earned bags of chips. The following morning we headed off by coach to Bunratty Folk Park and spent the afternoon looking around before going to a Medieval Banquet at Bunratty Castle in the evening. This provided much entertainment when John Marshall and Sheila were ‘crowned’ and John used his authority to threaten Mike Enright with a spell in the dungeons for an alleged misdemeanour committed the previous night. He was only saved from this fate by inviting the Choir to sing and we gave a rendition of that traditional folk song, Alexander’s Ragtime Band! Having eaten our meals armed with only a ‘dagger’, we were told that it was an ‘olde lovers tradition’ to feed pudding to one another. Paul Rhind took this on board and spooned his fruits of the forest mousse in the direction of his beloved wife Terri only to find that it landed on two areas of her anatomy some distance from her mouth and, when he made a second attempt, the said pudding was discovered in her handbag! It was a late night at the pub for some on our return ‘home’, and I have a lasting memory of Jan Mattey laying mannequin style across three of us on the back seat of our host’s car, which led to restricted breathing on my part. We had a really nice coach driver in Ireland called Gary, who escorted us throughout our stay until we parted company with him at Cork on Sunday morning, and then we were homeward bound. To sum up the overall view of our visit, I would simply coin an Irish expression and say that it was grand. Vicki Harding <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> FUTURE CONCERTS 2004 09.07.04 Warminster Rotary, Kingsdown School – (01225 763537) 08.08.04 Hilton Hotel – Macmillan Nurses. Gill Thornton (01367 252535) 10.08.03 St Phillips Church, Upper Stratton 7.30pm. Mr Breakspear (822760) 29.09.04 Age Concern, Bath Road Methodist. J Sheppard (692166) 02.10.04 St Bartholomews Church, Wootton Bassett 7.30pm. Mrs Wray (01793 731518) 16.10.04 Wyvern Theatre – Juniors (01793 524481) 30.10.04 GW Hospital in the foyer 12pm – 1.30pm 17-20.11.04 November Show at the Wyvern Theatre (01793 524481) 05.12.04 Christmas Cracker at Wyvern Theatre (01793 524481) 11.12.04 Ashcroft Centre, Ashcroft Road, Cirencester – Ann Clarke (01285 860291) 19.12.04 Roves Farm – Kentwood Juniors 21.12.04 Roves Farm – Kentwood Seniors 2005 5/6/7.05.05 May Show at the Wyvern (01793 524481) 4.12.05 Christmas Cracker at the Wyvern (01793 524481) <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Editor: Mrs Yvonne Walker 23 Bourton Avenue Stratton St Margaret Swindon SN3 4LY Telephone: (01793)823849 E-mail: walker365@ntlworld.com |