Despite torrential rain, and the counter-attractions of the England match on TV we all enjoyed a great night in the beautiful surroundings of St.Mary’s church in Market Drayton last night.

The programme was very varied, including new material, and new soloists and a wonderful piano recital by Anne and Jade.

It only serves to emphasise how important concerts are in establishing confidence and the feeling of being in a unit together,working with the conductor and pianist to create that wonderful sound !!

I think we numbered 24 or 25, which emphasises how urgent our recruitment crisis is. On the one hand the bass section ,which has been struggling of late, is beginning to come together and sound more confident.On the other hand ,if a couple of people can’t make it on a particular night, we will struggle, which is what happened when we had to postpone this concert late last year

So, we go forward together-next concert-Saturday July 2nd St.Lawrence’s Church,Gnosall, then we are into October,- Oct 1st St.Mary Magdalene,Albrighton Oct.,15th St.Bartholomew’s Tong,and then, hopefully the re-arranged concert with The Jackfield Band.

Onwards!!-Anybody out there who may be thinking that it sounds like good fun, don’t think about  it, give it a go!!What have you got to lose??

After 6 weeks concerted practice,it was really excellent to sing last night in front of a very responsive audience with a very extensive and varied repertoire.Congratulations to all, especially Jade with two really delightful solos.

Next event May 6th , charity concert at The Park House in Shifnal, then June 18th joint concert with Jackfield band.

Onwards!!

After the AGM last week, we have a new chairman, Steve Taylor, and a new committee.

The meeting was useful because the financial report from Dave Shakeshaft brought us all into the picture as regards the difficulties we face.This was partly caused by falling numbers, lack of concerts, and the added expenditure from 6 weeks rehearsing during last summer, together with extra soloist rehearsals, and ongoing expenditure on room hire.

Some good suggestions were made, and will be looked into.

For the future, we have a programme of concerts for the new season, as follows.

April 22nd St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Shifnal.

June 1st Market Drayton.

July 2nd.St.Lawrence Church , Gnossall.

Sep16/22. Bishops Wood

Oct 1st Albrighton.

Oct 15th Tong.

Nov 18th St. Matthew’s Donnington.

All dates were correct at the time of printing , but may be subject to change. Onwards!!

Last night we enjoyed another  shared concert, this time with with Warley Male Voice choir in the Cornbow Hall in Halesowen.Despite our numbers being down to the low twenties I felt we performed extremely well, and once again I thought the selection of music we performed was spot on. We are extremely grateful to Warley, and their MD Steve, for the warmth of their welcome, and the enthusiasm of their audience. The three young men which they had performing with us were a real breath of fresh air-it was really good to see young people enjoying music as much as we do!!

That means that with one concert to go, on December 12th at Wombridge, we have “got through”the busy Autumn schedule-St.Andrew’s, Bridgnorth, Kemberton,and finally Warley-with the enforced postponement of the Market Drayton concert on November 14th., being the only casualty.

As things stand at the moment we are getting 28 people at rehearsals which is really encouraging-we need to get the new people into concerts asap-perhaps the Christmas jollity at Wombridge will give us that opportunity-come along and see!

This evening offered a different sort of challenge,not only were we to sing in front of a large audience, we were to sing to our local “rivals” in the world of male voice singing. By the luck of the draw we had to listen to the other choirs first, and then, after the interval, we had to perform our four chosen pieces.

Starting with the unaccompanied beginning to”What would I do without my music”,which is always a challenge,we did really well, and followed that with the really moving “To where you are”,, “Halleluja” and “Those magnificent men in their flying machines”.

In fact the choice of music was as impressive as the performance, because it showed a different side of male voice singing,less traditional, perhaps lighter, certainly more fun to sing!!

Congratulations to all concerned, and to the other choirs involved, because it really was a”Shropshire Union”, as befits the title we chose for the concert.

Next concert-Kemberton,Saturday, 31st October.

After 6 weeks hard learning, we “kicked off”our season with a joint concert at St. Andrew’s church in Shifnal, sharing the stage with “Of One Accord”, and the children of St. Andrew’s School. The audience was packed and very enthusiastic. We sang first, and tried to make sure it was entertaining for the children(having seen them faced with more traditional Male Voice fare from “The Fron” in Bridgnorth a couple of weeks ago).

It was also our first public airing of “To Where You Are”-which is all about the sense of loss when a loved one passes on.It seemed to go well-sobs were heard!!

“Up Town Girl” got a hearty welcome, and all in all it was good to get the show on the road again.One only hopes that the experience was a good one for the new recruits.

Next stop, Bridgnorth Leisure Centre,this Saturday, October 10th, 7.30pm, in a shared concert with Bridgnorth and Much Wenlock MVChoirs-where the emphasis throughout has been on co-operation, rather than competition-to show the audience different approaches to Male Voice singing.

Tickets are £7 available from G. Heyes on 01952 586968.

Well, we have spent six arduous weeks working on the repertoire,primarily to bring new members up to speed,but in doing so it has revealed to existing members how their “knowledge” of the repertoire has been in some cases shown to be faulty. However, well played to the faithful band who have shown up unfailingly to work hard on the music,and hopefully gain more confidence in what we are doing.Many thanks to Anne and Jade , as normal, but more so in this case for the work  Anne  has done in putting together  the rehearsal tracks on tape so people can work on them individually at home. Thanks also due to Mike for his work on putting together the library of music and getting sufficient copies of music together so all members, new and old, can get their hands on the copies they need.

So now we look forward to a busy Autumn . It seems like a long time since our last outing on May 1st for the celebration of Arthur Roberts’ work in the town.

Dates are as follows:

Saturday October 3rd-St. Andrew’s Church, Shifnal, with the children of the school, and Possibly “Of One Accord”(to be confirmed)

Sat.,10th Oct shared concert with Bridgnorth and Wenlock MVC’s in Bridgnorth Leisure Centre.7.30 pm.

Sat 31st Oct.7.30 pm our own concert at Kemberton Church.

Sat. Nov 14th Our own concert at St Mary’s Market Drayton

Sat 21st Nov. shared concert with Warley MVC in Halesowen.

Sat 12 th Dec, our Christmas concert at Wombridge church-7.30pm.

We have also enjoyed welcoming Adam Green from Radio Shropshire to a recent rehearsal in the wake of news on national television  about the challenges facing male voice choirs across the country. Hopefully Adam’s item, to be aired in the next week or so, will give people a chance to listen to the choir in action, and witness   the enthusiasm the choir members feel for the “cause”.

Here’s hoping for a busy and successful Autumn!!

Today (June 27th) marks the start of our summer fund raising effort.As we are missing our annual concert this year as the choir rebuilds itself, we are trying to raise funds over the next couple of weeks by members scaling The Wrekin,having gained sponsors from friends and family. “Singing Up The Wrekin” may not involve much singing, but it is quite an effort for some of our older members!!

Tim Wasdell and Ged Heyes started the campaign bright and early this morning, on an absolutely beautiful summers morning .Hopefully they will be followed over the next few days by more members as we try to raise money to help the choir’s costs.

Meanwhile the integration of new members into the choir continues as Anne is trying to establish a core of musical items with  which all members are confident. In fact the process is more difficult than it sounds because older members now realise that they have to relearn items which they have been singing wrongly possibly for some time.

Anyway we are practising hard and making good progress.We are desperately short of new basses especially so if there is anybody out there who is interested, please get in touch.

Onwards!!!

The concert was shared with Shifnal Chorale, St. Andrew’s Church Choir, and Shinal MVC to celebrate the contribution Arthur Roberts made to music in the area..The most important thing for us was the opportunity it gave for new members to get a taste of what a concert feels like. In addition it gave us a chance to show a big Shifnal audience the different types of music we do. I think you could tell from the audience response that they enjoyed our contributions. We made a few mistakes, and we were missing some people on the night,but these things will happen.

As with recent rehearsals, there is a really positive feel to the choir since the new year started. We are smaller, but determined to learn new materials quickly

We still need new members, and new concerts, so anybody out there with an interest in singing or an idea about new venues, please get in touch!

Onwards!

Our next concert is on May 1st (Friday) at 7.30pm in St. Andrew’s Church. It is a celebration of the life of Arthur Roberts who was hugely influential in the early musical history of the town (although he died two days before he was due to take up his duties with the Male Voice Choir!)

There are a number of local choirs taking part, and we are hoping to perform some welsh pieces.in honour of his welsh origins.

Please come along and enjoy a varied programme of choral pieces.Tickets are priced at £8 and are available form choir members.