It was a very wet, windy and cold evening, when Tenby Male Choir held a concert in St. Mary's Church last Thursday. A smaller audience than usual - brave souls who struggled through the weather - nevertheless had a full concert and a delightful young soprano to listen to and enjoy. Compére David Blackmore welcomed the audience to the church and introduced the choir, their MD Ian and accompanist Jill, before announcing the opening number, the hymn 'Rachie'. Sung in Welsh, it's always a rousing song. Continuing with this season's regular programme, the choir sang with their usual professionalism and to the evident enjoyment of their audience. Guest soloist for the evening was Rhian Morgan, of Tenby. It is quite a while since Rhian last sang with the choir. A busy lady, who, after getting her degree at Trinity College, Carmarthen, decided to settle back 'at home' and now runs her own business in town, Rhian is well known in choir circles and especially in the bass section, where her father John sings. Having chosen her music to suit the type of audience that Tenby Male Choir usually entertains, Rhian sang three lovely ballads in her first set; 'Fly home, little heart', 'How are things in Glocamora?' and 'Wishing you were somehow here again', from different decades of the 20th century. After the choir's second selection of five pieces, which included 'Rhythm of Life' and 'Amen' in which, according to Ian, Jill plays 'extempore' at the finish, Rhian returned to sing three more lovely songs. These included from 'Chorus Line', 'What I did for love,' the ever popular 'Danny Boy', sung with such sweetness that more than one person in the audience had to wipe away a tear, and 'Can't help loving dat man of mine'. It was good to hear Rhian singing again and to hear Jill accompanying her so beautifully. Opening their final set of pieces with the rousing 'Men of Harlech', the choir then sang three more pieces before finishing with 'American Triology'. David had previously enquired as to whether there were any visiting choristers in the audience and one man, in raising his arm, seemed to be taken quite by surprise when he was invited to sing the last two items with the choir, 'When the Saints' preceding the 'Trilogy'. But such is the popularity of these pieces with male voice choirs that the visitor knew them well. At the close of the concert, David thanked Rhian for supporting the choir, and thanked the audience for coming out on such a night. The visiting chorister, who sings with the Hampshire Police Choir, had driven over from Red Roses where he is holidaying, especially to come to the concert, having seen it advertised on the choir website. Unfortunately, as it was such a dreadful evening weatherwise, he dared not bring his wife, who is confined to a wheelchair. But it was great to know that, as a chorister himself, he was keen enough to come to a Tenby Male Choir concert, to drive from Red Roses and back in the dark, windy, rainy weather and to say how very much he had enjoyed himself.
