The day after Bank Holiday Monday had continued bright and sunny, despite other parts of Britain being cold and cloudy, and the evening turned into a beautiful one. At 7.30 pm, people began to enter St. Johns Church for the concert given by Tenby Male Choir starting at 8 pm. It was a warm and enthusiastic audience, a mixed age group, made up of visitors and locals who had come once again, to be entertained. The balcony at St. Johns was as full as it could be, and provided a 'birds eye view' of proceedings. The welcome to the audience was given by tenor David Blackmore, who, as compére for the evening, introduced the choir, accompanist Jill and conductor Ian. Opening with a rousing Welsh hymn got the concert off to a good start, and as each piece was introduced, David gave his snippets of informative comment. 'Shenandoah' also sung in the first 'set', was, he said, originally a poem of 70 or 80 verses, but tonight, this would be cut to two or three! In this song, the bass section provide a lovely deep harmony in the second verse, before the song resolves into a wordless humming for the penultimate verse. This song has become very popular now with other choirs since Tenby started singing it. Soloists Paul and Eric provided the choir with 'a breather' after the first and second sets, with Paul singing ballads, and Eric, two amusing performances of story-like songs. In their present season's programme, Tenby Male Choir are singing a mixture of Welsh and English pieces; some sacred, some secular, some ballads, some marches, some with quiet dreamy messages of love, and others, battle songs, but all are sung with enthusiasm, excellent diction and musicality. At present, the choir are also rehearsing on Thursdays because their concert schedule is so very busy on Tuesdays, and they are learning yet more differentiated music for their harbour concerts - weather permitting. Their new MD, Ian Williams, seems to have settled in very well and very easily, and he and Jill make up an excellent team to lead the choir into the future. Plans are already well ahead for happenings in 2008. Their next concert is on behalf of the RNLI at Saundersfoot. This annual event, in the Regency Hall on June 14, is always a 'sell-out' event and much looked-forward-to. Following that, there is a concert on behalf of the County Club at St. Mary's on June 28. In between these events, and just before the RNLI concert, harbour singing starts on Tuesday, June 12 (weather permitting), and then continues on Thursdays from Thursday, June 21, until Thursday, August 2. For any further information about concerts, telephone Ken Fryer on 844495.
