What a splendid evening it was on Tuesday, June 3, when Tenby Male Choir sang in St. Johns Church in aid of the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association. It was another beautiful summer evening, after a lovely day and the church was full by the time the concert started. The Rev. Nanette Lewis-Head gave a warm and friendly welcome to the audience, who were mainly visitors, but it was good to see faithful supporters of the choir there too. A good number of the visitors were staying at several local hotels, and these included people from Sweden, who were on their first ever visit to Wales, and people from California. Most, of course, were from England, and other parts of Wales. All were equally welcomed. Nanette, in doing her duty of pointing out the fire exits, promised the audience that the choir's singing would certainly set their hearts on fire! And it was evident, from that moment, that the audience settled down to really enjoy themselves. Opening with a Welsh hymn, warmly applauded, Tenby Male Choir, with some wonderful accompaniment on the piano by Jill, rose to the audience's expectations. As each number was announced by compére David, it was lovely to hear the interaction of the audience as they 'oohed' and 'aahed' at the introduction of songs they loved. The guest artist of the evening, was, of course, Mrs. Eva Rich, secretary of the Tenby and Pembrokeshire branch of the association, and herself a very fine singer. Accompanied by Jill, Eva told the audience that it was so nice for her to know Jill was at the piano, having been accompanied for many years by Jill's mother, Peggy. Eva's first selection of songs was 'Waltz of my heart' and 'What a Wonderful World'. These were very loudly applauded by an appreciative audience. When the choir returned, it was to sing five more items from their current seasonal repertoire, including the beautifully controlled and soft singing of 'Shenandoah' and the wonderfully emotional 'Nirvana', which, as conductor Ian Williams always reminds the audience, is 'a state of beatitude attained by extinction of individuality and desires'. One can almost attain this, listening to those boys' singing! Eva came back to the 'platform' for a second time to sing 'If I only had time', which had a lovely melody and plaintive lyrics, and 'Thanks be to God' - a song in the Tenby choir repertoire, but which Jill had ensured they would not sing that evening! The choristers' final set of six pieces included 'Men of Harlech', the rousing number loved by audiences, and 'Gwahoddiad' another Welsh hymn sung in Welsh. When David invited any visiting male chorister to join the choir for 'American Trilogy' and 'Morte Christe', it was good to see Geraint, from the London Welsh Choir step up. Geraint (born in Bethlehem and first language Welsh) was staying on holiday in Tenby with his wife Glenys and grand-daughter, and having a wonderful time. At the end of the concert and before the singing of the anthems, Eva spoke briefly about the work of the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association. She talked about the costs of a dog ranging from £20,000 to £30,000 over its life-time. As well as training the dogs, the association pays all vets fees and gives each dog a generous food allowance, but their very special skills allow blind and partially sighted people to live much fuller more independent lives. Eva had her dog Angie with her in her pew. Angie is a black labrador, now nearly 10-years-old. She is Eva's fifth dog and Eva has had her for eight years. Eva thanked sincerely, all who had helped to put on the concert; Jill and Ian and of course, the choristers. She made special mention of John Hurlow, a chorister and member of St. Johns, for his help, and thanked Nanette and the elders and members of St. Johns for allowing the concert to be held there. There was a lovely warm and intimate atmosphere at the concert. It was felt by many people who remarked upon it. And even since that evening, there have been compliments paid to individual choristers from people who were there, saying how very much they enjoyed the whole evening. It was especially pleasing to learn the next morning that over £670 had been raised for the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association on that happy occasion, and that Ken, standing in for Bob in selling the choir's CDs had run out of them, such was the keenness of the audience to take home a souvenir and a permanent reminder of some beautiful Welsh male voice choir singing. The choir will next perform on Thursday, June 19, at St. Mary's Church in aid of the Sea Cadets, and the following Thursday, June 26, once again at St. Johns.
