There was certainly variety in our concert offerings last week.

On Tuesday, August 2, we held one of our ‘out and about’ concerts in the Giltar Hotel, Tenby. These are always fun, with free entrance to both hotel guests and visitors. There was of course a regular complement of holidaymakers from around Great Britain, but also a French family from Bordeaux. The Coulon family came as guests of Allan Keating and said afterwards that they had had a lovely evening and were very impressed with the choir. Amongst the varied fare that night was a debut solo from Maurice (Mo) Griffiths who sang When I fall in Love and a solo with guitar accompaniment by John (Ernie) Butland with Love is all around me. Then in stark contrast we had the deep tones of Eric (PC) Mullins with Mud, Glorious Mud. All of these entertained the audience greatly. The choir, of course, sang several songs, finishing with the popular American Trilogy just before the national anthems of course. So we sang God Save the Queen, Mae hen wlad fy nhaddau (with perhaps a little more fervour) and thought we had finished. However, without needing any sheet music talented choir accompanist Jill (no relation) Williams struck up the opening notes of the Marseillaise.

Without hesitation, the Coulon family stood to attention and proudly sang their anthem with the rest of us joining in as best we could. A very nice, off the cuff, moment which I am sure will be a lasting memory for this French family visiting Pembrokeshire.

A little more formality returned on Thursday when we sang in St. Mary’s Church, Tenby, with one of the limited number of concerts which we hold for our own choir funds. It is surprising how much a choir costs to run these days as we have to pay royalties, for instance, on each sheet of music purchased for every choir member. There are many other unavoidable costs of course, much of which is paid for by the choir’s own subscriptions and profits we make from bar sales at our headquarters in the county club. We are very grateful to all who attended and contributed towards our funds. This evening featured yet another soloist in the shape of choir chairman and principal soloist Paul Varallo who sang I Dreamed a Dream and Stars both from Les Miserables and in between sang Anfonaf Angel. Paul finished with the religious Victorian ballad Holy City. There was an excellent audience in size and responsiveness and reports are that MD Ian (Wilbur) Williams’s professional view of the choir performance was favourable!

Coming soon we have another concert at the Giltar Hotel, so if you would like a free evening out with a few drinks and some enjoyable singing come along on Tuesday, August 23. Singing usually starts at around 9 pm.

Are you a community organisation looking for new premises or are you thinking of starting a group of any kind and need somewhere to meet? Are you musicians needing somewhere to practice? Could you make use of a full size snooker table? The choir is really keen to make more use of its large headquarters and to help such local organisations, individuals or even businesses. We can’t promise to meet your needs, but we would like to hear about them and see what we can do.

We are also currently trying to build up our Friends of Tenby Male Choir group. It is open to anyone from choir members themselves, to their wives and partners or just anyone at all who would like to meet up for chat whilst helping to support the choir. We want this to be an increasingly social venture.

For any of the above, please email [email protected] for more information.

There is much more information about the choir on our website www.tenbymalechoir.org or Facebook account (just do an internet search for Tenby Male Choir Facebook).

captions

John Butland.

Paul Varallo.

Eric Mullins.

Maurice Griffiths.