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Choristers Carouse at Catbrook Memorial Hall

Photos by Colleen Gauntlett.  Left click on images to enlarge

 

In its history, the Choir has sung at many large and splendid venues including Wembley Stadium with Pavarotti, Carreras and Domingo and The Royal Albert Hall in London, many times at the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff. the Crystal Cathedral in Orange County, California and on board two cruise ships, but few venues give us greater pleasure than to travel up the steep, sun speckled forest of the Wye Valley to sing for our friends in Catbrook.  On 7th June the choir made it way through the narrow lanes and up the slopes overlooking the valley, to the wooden framed Catbrook Memorial Hall, a former World War 1 US military hospital transported from London to the Wye Valley in 1924.  The hall also houses the Trellech Parish’s two war memorials.

 

The choir has made the trip to Catbrook several times to raise fund for the upkeep of the hall, but this time we are delighted to learn that half the proceeds of the evening will be donated to the Choir’s appeal to raise money for Prostate Cymru.

 

Conducted by Siân Hatton and Shirley Ann James and accompanied by John Nicholson and Stephen Berry, the choir squeezed up to the front to sing in a hot and humid atmosphere to about eighty local villagers who gave us, as usual an enthusiastic welcome and  encouragement as we went through our programme with a mix from the theatrical Bring Him Home and Can You Hear the People Sing from Les Miserables, Welsh Hymns Llanfair and Laudamus, popular mixes of O Gymru with soloist Tommy Hole and African Trilogy with soloist Jason Dawe and spiritual Ride the Chariot including soloists David Gould and Siân Hatton among many others.

 

Between choir performances, accompanied by Stephen Berry, delightfully and hilariously, Siân presented the audience with a comical reading, in a northern accent, of comedy poet Marriott Edgar’s two part monologue of  The Lion and Albert written for comedian Stanley Holloway which relates how young Albert Ramsbottom on a visit to Blackpool, got swallowed by a lion called Wallace in the zoo.  The story has a happy ending.

 

The villagers of Catbrook have always provided a feast of refreshments for the choir and this year was no exception with four tables sagging under the weight of copious amounts of sandwiches, rolls, pies, sausages and food of all kinds (including healthy options), enthusiastically consumed by hungry choristers and audience alike.  Not only that but everyone gratefully partook of liquid refreshment on a warm and sultry June evening while the choir continued to sing informally for another ninety minutes from its ‘afterglow’ repertoire including Comrades in Arms, Delilah, Aus de Traube, Marina, Annie’s Song and many more much to the enjoyment of everyone in the hall.

 

The Choir would like to extend its thanks to the villagers of Catbrook for once again inviting us to this lovely part of the world to sing for you and we can tell that you thoroughly enjoyed the evening as much as we did.

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