Masonic Widows, Chippenham

Yesterday we entertained a group of widows whose husbands were members of the  Masons society. We had previously performed for this group in November 2017 when the venue was the Devizes lodge. This time it was the turn of the Chippenham lodge to host the event.

We are still getting to grips with the loss of our percussionist Dave Sperritt who has moved out of our area. In his place (for now) we have introduced an electronic TRIO+ gadget which provides customised bass and percussion backing for guitar/vocal performers. Approximately 40% of our repertoire has been recorded on the device – but we sometimes run into glitches during performances. Yesterday, two recordings were accidentally wiped when preparing for the next song. Fortunately, we had backup versions available on another memory card and were able to perform the complete programme.

In the audience was Mona who was celebrating her birthday that very same day, and so we all sang her ‘Happy Birthday’. She broke into a radiant smile – much nicer than the Michelangelo portrait.

Missing from the singing line-up were John Johnston and Chris Scott. The programme was as follows:-

1. All My Loving
2. The Wonder Of You
3. Sugar and Spice
4. Help Me Make It Through The Night
5. Proud Mary
6. Wonderful World
7. Rhinestone Cowboy
8. Leaving On A Jet Plane
9. Make You Feel My Love
10. Do You Love Me
11. You Got It
12. Here It Comes Again
13. Mr Tambourine Man
14. Saturday Night At The Movies
15. Hey Baby

Glovers Court, Malmesbury

This afternoon we visited Glovers Court to perform once again for the Monday Club members. The audience were a bit thin on the ground in the run up to the start of the performance – but seats were filled for the music which started a couple of minutes late.

It was fantastic news to hear that organiser Sheena has her birthday in a few days time, and so we all joined in with the usual rendition of Happy Birthday. Sheena has been undergoing treatment for a severe health problem but she looked very bright today.

Our programme is shown below and contained two numbers we had never before sang for the club: the Kris Kristofferson song ‘Help Me Make It Through The Night’; and the Sam Cooke song ‘Wonderful World’. Both songs were well received, as was the Bob Dylan song ‘Make You Feel My Love’.

We were without singer John Johnston for today’s performance. Following the performance we received some wonderful refreshments produced by Sheena and Iona; we thank them very much for their continued support of the group.

1. All My Loving
2. The Wonder Of You
3. Sugar and Spice
4. Help Me Make It Through The Night
5. Proud Mary
6. Wonderful World
7. Rhinestone Cowboy
8. Leaving On A Jet Plane
9. Make You Feel My Love
10. Do You Love Me
11. You Got It
12. Here It Comes Again
13. Mr Tambourine Man
14. Saturday Night At The Movies
15. Hey Baby
16. Amarillo

‘Golden Tracks’ Sells Out

The final copy of our fourth CD recording ‘Golden Tracks’ was sold at last night’s concert in Swindon. It has been our most successful CD (235 copies sold) – outselling CD-3 by that one sale! Profits from the sales of this recording amounted to more than £840.

Lawn Community Centre, Swindon

Last night we appeared once again at the Lawn Community Centre “by popular demand” to raise funds for charity. It was our sixth appearance at the centre in eight years. All proceeds from the evening were split between ‘Open Door Centre (Swindon & District)’ – which provides resources for adults with learning disabilities – and EOTT’s charity Julia’s House which runs a children’s hospice in Devizes.

The audience of 40 people were thoroughly entertained by the two 45-minute music performances from the group, and they had brought along their own refreshments to enjoy during the interval. The group’s line-up was missing Phil Dyke who was away on holiday – but did include our newcomer Nick Parsons who was making his public debut with EOTT.

A number of our wives had also made the 20 mile trip across to Swindon, and they joined along with the rest of the audience in singing the classic songs from the 1960s and 1970s eras. There was time during the interval and at the end of the concert to interact with the audience and we received a lot of enthusiastic responses. One lady named Nira from Canada was overjoyed with the evening and described our music as ‘inspirational’ in the way it had affected the audience. There was also a couple from America who enjoyed our style of entertainment.

Here is the programme we performed on the night:-

1. All My Loving
2. Can’t Help Falling In Love
3. Sugar and Spice
4. I’m Into Something Good
5. Silence Is Golden
6. Here Comes My Baby
7. I Can See Clearly Now
8. Help Me Make It Through The Night
9. Bad Moon Rising
10. Words
11. Ginny Come Lately
12. Eight Days A Week

Interval

14. Rhinestone Cowboy
15. More Than I Can Say
16. Do You Love Me
17. You Got It
18. All I Need Is The Air
19. Saturday Night At The Movies
20. Hey Baby
21. Take Good Care Of My Baby
22. 22. Something
23. Da Do Ron Ron
24. Amarillo
25. Do Wah Diddy Diddy
26. Hey Jude

 

River House Day Centre, Chippenham

This afternoon we returned to River House in the heart of Chippenham to perform for the last time to the day centre group of people who meet together in the lounge of this residential home. In the New Year the group will be moving to the recently renovated nearby church hall belonging to St Andrew’s Church.

The lounge appeared today to be as packed as it has ever been before, and there were a couple of ladies who we recognised as being in the audience for our Monday performance at the Neeld Community & Arts Centre. One of those ladies (Joan) had celebrated a birthday on Tuesday and so we again sang her Happy Birthday – as well as Jan who is a helper for the group.

Also in the audience was our friend Laura; she helps at the day centre and is well known to us as she has been a regular attendee of the North Wilts Holiday Club for many years. We always try to enable her to join us for the performance of her favourite song Hey Jude, and today we needed to switch the programme around so that we could sing that song before Laura had to leave for an appointment.

Missing today’s performance was John Johnston who is suffering with knee pain. We welcomed back singer Chris Scott who had missed the previous two concerts due to other commitments.

Our new rhythm machine was brought into action for only its second public appearance, and the teething problems we experienced with it on Tuesday were corrected for this performance. It was used for approximately 50% of the songs. Our programme today was:-

1. Here Comes My Baby
2. I Can See Clearly Now
3. Words
4. Bad Moon Rising
5. Silence Is Golden
6. Ginny Come Lately
7. Eight Days A Week
8. Rhinestone Cowboy
9. Something
10. Love Me Tender
11. Sugar And Spice
12. Do You Love Me
13. Jim Reeves Combo
14. Saturday Night At The Movies
15. Hey Baby
16. Do Wah Diddy Diddy
17. Hey Jude

Calne Handicapped Club

On Tuesday we returned once again to the club house of the Calne Football Club to provide musical entertainment for the Handicapped Club. This was our ninth appearance for the club spread across the last 3.5 years.

There were many familiar faces around the room as we assembled for the performance. Organiser Denise did not admit to having had her 88th birthday the day before, but we did find another audience member with a very recent birthday to sing Happy Birthday.

Our percussionist Dave Sperritt has now moved away from the area and could not be with us for this performance. Instead, we brought along a rhythm machine with prerecorded backings for many of the songs in the programme. Although we had rehearsed for a few weeks with the machine, this was the first time we had used it in public. There were one or two teething problems with the sound levels and tempo, but it did add something to many of the more robust songs.

Also missing that day were John Johnston and Chris Scott. Our programme was:-

1. Here Comes My Baby
2. Bad Moon Rising
3. Silence Is Golden
4. Ginny Come Lately
5. Eight Days A Week
6. Rhinestone Cowboy
7. Something
8. I Can See Clearly Now
9. Do You Love Me
10. Jim Reeves Combo
11. Saturday Night At The Movies
12. Hey Baby

Seniors Event, Neeld Community & Arts Centre

On Monday we entertained a group of senior citizens from the Chippenham area. The venue was the Neeld Community & Arts Centre in the centre of town.

The local council has started to introduce monthly afternoon entertainment sessions – with some of them being provided free of charge and including tea and cake. Our event was one of these, and tickets had sold out weeks before the performance. Was it our reputation that had brought in the crowds?

Desna Allen, the mayor of Chippenham, attended the event and sat near to the front. The group performed from the hall’s stage. Some difficulty was experienced with the stage lighting, and adjustments were needed to enable the singers to see clearly their music.

The afternoon was introduced by the organiser Julie Hook. One singer Chris Scott was missing today from the group’s line-up, and two singers were suffering with heavy colds that affected their vocal performance. However, we soldiered through the programme and we received many good comments from the audience at the end of the concert.

Our programme that day was:-

1. All My Loving
2. Can’t Help Falling In Love
3. Sugar and Spice
4. I’m Into Something Good
5. Silence Is Golden
6. Here Comes My Baby
7. I Can See Clearly Now
8. Bad Moon Rising
9. Words
10. Ginny Come Lately
11. Eight Days A Week

Interval

13. Rhinestone Cowboy
14. More Than I Can Say
15. Do You Love Me
16. You Got It
17. All I Need Is The Air
18. Saturday Night At The Movies
19. Hey Baby
20. Take Good Care Of My Baby
21. Da Do Ron Ron
22. Amarillo
23. Do Wah Diddy Diddy
24. Hey Jude