Goatacre Manor Care Home

Yesterday afternoon we performed a concert at a farewell party for Tamara – the care home worker who has been responsible for booking our group routinely since January 2018. It was our fifteenth appearance at the home and we have got to know a lot of the residents over the years. We all have a great deal of fun during the hour-long performances, and we are sure that will continue under the control of Stella.

We were informed by telephone 90 minutes before the performance that road works had closed one of the roads providing access to the home, and we would need to follow the one and only route to be able to reach the home’s car park. Fortunately, all the travelling singers were contacted about the state of the roads around the home, and everyone arrived for the start of our concert.

We began with inviting all the residents to join us in the singing of ‘Happy Birthday’ to a lady named Anne. She looked especially pleased to hear everyone in the lounge wishing her a happy birthday. And Tamara was present to hear all of our songs: it was her last working day at the care home and she remarked that her first retirement day would be spent having a new carpet laid. We all wish her good luck for her retirement years to come.

We sang through our programme and managed to get a few dancers onto the floor – including Tamara! But most of the audience preferred to stay seated and joined in with the entertainment. Although there was plenty of cake on offer at the party we decided to take up an offer from singer Jack to go back to his home for refreshments. Thanks Jack for your marvellous hospitality.

We were missing Ron Dolman from our line-up. Our programme was:-

1. There’ll Never Be Anyone Else
2. Bye-Bye Love                
3. Love Me Tender              
4. Amarillo                          
5. When My Little Girl Is Smiling
6. Sweet Caroline               
7. Let Your Love Flow           
8. When Will I Be Loved       
9. The Young Ones            
10. Hello Mary Lou         
11. Eight Days A Week    
12. More Than I Can Say 
13. Carrie Anne              
14. Do Wah Diddy Diddy  
15. Hey Baby               
16. Hi Ho Silver Lining     
17. Hey Jude             

Applegate House, Trowbridge

Yesterday evening we returned for our second appearance at Applegate House in Trowbridge.

We all arrived around 30 minutes before the start time of our performance and we assisted in preparing the residents lounge for the audience. As the time for our performance neared we could see more and more residents coming into the room, and by the start of our singing we had all the seats occupied – except for the front row.

There were some knowledgable members of the audience who knew a lot of details about the songs we sang. Or was it the use of their smart phones that helped them remember? Anyway, it added to the interaction and everyone appeared to enjoy themselves. Some residents had brought along drinks to add to the party spirit.

At the end of the performance the house manager took a collection for our charity, and we would like to thank the residents for their donation. On our way out of the lounge one resident remarked she was ‘hugely disappointed’ by the evening – but then remarked that we had not sung any Meatloaf songs. That was a reference to a recent local newspaper article which stated we have never sung any Rolling Stones or Meatloaf songs because we found they did not suit us. Sarcasm is alive and well in Trowbridge!

Singer Ron Dolman was missing from the line-up. Our programme was:-

1. There’ll Never Be Anyone Else    
2. Bye-Bye Love                  
3. Love Me Tender                  
4. Amarillo                        
5. Sweet Caroline                       
6. Let Your Love Flow        
7. I Fought The law                      
8. When Will I Be Loved              
9. The Young Ones                    
10. Hello Mary Lou                    
11. Eight Days A Week                
12. More Than I Can Say               
13. Carrie Anne                        
14. Do Wah Diddy Diddy               
15. Hey Baby                                     
16. Hi Ho Silver Lining                 
17. Hey Jude                                 

Stanton Lodge, Swindon

This afternoon we travelled to Swindon for our second visit to Stanton Lodge. We previously entertained the residents in November 2022, and they enjoyed that performance so much that they immediately requested we return again as soon as possible.

The lounge area we use in the home is quite compact but there was enough room for us to perform to the audience of eight residents. The home has just 14 apartments and so it is easy to understand why there were not more residents in the room. Most of us arrived well ahead of the scheduled start time of 2:30pm, but Keith Bartlam entered the room with just 5 minutes to spare – having been confused by two different SATNAV devices sending him in different directions.

There were so many smiling faces in our audience as we began our programme of songs, and most joined in with the singing. Indeed, two of the ladies sang through nearly all of the songs! And they were very enthusiastic in the parts of songs where we ask them to clap along or wave arms in the air. They gave an especially good ending to Hey Jude. We heard from the one gentleman who informed us of his upbringing in Newcastle before coming southwards to Swindon – and he smiled as he described how his worries about moving to the home were dispelled when he got to know his neighbours in the home.

We were again without singer Ron Dolman; our programme was:-

1. There’ll Never Be Anyone Else  
2. Bye-Bye Love              
3. Love Me Tender           
4. Amarillo                     
5. Sweet Caroline                
6. Hey Jude                        
7. I Fought The law               
8. When Will I Be Loved       
9. The Young Ones                 
10. Hello Mary Lou     
11. Sorrow                   
12. Runaway                    
13. Carrie Anne            
14. The Locomotion       
15. Do You Love Me     
16. Hey Baby                 
17. Hi Ho Silver Lining      

Flowers Manor Care Home, Chippenham

This afternoon we were on ‘home’ territory in Chippenham – making our first appearance at Flowers Manor in Wood Lane.

We entered the building and registered ourselves and cars at the reception before being led into the ground floor residents lounge. The care home is the newest one in Chippenham having opened in September 2021. The lounge area looked very smart and the audience soon assembled in front of us as we prepared for our performance.

We knew one of the residents Sylvia Stables from her time as stand-in accompanist for the Chippenham Male Voice Choir. Sylvia was wheeled into the room during our performance but had to leave before the end. There were many staff in the lounge to listen to our music and they encouraged the audience to participate with singing and clapping. There were probably 30 people in the lounge, and they all appeared to enjoy the performance.

After our performance we were able to enjoy a cup of tea and to chat with some of the audience. They were certainly enthusiastic about our music and hoped we could return again later in the year. Our programme is shown below. Ron Dolman was unable to be with us today.

1. There’ll Never Be Anyone Else 
2. Bye-Bye Love           
3. Love Me Tender        
4. Amarillo                   
5. Sweet Caroline       
6. Hey Jude                 
7. I Fought The law              
8. When Will I Be Loved        
9. The Young Ones                
10. Hello Mary Lou           
11. Sorrow                      
12. Runaway                   
13. Carrie Anne               
14. The Locomotion        
15. Do You Love Me       
16. Hey Baby                 
17. Hi Ho Silver Lining     

Monday Club, Glovers Court, Malmesbury

This afternoon we spent some time with our very good friends at the Monday Club – a regular venue for the group.

Most of the lounge was full with familiar faces, although there were a couple of ‘newcomers’ who had not heard us perform before today. They were ready for us well ahead of our proposed start time, and we decided to begin the performance 5 minutes earlier than planned. Our programme was the same one we had performed two days ago in Trowbridge and it featured songs by Ricky Nelson and the Everly Brothers. Today’s audience knew these songs and joined in with our singing.

We navigated our way through the programme and received excellent responses to each song we sang. We were able to dedicate our newest number ‘Carrie Anne’ to one member of the audience who was called Ann. And there were several of our quick tempo songs that had the audience rocking on the chairs – although no one managed to dance. Perhaps the floor space was insufficent?

At the end of the performance we received great applause, and we then retired to the side room to enjoy some fantastic refreshments prepared by organiser Iona and her helpers. We look forward to returning to the club in June 2023.

Missing today was Ron Dolman. Our programme was:-

1. There’ll Never Be Anyone Else     
2. Bye-Bye Love                   
3. Love Me Tender               
4. Amarillo                         
5. Sweet Caroline                 
6. Hey Jude                         
7. I Fought The law                
8. When Will I Be Loved         
9. The Young Ones               
10. Hello Mary Lou          
11. Sorrow                      
12. Runaway                   
13. Carrie Anne              
14. The Locomotion         
15. Do You Love Me         
16. Hey Baby                   
17. Hi Ho Silver Lining      

80th Birthday Party, Trowbridge

This afternoon we made our debut at the Wesley Road Club in Trowbridge at the invitation of Peter and Margaret Thorne to celebrate Margaret’s 80th birthday.

There were probably around 50 people who attended the birthday party and amongst them were some members of the Honeypot Club – including young baby Douglas (our youngest fan). We asked the audience to sing along to the first part of our performance and to then take to the dance floor for the second half.

We sang a couple of songs from the 1950s era before inviting everyone to join us in singing Happy Birthday to Margaret. And the singing continued for the rest of our programme, although it was clear that some of the party wanted to socialise and catch up with friends they had not seen for a long time.

We had been asked by Margaret to inform the audience about our fund raising activities, and her husband went around the room with a collection box for donations. We raised over £200 for our charity from the performance. Afterwards we watched as Margaret cut into her giant cake and the group were asked to participate in the buffet.

Our thanks go to everyone who donated and also to those who had prepared the party food.

Ron Dolman was unable to perform with us today. Our programme was:-

1. There’ll Never Be Anyone Else
2. Bye-Bye Love        
3. Love Me Tender       
4. Amarillo                   
5. Sweet Caroline             
6. Hey Jude                
7. I Fought The law            
8. When Will I Be Loved  
9. The Young Ones            
10. Hello Mary Lou  
11. Sorrow                 
12. Runaway             
13. Carrie Anne            
14. The Locomotion       
15. Do You Love Me      
16. Hey Baby           
17. Hi Ho Silver Lining