My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen the St Michaels Singers under the quite brilliant directorship of maestro Bryan Fisher brought two nights of reminiscent pleasure directly from London’s timeless Music Hall, turning St Michaels village hall into a time warp of gaiety and ageless songs accompanied by the professional fingers of Kath Ainsworth gliding across her keyboard in accompaniment to the singers, who enacted their renditions with pace and style, skilfully taking their props from left of stage. The evening commenced with the entire choir singing “Road to Mandalay” this was soon followed by Lawrence Talbot’s excellent interpretation of “It’s a Great Big Shame”. Margaret Morrell’s classic “O Mr Porter what shall I do” soon had the audience joining in. Chris Fisher and Mike Evans provided an inimitable rendition of titillating comedy, which as usual brought the house down. Two nice ladies, Iris Cooper and Jean Lloyd really looked the part as a “Couple of Swells”. Maestro Bryan Fisher interjected with witty banter and words longer than most Thesauruses could provide. Community singing followed with “Down at the old Bull and Bush”, “Daisy”, “Sweet little dicky bird”,led by a trio of talent, David Powell, Lawrence Talbot and Kath Ainsworth. The choir then treated the audience to “The Goslings” and “Sweet Genevieve”. Then Janet and her husband Tony Penn provided an excellent enactment of “Have some Madeira my dear”. By now the entire hall was buzzing. The pace of the evening continued with Graham Plender singing the heart warming “When I leave the world behind”. Jenny’s “Daddy never bought her a bow wow”. The feeling Jackie Bunn put into her “The Sunshine of your Smile”, filled the hall with hearty clapping until the choir sang “Twilight” to end a memorable first half. The busy bar then provided ‘drinks for all’.

After the intermission the audience were bowled over by a repertoire of tongue twisters from maestro Fisher. The second half was initially in the capable hands of David, Lawrence and Kath singing: “if you were the only girl”, “Honeysuckle”, “Lady Love”, and “Nellie Dean”. The choir then sang “Tom Bowling”, Pam Owens delighted us with “My sweet little Alice Blue Gown”. Peter Crownshaw really did harmoniously “Get out and get under”. Mike Evans was in great character bringing us “Pretty Polly Perkins of Paddington Green”. The masculine side of the audience soon began to swoon when Pat Mutton enacted “How’d you like to spoon with me!” Then followed an excellent example of how a lady can look great in ‘white tie and tails’ with Anne Fox’s “Burlington Bertie from Bow”.

Breaking typical Music Hall joviality for Christmas carols the choir and the entire audience then sang “Silent Night”, “Jingle Bells”, “We three Kings” & “Once in Royal David’s City”. Two wonderful evenings were each brought to a close with the choir singing “Merry Christmas”. Maestro Fisher advised that a proportion of the proceeds were to go to St Michaels Hospice who so caringly looked after Jean Brigden the sadly missed founder member of the St Michaels choir, in whose honour this memorable concert had appropriately been staged.
Ken Bourne-Turner

As Musical Director of the St Michaels Singers, I wish to thank all involved in making our Old Tyme Music Hall Concert staged on 18th & 19th December such a success. As always it was a great team effort; special thanks to Muriel for running our raffle which raised a splendid £225 over the two nights, to our front of house ladies Caroline and Roz, as always to Ria and Phil who run the bar so efficiently, and finally to Tonie Downes who was our choreographer and who valiantly spent much time putting the individual artists through their paces, and somehow managing to stay sane (I think). There are not many villages who can boast a choir which can turn its hand from “The Armed Man”, “ Carmina Burana”, Vivaldi’s “Gloria”, Faure’s “Requiem” to Old Tyme Music Hall and then back to “Cantique de Jean Racine” (in French!) which we shall be performing along with other lovely music in July. I am personally very proud of all we have achieved over the last ten years. The St Michaels Singers have become an integrall part of our village life, and as a consequence many lasting friendships have been formed. So on their behalf, I wish to thank everyone for the support and encouragement you give us.
We have just begun rehearsals for our concert in July, so anyone who loves singing and would like to join us please contact any choir member or myself.

Jean Brigden was very much in our thoughts during the performances and we shall be forwarding a donation of £500 to St Michaels Hospice, Hereford, who cared for Jean in the final days of her illness.
Bryan Fisher

SATURDAY 12 JULY 2008

The St Michaels Singers Summer Concert was held in the packed church on Saturday 12th July. The first half was largely dedicated to the music and influence of Vaughan Williams and started with the singers giving a rousing performance of “Let all the world in every corner sing”. Bryan Fisher accompanied by Kath Ainsworth then gave us his thoughtful and delicate rendering of two of Vaughan Wiliams “songs of travel”, The Vagabond and The Roadside Fire. Helen Wilding-Smith (violin) from Brampton Bryan then played 3 charming pieces from the English Folk revival which was greatly influenced by Vaughan William, his well known “Fantasia on Greensleeves” and Mrs Jameisais favouite “The Gay Gordons”.

Michael Hart then entertained us with his stirring playing of Herbert Brewer’s March Heraique, displaying Father Willis’s magnificent reed choruses.

The St Michaels Singers conductor, John Swindells also the resident organist then took up his trumpet and gave us a lovely display of breath control and sweet tone with two short voluntaries by Godfrey Keller accompanied by Michael Hart on the organ. Helen Wilding-Smith returned and played a charming Sicilienne by Maria-Theresa von Paradis. The singers ended the first half with “The Old Hundredth” arranged by Vaughan Williams for the coronation.

The second half of the evening was a treat of a different sort as the singers under John Swindells gave a measured and moving performance of Gabriel Faure’s Requiem with Michael Hart accompanying with a delicacy of touch that matched the singing. The solo sections of the Pie Jesu sung beautifully by Jackie Bunn and the sonorous prayer of the Libera Me by Paul Bayliss showed how lucky the singers are to be able to call on such talent within their number.

As the programme notes said “it is impossible not to be moved by the ethereal beauty of this comparatively humble masterpiece” and together with the incomparable acoustics of the church, John Swindells and the St Michaels Singers gave us an evening of memorable music.