Pembroke Mayor Dennis Evans, and the Mayoress Rita Evans, welcomed the Pembroke Male Voice Choir to Pembroke Town Hall recently for a wonderful St. David’s Day evening of song to raise funds for charity.

Despite the wet night, the hll was full, and both the choir and over 100 guests enjoyed a delicious cawl supper, provided by Pembrokeshire Macmillan volunteers.

Thanks go to the Pembroke Male Voice Choir for giving their time to support Macmillan, which together with Wales Air Ambulance is one of the Pembroke Mayor’s charities for his mayoral year.

Appreciation also to other Mayors and their wives from around the county who came along.

A special thank you also goes to the Macmillan volunteers who made and served the cawl, and to Rose at the Town Hall for all her help with the organisation and clearing up afterwards.

It was a fantastic evening, and together with funds from an excellent raffle, £771 was made to help support people living in Pembrokeshire with cancer.

A full report of the evening from Pembroke and District Male Voice Choir’s Byron Williams follows:

Well, March 1, our Patron St. David’s Day is upon us once again, and the Pembroke and District Male Voice Choir is back at Pembroke Town Hall, to perform a concert in aid of Macmillan, the Mayor, Dennis Evans’s chosen charity.

The evening was well attended, with an audience somewhere approaching 100 in number, including a number of dignitaries from the district.

After the Mayor’s welcoming address, during which Macmillan staff were praised for their hard work, and announced that the president of Pembrokeshire Macmillan, Dilys Hamer, was unable to attend this evening, due to ill health, the choir began the concert with two songs, ‘With a Voice of Singing’ and ‘Stout Hearted Men’, from the portfolio of new songs, currently being learned, and rehearsed, ahead of the massed choir concert in the Albert Hall in May 2018.

Following this, we were entertained by young Courtney Thomas, who, brandishing a giant daffodil, called David, and dressed as a Welsh rugby player, performed an excellent rendition of a Welsh poem, translated by baritone, Byron Williams for audience benefit, followed by an equally eloquent reading of an English poem.

Then came the turn of the duet of Alyson Griffiths and Jenny Griffiths, performing ‘Ffos Felen’.

The choir then rounded off the first half with three further ‘Albert Hall’ pieces, ‘Anfonaf Angel’, ‘Bugeilio’r Gwenith Gwyn’ and ‘Cwm Rhondda’.

During the interval, we were all, audience and choir alike, served cawl, cheese, and bread, by the kind members of Macmillan, the Town Hall staff; even the Mayor called his waiting skills to the fore.

Once the raffle had been drawn, for which many, many prizes had been donated from all over, the concert was resumed, with one of our new choir members, Dennis Goldsworthy, reciting a poem about St. David’s victory, that he learned as a five-year-old lad; impressive recall.

The choir then sang three songs, ‘It’s a Grand Night for Singing’, ‘The Sunset Poem’ and ‘The World in Union’.

Another soloist, choir baritone Ron Rees, sang ‘Duw it’s Hard’, the Max Boyce tale of colliery closures in the 1970s.

Next, Alyson and Jenny again performed, singing ‘Suo Gan’.

The choir brought the concert to a close with two songs, ‘O Gymru’ and ‘Rachie’, which was dedicated to choir vice-resident, Mr. John James, who sadly passed away recently.

After the Mayor’s closing thankyous, and Macmillan chair lady, Pauline’s thankyous, and announcement that the evening had generated £771 for the charity, the Welsh National Anthem was sung by all.

The evening was interspersed with witticisms and humorous tales, as usual, by our able MC, Phil Lloyd, choir conducted by Christine Lloyd, accompanied by Jenny Griffiths on piano, assisted by Alyson Griffiths.