A stunning concert was held at St. Mary’s Church, on Thursday, August 31, to raise money for Bloodwise.

Richard Graham, of Big Brums Furniture Store, very kindly sponsored this event and Tim Brace and Simon Rossiter organised it.

Once again we were blessed with a sizeable audience and entrance fees and raffle ticket sales raised a tremendous amount for the cause.

Tim Brace made an opening speech thanking the choir for supporting this worthwhile charity and said that they were probably the best choir in the UK.

The choir wore their DJs and daffodils for this occasion and luckily Geoff wore the correct uniform. A few weeks ago he had a uniform malfunction when he arrived in his DJ when he should have worn his burgundy blazer. He has been very careful not to make the same mistake again.

‘Young’ Dave Blackmore did a sterling job as Master of Ceremonies and the audience and choir were moaning, groaning and laughing in equal amounts. I’m not sure what Wilbur made of Dave’s comment that Wilbur didn’t float like a butterfly, but did sting like a bee! Hard hats might be a good idea at their next rehearsal.

I was fortunate to be sitting next to one of the choir’s greatest fans who attends almost all of their concerts. Gladys hails from Ireland, but has been a Tenbyite for 20 years. Another of their biggest fans and a good neighbour of mine, Margaret Hill, has had health problems and has not been able to attend a concert for a while. I hope that she will feel up to joining us again soon as she is very much missed by all of us.

Our visitors on this occasion came from England, Scotland, the Irish Republic, Austria, Australia, South Africa, Canada and the USA.

I don’t think that they knew what a fabulous experience they were about to enjoy and neither did they realise that they would be singing for their supper too.

The number of favourable comments that I heard at the end of the concert was heart-warming. Please remember that you can visit our website and leave written comments there if you so wish.

The choir and MD Wilbur do not have words and music in front of them when they perform; it is all done from memory.

Also they don’t know what they are going to sing until ‘Young’ Dave announces the next piece.

Once again we were transported around the world from the USA to Africa with songs sung in English, Welsh, Latin, Nigerian ‘High Life’, Swahili and Xhosa.

Our soloist for the evening was our own Paul Varallo, who added Italian to the mixture of languages. Paul sang Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again in memory of his father. This was so moving that two audience members sitting near me had to search for tissues. Paul also sang a lovely Welsh lullaby called Suo Gan which I remember singing with Pontypool Girls Grammar School choir back in the 1960s.

This lullaby also featured in Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood and in the film Empire Of The Sun.

When the time for audience participation arrived, ‘Young’ Dave invited Simon Rossiter to join them on stage. Simon sang Climb Every Mountain with the choir and the audience joined in with their bit.

Afterwards, Gordon was asked if Simon was any good. Receiving an affirmative, Dave then asked if he had thought of joining a choir and said that Pembroke and Whitland were looking for new recruits. If you don’t know Dave, you probably have a good idea of his sense of humour by now. My sympathy goes out to his long-suffering wife Ann. Dave said that there are many benefits of singing with a choir and that it is good for your health. Wilbur disagreed with this and said that before he became their MD he had more hair and it was black!

In their first set the choir sang Arglwydd Mae Yn Nosi, which is a very moving hymn written by Dr. Caradog Roberts in 1918 for the Calvinistic Methodist Church of the USA. Another 1918 musical contribution was the Maori Pokarekare with Welsh words of Calon Lan.

Once again Terry Williams provided a polished solo performance for us.

Our working men John ‘the milk’ and Kevin (Jill’s relation) gave us a duet and were tasked with selling our CDs at the end of the evening.

The choir’s near faultless performance was marred by a major instrument malfunction during My Grandfather’s Clock which left Eric Mullins silenced and Wilbur looking bemused. Luckily the audience joined in most enthusiastically and gave an outstanding performance.

Although this song was written by an American called Henry Clay Worth, whenever Dave asks American guests if they have heard of him, the answer is always no!

After the instrument malfunction, the choir redeemed themselves with a fast and furious performance of The Rhythm Of Life.

Their emotional rendition of Bring Him Home provided a sharp contrast, before four choristers from the audience joined the choir to sing An American Trilogy.

Dr. John Harrison provided a worthy performance on the church organ yet again. Jill, the choir and Dr. John gave it a ‘lot of welly’ and an enthusiastic audience requested an encore.

The choir and guests then retired to the club for some liquid refreshment and to discuss their performance.

One of the main topics of conversation concerned Eric’s instrument malfunction, hopefully a new one will be acquired before the next scheduled event.

Many thanks again to Jill (no relation) and Ian for all of their hard work in helping the choir to produce a worthy performance.

Our next concert will be at St. Mary’s on September 14 when we will be raising money for Air Ambulance Wales.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Di Mumford