After weeks of planning and publicising the event - leafletting the village, putting posters up in nearby towns and writing articles for local newspapers, We were slightly anxious that before the evening we had had only 40 replies to our invitations, although had been assured by other organisers of similar events, that people would turn up on the evening - and indeed they did.
In fact, when the church started filling up with people, we then started becoming anxious for the opposite reason - that we might not have enough seats for all and that we might run out of wine and orange juice for everyone. Our anxieties were unfounded as space was found for everybody, with the addition of extra chairs and every pew utilised to maximum capacity.
| Something would have been missing if we had hosted a musical evening to help raise money
for our church bells without the bells themselves putting in a performance,
so the week before the concert a team of bell ringers from Cheddington and other nearby churches
were gathered to ring the bells in the tower above as our guests arrived.
The ringing sounded beautiful and despite a small technical hitch with one of the bells
which was speedily fixed by Richard dashing up the belfry, the
bells sounded glorious, sending their song out across the village and calling people to the concert.
Incidentally, just to remind us why we are trying to raise funds, two of our bells were playing up at the following morning service ring with their bearings partially seizing up. Hopefully this has been rectified by my maintenance visit with grease and oil. |
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| Our first act was performed by 'Simply Sax' led by Shirley Francis. This group of seven saxophone players ranging from soprano to tenor, meet weekly in the Aylesbury Vale Multicultural Centre to improve their skills playing various styles of music including Jazz, Classical and other traditional pieces. Several times a year the group perform at charity events. |
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| Finishing off the first half before the interval Chris recited "The Choirmaster's Burial" by Thomas Hardy and then introduced, a very entertaining set of tunes, performed by the St. Giles Choir led by Julie Stanley, including Money, money, money by Abba, If I were a Rich Man, Money Makes the World Go Round and 'You've Got to Pick a Pocket or Two', complete with simulated urchins rushing round the church with collecting caps. All the pieces were on a theme of money and this can only have helped to inspire the huge generosity of the audience when it came to our retiring collection. Excellent work by the choir, and it sounded lovely - thankyou! |
Clearly the refreshments offered were very popular with the audience during the interval as the aisles were packed with lively chatter and cries for more wine. The raffle ticket team manfully beat their way around selling some more tickets, with an eclectic selection of prizes ranging from pot plants, candles and whisky to a 'grow your own mexican herb kit' and an intriguing Japanese wine bottle cosy! Listening to music is clearly thirsty work, and at one point we thought the bar would run dry so rushed out to get some more bottles from Chris's personal horde of wine. At this point Chris called all to order to launch the next half, (possibly to save us from drinking all of his wine) although he said it was because there were quite a lot of raffle prizes to be announced.
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| The next act was by Craig and Daniel Nathan and Jamie Luscombe. Jamie started with 'Fly me to the moon', beautifully played on alto sax. Daniel played 'Take Five' by Dave Brubeck to the envy of the 'Simply Sax' team who are all keen to try that out themselves. Daniel and Jamie finished with 'What a wonderful world'. We wish these young gentlemen all the best in a promising musical future. Thanks to Craig for the piano accompaniment. |
Next we had Vaughan Jones on violin accompanied again by Craig on piano. In keeping with the theme of the English countryside, they played the 'Lark Ascending' by Vaughan Williams which left the audience spell-bound. Vaughan kindly made time in his busy schedule with Manor House Music to play in support of the bell restoration fund, as Rose his partner has recently joined our team - and as a bell ringer 'in training', she is gradually working her way round other local churches taking it out on their bells to save ours. Many thanks to Vaughan and Craig.
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Many thanks to all of the performers, the visiting bellringers, the catering team, raffle ticket team, car park patrol, film unit and to Christopher who kept it all on track. Who knows, we might have inspired an international poetry reciting career for Chris, as his performances prompted a booking from the Cheddington WI.
Particular thanks go to all of the audience who made such generous donations to this appeal. We raised a staggering £962 and because many people chose to 'Gift Aid' their donations, this adds another £60, which we are delighted with. This has considerably boosted our existing fund sourced from other personal donations. In these days of financial crisis and credit crunch, it is incredibly heartwarming that local people obviously care so much about their local bells and gave money so willingly to preserve these ancient bells - which after all, provide one of the most evocative sounds of the English countryside.
Our next planned event is on the 4th July to coincide with the Village Fete when we will have an open afternoon in the tower, including ringing demonstrations, belfry guided tours and a chance for people to come and try their hand at ringing.
| Alan Masters |