Risca Male Choir - Tour to York, July 2024 # 1 

Well, after leaving Risca Male Choir 2 years ago, I didn’t think I would be writing another blog for the guys, but here we are!! I was contacted by Matt (MD Matthew Harrison) at the last minute since he had a predicament where he found himself stuck between a rock and a hard place, and couldn’t make it onto the tour. Needless to say, I didn’t want to let the guys down, so I stepped in at the eleventh hour to fill in for the maestro. I was then kept in the loop about all the goings on in terms of repertoire and concerts by Matt, Andy (Williams) and Alan (Davis), and I was very glad they got in touch to explain everything to me.

As I am a teacher in North Wales, one of my biggest concerns was arriving at the venue on time, but I managed to get there just at the end of RMC’s rehearsal, which already sounded great! I had done my preparations for all the pieces, but it’s very different conducting into a mirror, and then in front of real humans, so I was obviously fairly anxious about going on the stage with no rehearsal time with the choir before performing with them. On top of that, I was conducting the two joint items at the end of the first concert! But my worries were immediately eradicated as soon as we did the first piece of the evening and the guys were on top form, as always. With the stage being a small space and a difficult place to navigate in terms of staging and coming on and off, the MD of Featherstone MVC and I decided to put the order of the pieces as a slot of 6 each. This was a lot for the guys to sing in one stint, but this did mean that the concert didn’t go on until midnight with moving around so often! We had a good show in the first half with some great singing, especially Alan’s (Baritone, Alan Davis) solo in Hodie, and then we had a very productive session selling our CDs!

RMC opened the second half, and this was the most interesting for me, as I had never conducted some of the pieces before, and they had so many directing changes! However, the guys guided me through the pieces, so we pulled through in a very positive manner. Some highlights of mine include What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor?, Y Gair oedd Duw, and Gwinllan a Roddwyd. Our joint items with Featherstone went very well too, with the audience singing along to You’ll Never Walk Alone, and everyone enjoying singing together for Gwahoddiad, where we sang the first verse in English and the following two in Welsh. Bringing some Celtic  culture to Pontefract!

I must say I had a great time listening to Featherstone - they had a really full sound and chose some challenging items to sing, so just a quick note to say a big thank you for sharing the stage with us on that evening. Hopefully a partnership that continues into the future!

The next morning came around and we all went off and did our own thing - I got a chance to explore Leeds city centre, including the biggest indoor market in Europe! What a fantastic place to shop and eat - definitely have a weekend there if you get the chance! 

We then made our way on the coach to Skipton for our final concert. After a fairly bumpy ride, we made it safely and began scoping the town. With a change of programme for the evening, I spent my time making adjustments to my script, but I did get to enjoy the canal that runs around the town, which was certainly a nice experience. Following this, we had a run through at the venue, and I finally got to rehearse a little bit, which was definitely appreciated. A lot of it was sorting the acoustic and the sound system, but we still had time to go over some bits.

The concert began with our performance of Let All Men Sing, which went down a storm with the audience. We were joined by the winners of the Young Musicians’ competition that the Rotary Club had organised, with Alexander Clarke playing Boehm and Guillmant on the organ, Florence Churcher singing some Bernstein and Tesori, Lucy Cryer playing Satie on the piano and Jessica Poulson singing Schonberg and Lippa. They were all absolutely fantastic and have very bright futures ahead of them.

We had some issues with the microphones during the concert, but it was duly sorted by the second half and we produced a fantastic performance, especially of Hiraeth and Shout to God. We even performed an encore of Gwahoddiad (this time, all in Welsh of course!) and sold another load of CDs, so an all-round success!

If we put together the two concerts, we managed to raise a total of almost £6,000 for various charities, so a very productive and worthwhile event for the choir.

On a personal note, I’d like to thank RMC for being so accommodating and being so flexible with me being part of the team again. It’s clear that the guys are progressing very well with Matt and are continuing the hard work we did together two years ago. Rest assured, the choir is in safe hands and has a very bright future. I will be keeping in touch with the guys in the hope that we can organise a tour with my own choirs as I’d love to work with them again.

Best of luck in the August National Eisteddfod, and please stay in touch!

 Until next time…

Tomos

Tomos Bennett-Gwyn: Music Director, Risca Male Choir, 2018 – 2022

Risca Male Choir Yorkshire Tour, 10th July to 14th July 2024 # 2

This tour should have gone ahead back in 2020, but due to Covid, it had to be cancelled. It was then re-arranged for 2021, but again, we had to cancel due to more Covid. Eventually we saw the back of this dreaded virus, and were able to go ahead with our plans.

A brief insight on organising our tour along with how each day worked out.

After a very successful tour to Chester in May 2023, planning for this tour started on the 11th of November 2023 with an email to Ellie Fowle of The Travel Business Newport, asking for hotel and coach costs to Leeds, West Yorkshire on the dates agreed. The hotel and coach costs were confirmed within seven days. I then passed the details to the committee for discussion, and they gave the go ahead to start organising. The next step was to contact Peter Malpass of Featherstone MVC who was my contact for the cancelled tour in 2020/2021, asking if Featherstone MVC was prepared to perform a joint concert with Risca Male Choir in aid of the MND charity. This, of course was where the late Rob Burrow hailed, and to choose the MND charity was a no brainer as Rob started his playing career at Featherstone Rovers as a junior rugby league player. I received the green light from Peter telling me they would be delighted to work with us and perform alongside RMC.

The concert was arranged for Friday, 12th July, 2024, at St Giles Church, Pontefract. All concert arrangements were then left to the choirs’ concert secretaries, Robin Grayson for RMC, and Peter Trevor for Featherstone MVC.

My next challenge was to arrange a concert for Saturday 13th July. I contacted several Rotary Clubs in and around the Leeds area and finally I had a response from Graham Hamilton of Skipton Rotary Club. When I told Graham the choir was prepared to perform a free concert for whatever charity they supported, he was delighted, saying, “It’s great that someone does something for nothing in this world!” The date was agreed, the charity was “Mary’s Meals” and Polio in Africa, and the venue was the beautiful Holy Trinity Church, Skipton. The four soloists for this concert were aged between 10 and 18 and were all winners of Skipton Rotary Club’s Young Musicians’ competition which they run every year. Perhaps this is something RMC can take on board. Again, concert arrangements were left to our concert secretary Robin Grayson.

Next on my list was to find a place for our lunch stops for both Wednesday and Sunday that would accommodate 51 people. Bromsgrove Golf Centre was my first choice. I contacted Sarah Tyler who gladly approved the booking. Sarah then passed on the menu choices and prices to me and I in turn passed them onto choristers and wives to make their choices and I asked them to email me their orders and take a copy to remind themselves what they ordered. That wasn’t a difficult request, was it?

Wednesday 10th July, Travel Day

At 8.50am the coach arrived at HQ. I introduced myself to the driver whose name is Dwayne, we briefly went through the itinerary together and agreed everything was good to go. Choristers and wives started to arrive and board the coach. With everyone on safely, we headed for Newport train station to pick up Jeslyn Asir (Accompanist) and Mark Knight Davis (Trevor Baker’s Physio for the tour) after which we headed off to our first destination, a planned toilet stop for the elderly at Strensham Services!!

Back on the M5 we made our way to Bromsgrove Golf Centre for lunch. We arrived at 12.45pm. Lunch was served, everyone had their fill and we left the Golf Centre at about 2.45pm and made our way to the Holiday Inn Express, Leeds. Everyone checked in, no problems. The evening was free to relax and have a drink. Some of us ended up in a hostelry near the train station where the story tellers stood on their soap boxes telling tales of years gone by (laughter all night).

Thursday 11th July, Free day in York.

This is the day to relax and do your own thing. Our stage manager, Trevor Baker, booked 20 free tickets for those who wanted to visit the Train Museum which many of us took the opportunity to do, while others visited York Minster, the Shambles and many other attraction York has to offer. After our train museum tour, we caught a bus back to the Minster where some took the opportunity to have a refreshing cuppa, some found a Medieval Beer House, was it The Red Lion? After a long day everyone made it back to the coach safely by around quarter to six. We then made our way back to our hotel in Leeds for a restful night in Wetherspoon’s. I’m assuming everyone enjoyed their time in York.

Friday 12th July Concert Day Pontefract.

We left the hotel at 2.30pm for Featherstone Rugby League Club for rehearsals after which we were fed and watered by Featherstone MVC Ladies’ section (Grateful thanks to them) A quick change into our uniforms, and off to St Giles Church Pontefract. We were lucky enough to find a parking spot about 100 metres from the church. We arrived on time for Tomos (Former MD, Tomos Bennett-Gwyn) to take the opportunity to have a rehearsal in the church and get a feel for the acoustics. The concert started promptly at 7.00pm. Both choirs performed their programmes admirably. After the presentations at the end of the concert, we made our way back to our hotel in Leeds for refreshments.

Saturday13th July Concert Day, Skipton.

With everyone safely boarded we left for Skipton at 3.00pm driving through some of Yorkshire’s beautiful countryside. We arrived at around 4.00pm where many went foraging for food, others went straight to the Church where we met our hosts, Graham Hamilton and Judy Hazelhurst, who is the President of Skipton Rotary Club. Everything was set for the night’s performance leaving us a little time for liquid refreshments, non-alcoholic of course. The concert began promptly, with RMC starting things off followed by the refreshing young musical talent of Skipton. The second half followed the same pattern as the first. After the presentations, we made our way to the Castle Inn 30 metres from the Church. After a little socializing and not “very good singing”, we made our way back to Leeds.

Sunday 14th July. Last day of the tour.

Things were very quiet at breakfast. Howard Morgan (Bass) and I were the first to enter the dining room 7.30am. I’m guessing there was some last-minute packing to be done for those who stayed up late. 10.00am everyone was on the coach ready to depart for a three-hour drive to Bromsgrove Golf Centre where we arrived at 12.50pm. Good planning! This time lunch was served upstairs in the fine dining and banqueting room. There were large round tables dressed in lily white table cloths and sparkling cutlery. We were like Knights and Knightresses of the Round Table. Now cast your minds back to Wednesday where I asked people to take a copy of their menu choices, reminding themselves of what they ordered! Well, in some cases, that did happen and in other cases it didn’t! There were shouts coming from all directions, “Alan!! What have I ordered?” It amazes me how they manage to remember what they are singing on times. (Joking of course)

It’s now time to board the coach and head home to Risca, and start work on the Eisteddfod pieces. I hope everyone enjoyed themselves, I certainly did. All my hard work paid off. Concerts were well attended, we sang well, and raised lots of money for two very worthy charities: £4,200 for MND and £1,600 for “Mary’s Meals” and Polio in Africa. Thanks to the following people: our Concert Secretary, Robin Grayson, Vice Chair, Tim Stone, & Geraint Price for devising and printing the programmes, Dave Rowlands for looking after the money side of things, and a special thanks to our accompanist, Jeslyn Asir, who once again performed magnificently. Finally, our grateful thanks to Tomos Bennett-Gwyn who stepped in at such short notice to conduct both concerts. Thank you Tomos, you did us proud!

Alan Davis: Tour Manager & Baritone.