Risca Male Choir Social Voice # 1

Small beginnings: a curry night at Vanilla Spice and a ‘serata Italiana’ at Mamma Lina’s

Risca Male Choir has now decided to push forward with our social side which, mostly due to Covid, had fallen down. Sadly, we lost our dear friend John Watkins, who had been social secretary for several years and did a magnificent job and is missed by all. He was a lovely person and a dedicated chorister.

I decided to volunteer for this role to carry on John’s work.

I felt that we needed a fresh approach, and to widen our range of activities to enhance the morale within our group, not just for the gentleman of the choir but to all involved, and that encompasses our wives, partners and friends of the choir.

It’s my aim to make progress and move this forwards in different ways. We need to fund ourselves by our own means rather than having to approach the choir committee for funding. Unfortunately, this has become very difficult over past years and has at times caused some friction.

I am certain that with the right support and commitment we can really make a difference, not only for the morale of the choir, but also with developing interest for potential new choristers. Hopefully   they will see what a great feeling we have within our “ family “ and may well want to be a part of it.

Back in March it was suggested to have a “lads “curry night which was initially suggested by our friend and bass, Leigh Tucker. Due to some mix up of dates he could not attend. However, I then rearranged it for a Tuesday evening. We had a reasonable response and ended up with a group of twelve which included our President Stephen Tom. We all had a fabulous evening at the Vanilla Spice Indian Restaurant on Malpas Road Newport. The restaurant serves good food and created a lovely atmosphere which was a great way to spend time with good friends. We decided that this will happen again on frequent occasions.

I then decided to hold a social event to include our partners for an Italian evening, I made some tentative enquires as to numbers who would be interested. WOW! What a response! Initially I had 34 names, and then this figure rose to 42. This did take a little time and effort to organise, especially with menus to sort out as the proprietors, Mamma Lina’s, requested the food choices a week beforehand. Anyway, with everyone’s cooperation this was achieved.

The evening went spectacularly well, fortunately there were no hitches, and everyone had a good time, either having a catch up, getting aquatinted or putting the world to right. It was a fabulously enjoyable evening.

The food was exceptional, and the service great.

It was greatly satisfying that the evening was a huge success and everyone has shown an interest for a repeat performance. I have no doubt that there will be.

All who are interested are welcome to our events.  We can only ask, and if you don’t wish to join our little events here and there, then we think it’s your loss!

Mike Sullivan