2018 Study Group Show

The November 2018 monthly meeting at St Lukes was, once again, dedicated to our Study Groups Show. This is our annual showcase of performing talent from among our Study Groups. Five groups stepped forward to perform and entertain. Their performances were captured on both video and photographs - all of which you can access from this page.

Watch all the performances again by clicking on the links below.
Senior Moments perform 2018
Recorder Consort perform 2018
The Italian Group perform 2018
The Rock Bottom Band perform 2018 (with apologies for the recording sound quality)
Fun Singers and Newkuleles perform 2018

In addition, Alan Melinek warmed up the waiting audience with an accomplshed piano recital. Unfortunately we do not have a video of this.

Thanks are due to Peter Prosser our photographer, to Tony Yates our video cameraman and to Peter Prosser (again) and David Silver who produced and uploaded the final edited video files.

There is a sample of the photos below, but all are available to view from Photographs of the 2018 Show. Use the arrows at the sides of the big image to scroll through.

Here is Max Black's report of the show, taken from the December 2018 Newsletter:

"This was the fourth annual show presented by our study groups, joined this time by amateur pianist Alan Melinek. He set a high standard with his performance of Chopin’s Fantasie Impromptu Op 66, one of Chopin’s much loved and popular piano pieces. Mozart and Haydn were also included in his short programme.

Senior Moments predominantly features guitars, banjo and voice. Their set included Worried Man Blues, This Land is Your Land, and The Last Thing on my Mind reprised from the 2016 show. I noted then that this is one of my favourite songs from the 60s, and I enjoyed hearing it again. I thought their performance was very
confident, no doubt coming from their long standing existence.

The Recorder Consort, however is newly formed. This group plays a variety of different recorders enabling them to perform pieces with melody and accompaniment. I’ve never liked Early English or Baroque music (with a few exceptions) but the Recorder Consort performance of these and later pieces which I did enjoy, was very good. It was clear that they are accomplished players.

The purpose of the Italian Study Group is to learn the Italian language but they were brave enough to
demonstrate their progress by singing Volare with piano accordion accompaniment. We all know this piece, but probably didn’t know it’s up there with Puppet on a String and Waterloo having come third in the Eurovision song contest in 1958. The singers sang well but were less successful in getting the audience to sing along, even though the words in Italian were provided.

Back after a one year absence, Rock Bottom dedicated their entire programme of 5 numbers to The Shadows. I was delighted. I first saw the Shadows, with Cliff, in 1961 when I was 14. It was my first pop concert, I’m sure I’ve still got the programme somewhere in the loft. “Wonderful Land” and “Dance On” were included in the set but Apache, The Shadows’ greatest number, wasn’t. I was so disappointed. Then up it came as an encore, it brought tears to my eyes.

The Fun Singers were joined by Newkulele for a good performance of a variety of songs including There’s a Kind of Hush and Hit the Road Jack. This combination worked really well, it was particularly noticeable that the singers had a base line provided by guitar, in my view the combined performance was greater than the sum of the two parts. I was surprised however that in this 2018 politically correct world Chatanooga Cho Cho was performed without the roof falling in.

Thanks to all the performers who contributed to another great show. The programme was linked together once more by Alan “Mr Showtime” Rose. As usual he told some hilarious jokes from The Alan Rose Book of Hilarious Jokes, now sadly out of print. A lot of work by a lot of people goes into presenting this show. Thanks to all, especially Peter Hutchinson who managed the sound, and Dave Cadd, producer."