Festive Singing at the Village Hall
THERE WAS A DISTINCT CHANGE OF TONE in this year's Festive Singing at the
Village Hall. The gathering ranged from almost babes in arms to extremely fit
octogenarians. The mulled wine (FREE) was distributed throughout the singing.
The range of Christmas tunes had a broader range than heretofore with
"I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" and "Jingle Bells"
being demanded as encores while "In the Bleak Midwinter" was met with
a chorus of "That's my favourite carol".
In short, it was a very good evening. Andrew Noyse, Jochen and Karen were wonderful as the band, James Willmott always makes the most genial and warm host, Dave and Sue Jackson produced a mulled wine which received its usual acclaim, Janet Cooper made an enormous basket of mince pies (always better than shop ones) as also did Dee Noyse - who forgot to bring them. Something to look forward to next year.
Even that was not enough because music man Andrew Noyse spotted an absolutely furtive (meaning hidden) talent in the singers when he hauled out Frank Readhead to whistle the second verse of the encore of "I'm dreaming of a White Christmas." It was remarkable. Frank threw himself into it - trills, diminuendos, crescendos, the lot. His hips started to move, the elbows rose and fell, the fingers flickered and he would have been off into the clouds if Andrew had not cut him short with a nudge and a mutter "Hold on old chap, you're not Gene Kelley." I think that's what he said.