We had a good crowd for the Christmas gig with the Bell Road Band. The stage set (and church Christmas decorations) took on a new look with luminous Christmas trees providing a bright and colourful front.
The gig was in two halves. In the first half the Band shared some old and new versions of carols and Christmas songs including a jaunty version of ‘O Come all ye Faithful’ and ‘What Child is this’ as well as some modern songs,
including ‘Noel’ by worship leader Chris Tomlin and ‘Mother of God’, with a haunting melody by The Brilliance. The set was balanced by a jazzy version of ‘Frosty the Snowman’ and ‘Ernie the Christmas Slug’!
The Café Arts tradition was upheld with a wide selection of homemade cakes and the legendary Christmas punch during the interval.
Part 2 kicked off with an instrumental version of ‘The Snowman’ which led into ‘O Come, O come Emmanuel’.
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A high spot of the evening was a new song written by the band and based on a poem written in Marathi, by our very own poet, Hemant. ‘A Child is Born’ was a great hit and made its way later on to our Carol Service. Once again there was a mixture of traditional and modern songs. ‘I heard the bells on Christmas Day’ was a reminder of that the world is not a peaceful place despite the message of peace brought by the coming of the Christchild. The evening ended with the band’s rendition of ‘Mary did you know’ and a jaunty version of ‘Hark the Herald’.
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The technical wizardry provided by Andrew was complimented by our new techie, Chris who has recently joined the Tech team. We were glad that we had managed to get our new clavinova in time to put it through its paces.
All the money raised this year goes to MIND the mental health charity and we are pleased to announce that we raised a grand total of £770 which included ticket sales, the café and donations.
The Band will be back later in the year with another concert, so do come along next time!