Arilla – Côr Bach

This assignment at Arilla Retirement Village seemed straightforward enough.  It was a double-header – two 1-hour concerts separated by a lunch break.  However, only 4 hours before the start, disaster struck – Lorna our accompanist was unavoidably unavailable.  Miraculously we found a replacement, Patrice Marshall, who arrived less than an hour before the start. She had never seen our repertoire, so in our short rehearsal we “topped and tailed” the items programmed for the first hour and hoped for the best.

The first concert started with Men of Harlech, Cwm Rhondda, Amazing Grace and Stout-hearted Men (soloist Barry McMahon). Then a break for Patrice as Faleiry accompanied us on her harp in Lisa Lan. Next, from the Pirates of Penzance, Graeme Sanderson lamented a Policeman’s Lot and we all stole upon our prey With Catlike Tread.  After Myfanwy a cappella (Patrice’s second break) Graeme led us in Working Man. Finally came an extended non-stop medley of songs from the Sixties originally sung by Eric Burdon and the Animals, The Hollies, Gerry Marsden, The Beatles, the Beach Boys and the Crystals, which kept Patrice at full stretch. Soloists were Roger Bartlett, Drew Hopkins and Graham Warner.

We made it!  The audience, who were blissfully unaware of our trials and tribulations, and had sung along vociferously when called upon, were unstinting in their applause, and several singled Patrice out for praise.  We wound down, as often, with Sunset Poem.

The second concert an hour later had been programmed as an almost entirely different concert, but there was no opportunity to rehearse it with Patrice. Solution: Wing it with some of the programmed items – Some Enchanted Evening and Nothing Like a Dame (solo John Hales) from South Pacific, Si Hei Lwli Mabi (a cappella) and You’ll Never Walk Alone – and complement these with encores from the first concert – particularly the Sixties medley which had gone down so well. The result, in short, was another great success.

So the day started as business as usual, turned into a roller-coaster, and ended as a triumph for Patrice, our directors Faleiry and Lyn’s professionalism and the way they have trained us.