Great to be back with old friends News

It was a long day, but it was worth it. Taking the coach to Swindon the Boys were greeted at our venue, Immanuel Church, by a wonderful spread of homemade cakes and copious cups of tea courtesy of Swindon MVC’s ladies. So not surprisingly we were off to a great start….. and then it just got better and better.

The arrival of the audience heralded the first of MD Max Brockman-More’s humorous introductions, setting the scene for a friendly evening peppered with laughter as Max’s ongoing light-hearted banter delighted all. RMCV opened the concert with I Dreamed a Dream and Bring Him Home from Les Miserables followed by three pieces also to be sung at the Royal Albert Hall in October. Swindon MVC changed the tempo with its renderings of Let All Men Sing, How Great Thou Art, an MVC favourite, Alexander’s Ragtime Band, and a new piece for the Choir called Wade in the Water. Marion Maxey then concluded the half superbly conducting a joint choir performance of An American Trilogy.

The second part of the concert proved similarly varied and (we were told) RMVC produced an outstanding delivery of the highly emotional Bui Doi from Miss Saigon as its finale to another set of four songs. But Swindon in this half set out to amuse. In the song What a Wonderful World, to the laughter of the audience, choristers were seen tongue in cheek mouthing the words ‘I love you’ towards Max Brockman-More. They continued in this vein donning eye patches and naval hats in The Song of the Jolly Rodger, before at the right moment producing stuffed parrots and waving enormous pirate flags. Certainly a novel way to pep up an old song!

MDs Marion Maxey and Max Brockman-More, with accompanists, Richard Stannard and Vicky Burton, (who do so much of the hard work) were given rousing applause, and the evening ended with You’ll Never Walk Alone, once more bringing the two Choirs together. You might think this rounded off an excellent night. Not so, choristers fired up with singing were royally entertained at an afterglow orchestrated by Swindon MVC before finally settling into the coach for the journey home.

Our grateful thanks to you Swindon MVC for the invitation to join the concert and for your splendid hospitality – we think you’re great singers and great friends – and yes, Boys, we might just ‘borrow’ a couple of your songs!