Friday 2nd August 2024

We turned up for the Handbell Concert at the Church Hall in Mayfield and then started to unload the bells and music stands. We carried them inside only to discover that The Friday Club didn’t meet in this hall either on Friday or on any day of the week! So we loaded up the equipment back into the car and drive further into the village until we arrived at another hall. 

There they all were, The Friday Club, waiting for us, with lemon drizzle cake at the ready for us to eat when we had finished our Concert!

We set up all the music stands and unpacked all the bells onto the tables. We then turned and faced the audience. There were a good number of them, with men as well as women! They were all very welcoming. Wendy gave them some information about the handbells to start with and then we began to play.

I don’t think any of them had heard handbells playing music before, only church bells ringing.

They settled down to listen to us intently and and clapped us after each set of tunes, they seemed very impressed and recognised many of the tunes we played. Quite a few if the audience asked questions about our ringing in between sections of our repertoire. They seemed very interested and appreciative of our efforts to entertain them.

We were served tea and lovely cake when we had finished and many of the members came up to have a go and try out our bells. I helped one man, who wanted to have a go on the chimes. I showed him how to play a chime and how to stop it after he had let it ring out.

At the end of the concert, when we had packed everything away, the Vicar of the Church gave a talk about how he came to study at College to become a Vicar in the beginning of his career, he was born in Sri Lanka.

It was an enjoyable afternoon and they all seemed keen to come to our Concerts later on this year to hear us play with the full team.

Jean

Early this year, it was suggested that the Alton Handbell Ringers could try hosting a summer concert with an informal atmosphere, where members of the audience would be encouraged to try their hand at bell ringing, alongside enjoying cups of tea and cakes. This would also be an opportunity to raise money to assist in our charitable donations.

And so it was, that after extensive study of the main summer sporting event calendar, the 28^th July was agreed upon as this did not clash with the Euro football competition or Wimbledon.  The concert would be held in Alton village hall.

We were unsure what the attendance would be but were pleased with the number of people there.  A group of hand bell ringers and their guests from Madeley joined our audience.

We assembled early to practice both as a full team and for twelve bell ringing which was included in the concert to demonstrate a typical care home performance.

As usual, Wendy put together an interesting variety of pieces, and for the first time ever, we performed four pieces from stave music as opposed to the numerical format we normally play from.  We were a ringer short for our first pieces and one of the Madeley ringers bolding came forward to ring with us.  Our finale was Highland Cathedral which is now a firm favourite with the team.

After our main performance, Wendy and Alan played two pieces, ringing four bells each.  These were the hymn Immortal Invisible and Alouette.

After this six of us played four pieces on twelve bells.

We received some very positive feedback after the concert and we encouraged people to come and look at our music and to have a go.  This resulted in an attempt to play Resound and Rejoice which was, let’s say different! Jean’s grandchildren took part and it was great to see them having a go.

All in all, a very successful afternoon which was enjoyed by all. I thought that we all rang very well.

Thank you to all who provided the delicious cakes.

Dave Jones

On Monday 1st July, six of us travelled to Penkridge for their WI meeting, including a SatNav 'special' route down a country lane!

We were given a very warm welcome and, after a few bits of WI business, we rang some 12 bell pieces and explained a bit about handbells and the music, including one on handchimes. They were a very good audience and asked questions as we went along and we finished with our 'Last Night of the Proms' selection. 

After a cup of tea and a biscuit, they enjoyed having a go at playing Aura Lee. After a very pleasant evening, we packed up and came home by a less tortuous route.

On Friday 19th April 2024 in Cheadle Guild Hall,  our full team of ringers along with the U3A Ukelele Band performed a varied collection of music and song in aid of Cheadle Animal Welfare. Although the two groups of performers out numbered the audience we were very well received.

We opened the evening performing pieces including a Gavot, My Favourite Things from the Sound of Music and Resound and Rejoice which was written specially for handbells.

The Ukelele group played next with a variety of tunes many of which we could sing along to as they had supplied the audience with the words.

After the interval and raffle each group played again, in this half we played pieces including God's Train, My Heart Will Go On from the film Titanic and Shepherd's Hey which is a piece played entirely using mallets to hit the bells which creates a different sound. 

The Ukelele group ended the evening with more tunes  to sing along to and we joined them for a final piece where we played hand chimes to accompany them and the audience singing Side By Side.

A lovely evening of musical entertainment and hopefully made a good sum of money for Cheadle Animal Welfare.

Josie

On Tuesday 9th April we visited The Hermitage Residential Home to play a variety of tunes for the residents.  These included some old time  favourites, some hymns and we finished with  what we refer to as ‘The Proms Selection’ which included Handel’s Royal Fireworks Music and Rule Britannia. This section always seems to be very popular and it was lovely to hear them singing along.

It was a pleasure to ring our handbells to such a lovely and appreciative audience and we thoroughly enjoyed their company.

Beryl Forrester