Tue 27th June 2023

 The third of our gigs in 12 days was successfully completed this morning in balmy weather in the sunny seaside town of Whitley (my friends call me Benidorm ) Bay. A good audience (for 9am anyway) heard us perform magnificently serenading the tourists with our dulcet tones - but where were cameras of the BBC (The Bedlington Bus Co), ITV or indeed Channel 4 News when you need them???

In all seriousness it was for a good cause - The Baton of Hope - to raise awareness of suicide, its effects and consequences, and we were all very happy to give it our support - as you can see the boys look very smart in their pastel shirts - a good variety of shades and colours. Pink, salmon and blue seemed to be the most popular choice with the odd (?) gold and white on show to add a lovely rainbow effect. Classy eh! .

Not many of us have seen these early daytime hours in recent times but well done chaps for getting up at the crack of dawn and fighting your collective ways through the horrendous rush hour traffic to get there. Thank you all.

So unless something unforeseen happens that’s our last gig this side of the summer hols - albeit we still have 3 Wednesday night sessions before we break up and Jon is keen to teach us/revisit another couple of songs before we gan tappy lappy off doon the lonnen for wor hols.

Be aware also that our first gig of the autumn term is the Harbottle Show on Saturday 2nd September so all being well we will be practicing on Wednesday 30th August - which is a tad earlier than we’re used to - put both dates in your diary.

As I write I see Gez has just posted this on our WhatsApp site - for those of you not on WhatsApp it’s very worth reading.

“A friend of mine, Joan, was at the event this morning, and has written a report on Facebook about the background to the event (and her rush to get there on time. for our performance) ... this is a short extract from what she wrote:
"Luckily  VoiceMale delayed their start …wheeew!  The song that I  found most moving was the John Martyn song for the troubled Nick Drake : May You Never.
"And may you never lay your head down
Without a hand to hold
May you never make your bed out in the cold"
I saw two women in the crowd wiping away tears. "
Helps us all appreciate again what the event was all for...thank you Gez and Joan (I’m assuming the tears were because the song moved them and not because we were singing out of tune Gez??)
See you all tomorrow night for a song or two and a couple of well earned pints!!!!
Onwards and upwards lads .
Cheers
Chris