First Friday is a cracking success!!

Our first Friday meeting was a great success with a good turnout and some cracking entertainment. I managed to forget a few words in the very first song but it was all quality stuff after that!! Ric treated us to a great performance of one of those songs where you are not quite sure at first whether or not it is serious but it gradually unfolds into a very funny story. Phil and Ann sang beautifully with their tight harmonies and Pete charmed us with lovely songs and great humour. Geoff got everyone singing to Part of the Union no less and Barry and Ed gave their usual slick and polished performance!! The highlight of the first half, however, was a debut performance from Keiron and Alex. Keiron’s fine fiddle playing accompanied by Alex’s driving guitar got everyone’s feet tapping. No wonder they’ve got such a big fan club!!

The second half featured great performances from Simeon, Ric and Phil along with a second, short spot from the stars of the first half – Phil and Ann, Keiron and Alex, and Pete. A rousing and raucous Widecombe Fair gave everyone’s vocal chords a good stretch before Barry and Ed gave us a suitably upbeat last spot and Simeon got everyone singing Last Thing on My Mind.

The raffle no longer has Great Tea Towels of the World but, instead, featured number 1 in the Novelty Loo Rolls series. Julian took “Crime Scene” home! If you don’t know what this is all about – well, you know where you need to be next Friday don’t you?!!

However, this particular raffle will always be known as “Geoff’s raffle”. Some weeks ago Geoff won Jim Moray’s Modern History in the raffle. This is an excellent CD carefully chosen by me for it’s quality and appeal! Geoff left the CD behind that night and when it was delivered to him he promptly gave it away as a raffle prize at the Shirley Acoustic Guitar club which I subsequently won! Geoff had been well and truly rumbled so he was sent out of the room last night on a spurious mission while everyone was let in on the set up to follow. A very special final prize in last night’s raffle was won by Geoff and it tuned out to be that very CD. Geoff was presented with his prize to huge cheering and applause from an audience who clearly appreciate the delights of Jim Moray’s music more than Geoff! Gamely, Geoff promised to perform a song from the album at a future club!

So, from now on, the only place to be on the first and third Friday of each month is the Red Lion in Shirley!!