A presentation of the History of the Choir based on the recently published book was given to a very attentive audience of the Mansfield Rotary Club. Incoming President Karen Johnson invited the choir to present upon her theme for the year “heritage” and the subject neatly dovetailed with our publication. The weather was so warm as national records were broken when the temperature in Coningsby, Lincolnshire climbed to 40.3 degrees Celsius, nevertheless, to the surprise of the Rotary Club members our lads turned out in partial choir uniform of white shirt and choir tie; standards were upheld. The programme for the event is shown below and was structured into 5-time frames of the choir. The songs selected represent the choir’s history and included the male voice choir standard Stout-Hearted Men, an a cappella song My Lord What a Morning, a Welsh piece Deus Salutis and a more modern example in Shine (by Take That).
Welcome, Introduction, Content & TTBB John Wakeland
2 songs Ian Grice
• Stout Hearted Men Oscar Hammerstein II, Sigmund Romberg, arr. Walter Scotson
• My Lord What A Morning Spiritual, arr. R. Lee. Gilliam
1926 to 1939 Geoff Mansfield
1944 to 1969 Geoff Mansfield
1970 to 2000 Ian Bartle
2001 to present Geoff Hursthouse
Future and summary John Wakeland
2 songs Ian Grice
• Deus Salutis David Charles, tr. Robert Davis, Welsh hymn tune (Llef), G.H. Jones, tr, Mansel Thomas
• Shine Gary Barlow, Steve Robson, Howard Donald, Jason Orange, Mark Owen. arr. Henry Burnett
Questions and closure John Wakeland
Interspersed with the presentation were 5 renditions of Happy Birthday sung by both choir and audience which added some light relief to the presentation. Trevor Dyson, Geoff Mansfield and Lynden Lowe from the choir and Kelvin Bowman and Mike Neville from the Rotary Club all stood, in turn, as we sang to offer birthday good wishes.
Thanks are due to the presenters and to Karen and the Rotary Club for purchasing 9 copies of our book. By courtesy of the Rotary Club member Stewart Rickersey copies will be placed into the Mansfield Museum and the Nottinghamshire Archive in County Hall.
This was an unusual but most pleasant event for the choir and undoubtedly, we shall be performing for the Rotary Club and a selected charity at a future concert.
