News of The Brue Boys

September 2009 Review

Conductor Jennifer Martin wrote this following piece for the September 2009 Baltonsborough Parish Magazine which provides a good review of The Brue Boys for our news page :

The Brue Boys are now over two years old and 30 members strong. We have learnt 40 songs (and refused to learn one!), given or taken part in twelve concerts in six different venues and been monks in two pageants.

Of course all of this takes some organisation and so the following have somehow emerged: a Chairman, a Logistics team, two Treasurers, a Minutes secretary, a Concert secretary, a Librarian, Website Manager complete with website www.brueboys.org.uk and an After-Choir-Pub-Society! And of course we have our wonderful Caterer, Beverley Sessions.

One result of all these concerts has been that we have been able to fulfil one of our stated aims, which is to “raise money for charity and other worthwhile causes”. About half of the money we raise is spent on buying music. Then we have the expenses of putting on the concerts. This year we also bought a banner (designed by one of the members) and half of an electronic piano (another member very generously donated the other half). We need this for performing outside and in some halls.

However we give the rest of the money away. So far we have given £600 to the Baltonsborough Community Association to help fund last year’s festival, £200 to Baltonsborough School for musical instruments and in September we shall be giving £200 to West Pennard School and £200 to Butleigh School, again to put towards music. This makes £1200, and none of it would have been possible without the tremendous support you, our audiences, have given us. But this is not all; by giving concerts in other places we have also helped them to raise money, e.g. for Butleigh’s Church Development Fund, West Pennard’s Village Hall, East Woodlands Church (£800) and Ditcheat Church.

Of course it is not the money that is most important, but making music and enjoying doing that together. Well, we do!

Rehearsals	Weekly rehearsals continue every Monday. We have 34 active members, and as we complete the new year programme of four concerts, it is a good time to join as we prepare for new songs leading to up our summer programme. New members are always welcome: see the How to Join Us page for more details.
Dinner at Wedmore Golf Club	The Brue Boys will be holding their third dinner on Friday 5th March to celebrate the start of our fourth year of singing together. A party of 50 is booked, including 25 Brue Boys and their guests.
Future Concerts	Check out details of future concerts on our Future Concerts Page.
Butleigh Review	The Brue Boys contributed nine songs to our third Butleigh concert on Saturday 27th February. Brue Boy David Heeley was the compere for a wide range of supporting acts, including the ladies choir re-named 'For Another Night Only' (which included Jennifer and several of the BB's wives), Roger Parsons (who has also sung with the Brue Boys) with his inimitable version of classic Flanders and Swan songs, and many other talented local artists. So the boys, opening the first and second halves and doing the finale, could also sit back and enjoy a superb entertainment.
Baltonsborough Concert	The Brue Boys returned to Baltonsborough Village Hall to lead a varied concert with a romantic theme on Valentine's Day Eve - Saturday 13th February. The Brue Boys' fifteen songs were punctuated with the highly appropriate 'Misty' and 'My Funny Valentine' sung by Gail Cornish (with Phil Jackson and Claire Ticknell on saxophones and accompanied on the piano by Carolyn Young), the tuneful and rhythmic Brue Valley Handbell Ringers and in the second half two atmospheric saxophone pieces from Claire and Phil. The tables were beautifully presented with red roses and love-heart decorations.
	Butleigh School Gift Nine Brue Boys (Ian, Graham, Tony, Dick, Tim Hare, Tim Gladwin, Phil, Vaughan and Mike) accompanied by Carolyn and led by Jennifer sang two songs during a morning assembly at Butleigh School on 12th February.
The occasion was to mark the gift of £200 from the Brue Boys to the school which has been used to buy a set of smart yellow glockenspiels, shown with pupils in the photograph left.
3rd West Pennard Concert Success	The Brue Boys led another concert in West Pennard Village Hall on Saturday 30th January, singing 15 songs including several new additions to our repertoire. These included 'Bring Him Home' from Les Miserables; 'Blue Suede Shoes' made famous by Elvis; the spiritual 'Sinner Man', and the Bahamas Folk Song 'Sloop John B' popularised by the Beach Boys. For a complete list of our songs see the Our Music page. There were 22 Brue Boys singing and were ably accompanied by Conductor Jennifer Martin's son Jeremy as Carolyn was on holiday. This first concert of 2010 is quickly followed by three others at fortnightly intervals: see the Future Concerts page for details.
Special Rehearsal We were delighted to have a special voice coaching session provided by Elizabeth Glen on Monday 26th October. Elizabeth trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and her career as a professional singer has taken her all around the world. She has toured Europe and the USA, including performances at the Lincoln Center Festival, New York, and a performance for the 1998 Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. She also performed in the 1999 Melbourne International Festival in Australia. During the summer of 2000, she was a soloist for the show "In Our Time" at the London Palladium, in which she sang jazz songs and "Land of Hope and Glory". Opera roles performed include Suzanna ("Marriage of Figaro"), Minerva ("Return of Ulysses"), La Musica and La Speranza ("Orfeo"), Fortune ("Poppea"), Miss Wordsworth ("Albert Herring"), Lucia ("Rape of Lucretia") and First Witch ("Dido and Aeneas"). Elizabeth is part of the music team of Churchill Community College and runs the choir Youthful Sprit that sang at Glastonbury on 4th July. We thank Elizabeth for what Jennifer termed a 'great night'.
Successful Compton Dundon Concert	The Brue Boys sang three songs at a Save the Children Concert in Compton Dundon Village Hall on Saturday 17th October. See photos and report on the 2009 Concerts Part 2 Page.
	Brue Boys' Radio Broadcast Conductor Jennifer Martin with Brue Boys Tim Hare and Tony Brown were interviewed by Glastonbury FM presenter Allan Trinder on Monday 14th September 2009
*Tony, Jennifer and Tim*		*Allan, Tony and Tim*
September 2009 Review Conductor Jennifer Martin wrote this following piece for the September 2009 Baltonsborough Parish Magazine which provides a good review of The Brue Boys for our news page : The Brue Boys are now over two years old and 30 members strong. We have learnt 40 songs (and refused to learn one!), given or taken part in twelve concerts in six different venues and been monks in two pageants. Of course all of this takes some organisation and so the following have somehow emerged: a Chairman, a Logistics team, two Treasurers, a Minutes secretary, a Concert secretary, a Librarian, Website Manager complete with website www.brueboys.org.uk and an After-Choir-Pub-Society! And of course we have our wonderful Caterer, Beverley Sessions. One result of all these concerts has been that we have been able to fulfil one of our stated aims, which is to “raise money for charity and other worthwhile causes”. About half of the money we raise is spent on buying music. Then we have the expenses of putting on the concerts. This year we also bought a banner (designed by one of the members) and half of an electronic piano (another member very generously donated the other half). We need this for performing outside and in some halls. However we give the rest of the money away. So far we have given £600 to the Baltonsborough Community Association to help fund last year’s festival, £200 to Baltonsborough School for musical instruments and in September we shall be giving £200 to West Pennard School and £200 to Butleigh School, again to put towards music. This makes £1200, and none of it would have been possible without the tremendous support you, our audiences, have given us. But this is not all; by giving concerts in other places we have also helped them to raise money, e.g. for Butleigh’s Church Development Fund, West Pennard’s Village Hall, East Woodlands Church (£800) and Ditcheat Church. Of course it is not the money that is most important, but making music and enjoying doing that together. Well, we do!
	Brue Boys sing in Festival of The Voice at Stourhead The Brue Boys sang two half-hour outdoor concerts in the open air in the beautiful National Trust gardens at Stourhead on Saturday 9th May 2009. See 2009 Concerts Part 2 for pictures and report