AN evening of unbridled joy was in store for those lucky enough to have tickets for Bel Canto Choir’s 25th anniversary concert at Cookhill Village Hall.
Under the guidance of musical director John Clark early nerves were quickly settled by a brace of Elvis numbers before the choir took an enthralled audience, which included the Mayor, Councillor Patti Hill, on a musical journey from the hymn Ave Verum Corpus to Neil Sedaka’s Is This The Way To Amarillo.
Stop offs along the way included Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, Judy Garland’s smash Get Happy as well as Queen’s We Will Rock You plus a generous helping of Beatles hits.
Stand out numbers included teenager Georgina Harwood’s jaw-dropping rendition of the show tune My Funny Time and Richard Surr’s and Julie Horne’s comic turn in Irving Berlin’s Anything You Can Do I can Do Better.
Personal favourites included the old number Carolina Moon, All You Need Is Love, and Sue Resuggan’s wonderful solo of Alice Is At It Again by Noel Coward.
Backing throughout was from by the Quirk family, with keyboardist Wendy Quirk providing both accompaniment and performing a solo.
Also on the bill were solo violinst Amber Electric and the Blackwell Concert Band who in two sets got everyone’s toes tapping with St Louis Blues, the Glen Millar Medley, followed by The Liberty Bell before bringing the house down with Henry Wood’s arrangement Fantasia on British Sea Songs.
The whole evening was wonderfully compered by Polly Speers who, with the lightest of touches and splendid good humour, ensured the performance was enjoyed by all.
Ross Crawford