Farewell to Sean, Black Horse Inn, Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire, 02 October 21

At a Saturday afternoon event for family and friends, we said a musical farewell to Sean who enriched us with his friendship and elevated our music and live performances with his wonderful singing, guitar playing, wry wit and good humour. His declining health had meant that getting to the venues where we play had been challenging but once in place, he always sang and played with great enthusiasm and courage. Occasionally we find ourselves performing on a stage with lighting, a good PA system and a sound engineer and here, Sean was in his element – a microphone in front of him and an audience to be entertained! By the end of every performance he had no energy left but he was happy!

Farewell to Sean: left to right: John, David, Donald and Richard

Richard writes: I had the privilege of recording two albums of Sean’s original songs about different aspects of life and you can listen to them on the ‘Other Music’ page of our website: http://gospelbell.com/other-music/ ‘A new direction’ tells the story of Sean’s connection with Gospel and ‘The little white church’ is a fine example of Sean’s song writing in this genre. Sean wrote the song: ‘There’s a new star in heaven tonight’ as a tribute to a friend and last Saturday, we played Sean’s recording of this beautiful song in memory of both Sean and his friend Steve. Sean’s second album concludes with the song: ‘Who’s going to play this old guitar? (after I’m not here). Sean knew the answer to his question – he bequeathed his beautiful Martin guitar to his dear friend Donald who now plays ‘Martin’ at Gospel Bell performances. We are so thankful to have known and played music with Sean and our thoughts and prayers are with his beloved Susie.

Susie sings ‘There’s a new star in heaven tonight’ with us: Left to right: Dave, John, David, Susie, Donald and Richard

Our thanks to the owner and staff of the Black Horse Inn, Shipston-on-Stour for looking after us so well.