It was a real pleasure to participate in the service of thanksgiving for ‘Festival 200’ an extensive calendar of creative arts, music and cultural events that began in April and concluded on 23 October 2022. Hosted by St Mary’s Banbury and organised by The Reverend Sarah Bourne, Chaplain for the Arts and Director, Festival 200 at St Mary’s. Sarah writes in her Welcome to the Festival:

“The Festival celebrates 200 years since Banbury’s Grade I listed church was pronounced complete in its re-built Classical style on 25 October 1822”. Sarah adds: “Our awareness of community underpins everything which we do at St Mary’s and we hope that this Festival will build on our church’s shared ethos of inclusivity, as well as giving us the opportunity to develop artistic creative and to enjoy each other’s company in 2022.”

The service was a celebration of beauty and creativity with an address by the Right Reverend Dr Steven Croft, Bishop of Oxford, readings and prayers led by The Reverend Serena Tajima, Vicar of St Mary’s, Sarah and The Right Honourable Sir Tony Baldry, Patron of the Festival among others, with music provided by Gospel Bell. Thank you Sarah and Serena for your warm welcome and hospitality and for organising such a special event.

We have been playing authentic American Gospel blues and country songs at the Bell since October 2014 and when Andy and Nicola recently took over the pub, Nicola had the excellent idea that we should play when there are more people around to hear us! Arising from this, we played our first Sunday afternoon session at the Bell on 9 October, complete with a PA system assembled around Richard’s bass speaker cabinets, mics provided by Donald and Toni’s small (but still quite large!) peddle board. We played our first set as a quartet with Troy on Cajon, Toni on electric slide guitar, Donald playing Sean’s old guitar ‘Martin’ and mandolin and singing and Richard on bass. For much of the second set, Nicola joined us with fantastic vocals, tambourine playing and a few dance moves that encouraged others to dance too! Nicola’s dog, ‘Patch’ also seemed to like our music and especially Troy’s cajon playing.

Thank you Nicola and Andy for hosting us, providing refreshments and for your enthusiasm – we are already looking forward to the next session.