We have always enjoyed playing fundraisers at St Leonard’s – great singing, dancing and food too. On Saturday 29th June, the event began at 5pm (no conflicts then with Glastonbury main attractions!) and thanks to all the hard work promoting the event, it seemed to us that the largest audience so far came along to sing and dance with us. It is so encouraging to sing and play for such a responsive group of people and any disco would have been glad to see such a packed dance floor – let alone at a Gospel Bell gig! We took a break at around 6pm while the catering team served a fantastic and plentiful range of refreshments. After the break, Revd Kudzayi Harrison Bvekerwa, Vicar of St Leonard’s joined us on percussion and along with our friend Jay Ayliff making a guest appearance on saxophone and dobro, it was for a memorable evening of music!

We would like to thank everyone who came along and supported the evening which raised £634.23 towards essential repairs to the church guttering. This joyful evening would not have been possible without the efforts of the catering team, the advance promotional effort and ticket selling and those who helped on the evening. We are particularly grateful to Sheila James and Olyvia Wilson for the invitation to play and we’ll look forward to the next time. Commenting on the evening, Sheila said that the evening generated ‘a massive amount of mood uplift and community spirit’. Commenting on Sheila’s Facebook post, a lady called Sue said: ‘It was joyous and just what I needed. Thank you all.’