We were pleased to have been asked to play for Katie Delbrooke-Jones at an event held at Banbury Cricket Club to commemorate the life of the late Quentin Delbrooke-Jones. Katie and Quentin came to see us play at our annual St Leonard’s Banbury family gatherings and as she was introducing us, Katie said that the last time they had danced together had been at last year’s St Leonard’s event. It seemed an appropriate way to say farewell to Quentin as he had enjoyed our blend of gospel blues and country gospel music. It was a joyful, international celebration of Quentin’s life and alongside Julie on cajon, Jay played saxophone with us.

We look forward to participating in the annual St Mary’s Cropredy fringe event that takes place from noon until 3pm – a mini pre-festival of music before Fairport’s Cropredy Festival begins! Thanks to Church Warden and organiser Verna, we have been playing at this special event for a long time and those that venture in to escape the rain (some years) and the searing heat (this year!) always seem to enjoy the varied musical offerings from solo singers, duos and bands. This year the church was busy – it was the coolest place to be – and the fantastic bar and ploughman’s lunch team were doing brisk business.

For us, it was a joy to have Toni (our fabulous slide guitarist) with us at this event for the first time. Recently retired, he was able to join. Our grateful thanks to Verna, Stephen and the St Mary’s team for the invitation to play and for your warm and generous hospitality.

A huge thank you to Megan and Adrian for inviting us back to play at their wonderful charity friendship festival held most years on Bell Isle Farm, Hook Norton. There is a wonderful community feel to this free event in the glorious sunshine. Megan writes:

Thank You to everyone who came along, helped out, brewed, baked, cooked, performed, photographed, danced, ate, drank, camped, donated and had fun over the weekend and leading up to the weekend! We hope everyone had as great time as we did. The charity we were raising money for was BBOWT’s Nature Recovery Fund and we have raised a whopping … £786.79 So thank you all very much!

Our set was a combination of Gospel Bell songs and Silver Bough Ceilidh dancing and we were joined by Adrian Nicholas on harmonica and vocals. Thanks also to Joe for fantastic sound balancing and to all the MIAF team for a memorable day!

Our thanks to the village of Wroxall, Warwickshire for inviting us to play at your community Ceilidh on Saturday 4 July 2026. We don’t often play outside but on a warm July evening, your marquee was the perfect venue. You danced really well – especially in the second half, thank you!

St Swithin’s Parish serves a rural population of more than 2,500 people, in the villages of Lower Quinton, Upper Quinton and Admington, Warwickshire. St Swithin’s Church, built on a Saxon base, was originally linked to the Abbey of Polesworth, so came under the patronage of Worcester Cathedral, as it is to this day. The present church was consecrated in 1238.

This ancient church was beautifully decorated for their Peace of Christ Festival, running from Friday 3 July until Sunday 5 July and we were delighted to have been invited to play concert-style to a packed church on Friday evening, from 6.30pm to 8.30pm. Donald had put much thought into the ‘Peace’ theme and we incorporated poems, prayers and a few songs that are not normally part of our repertoire. We so enjoyed ourselves, playing to a capacity audience that sang along with us. During the interval, one couple said they were out walking their dog when they saw us carrying our gear into the church and were curious! They decided to investigate and said that they loved the whole evening. Thank you!

The family-friendly ‘Peace of Christ’ festival weekend features artwork, floral displays, poetry, other kinds of music, scripture reflections, treasure hunts, family crafts and quiet spaces. Our thanks to David and Fiona and to the Churchwardens and wider team for the invitation to participate in this fantastic event and to the village of Lower Quinton, who turned up en masse to share the evening with us.

Our thanks to Olivia and Barney at Talton House and Lodge for hosting us for a wedding celebration event on Saturday 13 June. Talton Lodge is an 18th-century converted barn and Victorian walled garden in South Warwickshire, originally used to feed the adjacent Grade II-listed Queen Anne manor, Talton House. Today, the multi-day venue combines historic country charm with a festival atmosphere, featuring tepees, yurts, and an 18th-century barn – the perfect venue in fact for a wedding celebration!

Our Silver Bough Ceilidh Band played for about 70 wedding guests who were all keen to dance and in between dances, we played some of the songs from our Gospel Bell repertoire.

After about an hour and half of outdoor dancing, the guests moved indoors to watch a Kraftwerk tribute band, who were excellent! This is a first for us, opening for an all electronic band – we think though that our exhausted dancers were ready for a more relaxing end to the evening.

Forthcoming Silver Bough and Gospel Bell dates include: St Swithan’s Church, Lower Quinton, Warwickshire (Friday 3 July 26); Wroxall, Warwickshire community Ceilidh (Saturday 4 July 26); Talton House (Private event) (Friday 10 July 26); Music in a Field, Oxfordshire (Saturday 25 July 26); St Mary’s, Cropredy Fringe (Thursday 13 August 26); St Leonard’s Banbury, (Saturday 26 July 26); Hook Norton Baptist Church (Saturday 26 September 26); Friends of Fifield Church (Sunday 31 January 27)

St Mary Magdalene, Duns Tew, in the Benefice of Westcote Barton is an ancient church built from Hornton stone. The porch and font date from 1200 AD and the arcade of pillars from the 14th century. We were delighted to return to Duns Tew Village Hall on Saturday 15 November to play a fundraiser for the church and thanks to the remarkable efforts of Clare Burgess and her team, the hall was completely full. Our thanks to all who came along and helped to make this such a memorable evening!

Clare writes: What a wonderful evening you treated us to last night. Our heartfelt thanks go to all of you. Your music is such a powerful way of sharing faith. I loved that many audience members were singing along. I was particularly impressed that so many people knew ALL the words. I particularly enjoyed hearing Rachel’s fascinating history and Donald’s additional stories. The context which gave rise to these Gospel songs was so interesting and inspiring to hear. Special shout out to Julie and Thabo, too. It would be great to hear more about the box drums. You’ll be pleased to hear we made an astounding £437 yesterday towards the upkeep of our church building. 

The history of Shenington’s Holy Trinity Church can be traced to the 12th century with its Romanesque chancel arch, though it was rebuilt and expanded significantly over the following centuries. The south aisle was added in the 13th century, with further remodelling in the 14th century (including new windows and a rebuild of the aisle) and a 15th century porch. The most recent major additions were the Perpendicular west tower, completed in 1504, and a major 19th century restoration that relocated the original chancel arch. As with all ancient churches, restoration is ongoing and we were delighted to help with fundraising alongside the Community Choir of Oxhill, Tysoe and Shenington (CCOTS) who performed a wide selection of songs in the first half, opening with ‘Boogie woogie bugle boy’ first recorded by the Andrews Sisters in 1941 and closing with the Coldplay song ‘Viva la vida’ a Spanish phrase that can be translated as ‘live life’. Fabulous singing and harmonies, thank you!

It was a lovely evening of singing – not least because the choir sang along with us in the second half and they sounded great! Our thanks to musical director Anna and the CCOTS choir for such a special evening and to the Reverend Alicia Baker, Rector of the Ironstone Benefice for her invitation to participate in this unique fundraising evening in aid of repairs to the church porch.

St. Peter’s Church in Hanwell, Oxfordshire, has a history stretching back to at least 1154, though only its Norman font survives from that era. The church was significantly rebuilt in the early 14th century, featuring decorated Gothic architecture with distinctive carvings. Further additions included a perpendicular Gothic clerestory around 1400 and new windows in the Tudor period. The church served as a place of refuge for Royalist soldiers before the Battle of Edge Hill during the English Civil War and was later occupied by troops before the Battle of Cropredy Bridge. It is now a Grade I listed building in the heart of historic Hanwell. 

We felt privileged to be back again at St Peter’s for the service of animal blessing (the Pet Service) which took place on Sunday 21 September at 3pm. There are normally plenty of dogs (with accompanying humans) and this year, we were also joined by a giant Japanese stick insect who is called ‘Sticky’ by his owner. Sticky was balancing on some foliage and during the service itself, seemed pretty lively – I’d like to think Sticky was dancing along doing a cross between a jive and a moonwalk!

It was really lovely to be joined by Alicia on violin for the two hymns and we all enjoyed Guy’s talk – an A-Z of animal names, with much human participation. Guy was fully prepared with fairly obscure names of animals for the more challenging ‘name that animal’ alphabet letters and he concluded his talk by making the point that they are all God’s creatures.

Our thanks to Revd Alicia Baker and Revd Guy Edwards for the invitation to participate and to the church wardens and team of helpers who put together a delicious post-service BBQ with salads. Our observation is that animals seem to enjoy this kind of event and the blessing component of the service when they receive a dog biscuit treat. Alas, the biscuits were a little too large for Sticky!

Richard

St Mary the Virgin is a large and ancient building with a rich history. The parish church of Shipton almost certainly started life as an Anglo-Saxon minster and the church is first mentioned in documents dating back to 1115. The present church is mainly early 13th century and the tower, spire and door are thought to have been started around 1200. Given the ancient status of this beautiful church, we were really pleased to support the fundraising efforts for a new heating system. Our contact, Rev. Canon Sarah Sharp, is a great organiser and fundraiser – skills that we discovered when Sarah was vicar of St John’s Bodicote. Last Saturday was just as I’d imagined it would be: lots of people came and their ticket included an interval drink. As ever, Sarah our thoughtful host, provided us with refreshments while we setting-up and in the interval. Given that we were ‘competing’ with the new series of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ on TV, we were so pleased that a good-sized audience came and sang beautifully with us throughout.

We have experimented with narrative and visual material in the past and last Saturday, we trialled a new concert format: ‘Roots of Gospel music: A journey in songs, stories and history’ with four short sections of history (accompanied by projected images) read beautifully by Rachel and early photographs of some of the key songwriters in the genre to accompany Donald’s excellent story-telling. Donald, Rachel, Thabo and I were delighted that Adrian could sing and play harmonica with us.

Sarah said that everyone who came along enjoyed our music and that the evening raised £546 towards the new heating system. Thank you Sarah and your fantastic team of helpers for the invite, we’ll look forward to coming back in due course.

Richard