As Gospel Bell play regularly in churches and help with fund-raising events, we have developed a church service format (complete with readings, a talk and prayers) that traces the roots of Gospel music and the story behind the hymn ‘Amazing Grace’. Our thanks to the United Reformed Church Broadway, for hosting us on Sunday 8 September. It was the first time we’ve used this multi-media format and it went well! If other churches would like to host our Origins of Gospel Music service, please contact me via the Contact Us page.

The Church of St Mary the Virgin, Cropredy has a long and interesting history. The South Aisle dates from as early as 1050. The Sanctuary in its present form dates from the 14th century. The lower stage of the tower dates from 15th century and the belfry was added about 80 years later. The clock, with its 14ft long wooden pendulum dates from 1831. The tower has 8 bells, six of which were installed in the 17th century and the last two, Fairport and Villager were added as recently as 2007. These bells were named to reflect the good relationship between the church and local Fairport Convention annual festival.

As always, it was a great privilege to open the Cropredy Fringe at St Mary’s at 12 noon. We have noticed over the years, how attendance is boosted either by blisteringly hot weather or, sadly for festival attendees today, by rain! This wonderful lunch time concert is beautifully organised by Church Warden, Verna Wass and we should like to thank Verna, Stephen, their refreshments team and the Revd Canon Sarah Fenby, Vicar of Shires Edge Benefice for the opportunity to play at this special event. The programme truly has something for everyone and is greatly appreciated by all who wander in to join us. Long may it continue!

Our first outing at Music in a Field was in 2023 when the rain and wind were challenging! This year, the sun shone and it was a real privilege to play two sets at this lovely event organised by Adrian Nicholas and Megan Gilkes. We began as the Silver Bough Ceilidh Band and a happy band of dancers joined us on the field in front of the stage. As always, it is a joy to watch a wide age spectrum of people responding so well to Jackie’s fantastic dance calling. After this we morphed into Gospel Bell and in slide guitar maestro Toni’s absence, Adrian played some great harmonica solos. Thank you Adrian for your enthusiasm and fantastic acoustic guitar playing during the Ceilidh and then singing, harmonica and stomp box work during the Gospel Bell set.  We’d also like to thank Joe and his colleague for super sound engineering and support throughout. This is such a special event – our grateful thanks to Megan and Adrian for inviting us to play and for the time, care and attention you put into organising Music in a Field.    

In the last year or so, our Gospel Bell work with churches has expanded as we’ve ventured further afield and last night’s performance at the URC in Wylde Green, Boldmere, near Birmingham was at the invitation of our old friend the Revd Richard Becher who organised a rather special event to showcase the ministry of PeaceyK Nambi, a Ugandan singer and youth work with Youth with a Mission, Uganda. Donald and I were able to travel over a little earlier but Toni had to battle the Friday afternoon traffic from Banbury area, making it just in time. The URC Wylde Green is a lovely old church, with photos of its past ministers in the foyer dating back to the early 1920s. Today, the church hosts inclusive activities for all the community and that was evident from the array of notices in the entrance to the foyer.

We began the first of two sets at 7.15pm and after our first set, PeaceyK sang her own beautiful songs and shared aspects of her work with youth in Uganda. Her love of singing and for her culture and country truly shines through and later, she sang a song that she had composed for the youth of Burundi and Rwanda. She told us that she’d learnt a local Burundian dialect so that the lyrics would encourage the youth she met there. In the second set, we provided the backing for a reggae song sung by a guest singer and then we backed PeaceyK as she sang a song that she’d composed especially for last night.

It was a fantastic evening! Our thanks to the URC Wylde Green for hosting us, Richard for organising the event, PeaceyK for her wonderful songs and voice and the enthusiastic audience that came to support this fund-raising evening.

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.’

We were delighted to support the launch of this year’s Christian Aid week at St Peter’s and St Paul’s Church, Deddington on Saturday 11 May. To begin, we enjoyed conversation over a fantastic bring and share lunch, followed by some of our music. The main event featured an introduction to this year’s Christian Aid appeal by the Revd. Canon Christopher Hall, supported by a video about the challenges facing the people of Burundi. After this, Richard spoke about his experiences of working with rural communities in Burundi between 2013 and 2016. In particular, he shared details of a remarkable self-directed project by community members that led to dramatic reductions in child malnutrition.

We played again after Richard’s talk and as ever, Donald encouraged us all to sing along. Our grateful thanks to Christopher and Viviane Hall, long-time champions and organisers of Christian Aid week in Deddington, Iain Gillespie for great technical support, Sarah Banes for help with setting-up, Revd Nick Fielden, Vicar, Stan Nelson, Church Warden and everyone that made this such a special occasion (food, conversation, singing and support for the event).

We were delighted to play at a Burns Night supper fundraising event in Duns Tew village hall on 27 January. The event was beautifully organised by Clare and team with lovely food and refreshments. I think it’s the first time that we’ve had a table set for us (complete with candle) on the stage and so we were literally the top table! Thank you Clare and St Mary Magdalene church for your kindness and hospitality, we really enjoyed the night.

Organiser Clare writes: What a fabulous, joyful evening you gave us yesterday! Thank you so much. We so enjoyed the different style sets of music. I particularly enjoyed the Gospel set and the chance to sing along with the chorus.  Such a lovely and, as you said, prayerful, chance to sing with others. You never know what journeys might be started, as a result. We loved the way you addressed the haggis, too! It was lots of fun. We haven’t totted everything up, but profits are looking to be in the region of £600. We have recently applied to the Diocese to plumb in a kitchen sink in our church. This will make catering for after-service teas and coffees easier. We thought we had enough to cover it, but costs have gone up a bit since we got quotes originally, so this extra income will ensure we can afford to do the work.

Our Gospel Bell goal is to play and help fund-raise in ancient and beautiful churches, some of which are battling to survive. The earliest parts of the Church of England parish church of All Saints, Mollington, Oxfordshire date from the 14th century and the font is 13th century so there may have been an earlier church building on the site.

We have played at All Saints Mollington on numerous occasions in support of the local church team and the previous Vicar of the Shires Edge Benefice, Revd Hilary Campbell, who asked us to play in all five of her churches and so we were delighted to be invited back by church treasurer, Mike. In fact, Mike invited us to play almost 12 months ago in November 2022 – he was that keen!

On Friday 15 December, we enjoyed a truly memorable evening of singing together and we’d like to thank Mike, Bob and the All Saints team for a really well organised event. Mike writes: Many thanks again to Gospel Bell for last night’s performance.  It really was a lovely, joyous evening. You are the most genuine and generous group we could hope to meet.  We raised over £260 and, as a certain supermarket advert says: every little helps!

Our thanks to Becky, Ian and all who helped to make the Christmas Concert fundraising event for St Mary’s Bloxham such a lovely evening. The first half consisted of a wide range of Christmas-themed music performed by the St Mary’s Choir, Music Group and soloists, with audience participation. After the refreshment interval, we played a 50 minute set with excellent audience chorus singing. A fantastic evening with a rich array of music in a beautiful setting!

Ian, Chair – Friends of St Mary’s Bloxham writes:

Your set was clearly greatly enjoyed by the audience and nicely complemented the first half from the church choir and music group. Sitting as I was near the back I had a good sense of the toe-tapping and sing-a-long you were generating amongst the masses in front of me! Funds raised from the evening are climbing towards £500 which is good considering this was a donations-only event on a rather blustery, inhospitable evening, and this has been a significant element of a varied Friends’ Christmas Programme of fundraising activities. Thanks again for putting heart and soul into performing to help us as you’ve done. It’s really appreciated.

Our thanks to Megan, Adrian and all the team for inviting us to play for you last night. Adrian and Andy (Main Street) were excellent and I have never seen such an incredible spread of home made cakes! The meeting house is such a beautiful space and with the use of Adrian’s rather bigger PA (Thank you Adrian) we were quite loud and clear – one small boy on the front row sat there with his hands over his ears for our entire performance (we must suggest that people try that!) but no one else said we were too loud – and I especially enjoyed the children dressed as Angels (I think!) who were dancing at the front. Well done to the whole team – 77 people came (even though we were competing with Strictly Come Dancing on the TV) everyone sang really well and the event raised more than £400.

Thank you for a fun evening!