Our last performance in the ancient church of St James the Great, Claydon was on 26 April 2019 and it was lovely to be back again for a fund-raising ‘September Serenade’ evening in this beautiful building.

We so appreciated the warm welcome and the drink on arrival as we were setting-up – not least as it has been quite a rush from work for several band members. The team at St James were really well organised with nice raffle prizes and between us, we managed to win three times – though we put one ticket back so that others could have a chance.

It was nice to see a wide age range in the audience and we were able to provide two young boys who were near the front with egg shakers so that they could join in with these while the adults sang along with us. We’re delighted that the evening raised £300 and Revd. Hilary Campbell, Vicar of Shires’ Edge Benefice (Church of England churches in Claydon, Cropredy, Great Bourton, Mollington and Wardington) felt encouraged by this and though the funds are needed to maintain the work in Claydon, Hilary felt that the event itself was more important as it provided the first opportunity for the community to re-gather in the church and enjoy live music together.

We would like to thank Hilary for the invitation to play and for the encouragement she provides to us, Angela the church treasurer, and her husband Andy who helped with the event ‘bar’, along with PCC member Keith. Angela’s daughter Bethany helped Anne who is the raffle queen at all village events! Four other Parish Church Council members were also there to support the evening and we’d like to thank them and also Adele and Janice for their super publicity and promotion work. In her feedback, Hilary said: As always, you gave us a fabulous evening and I continue to be grateful for the way you generously offer yourselves and your musical talents.

Our website banner features a photograph taken in Somerton Village Hall, with Sean (wearing his stylish hat) in the centre. The week after he passed away, we returned to this beautiful venue to play for the Somerton Social Club and we remembered Sean in words and song and by wearing armbands thoughtfully provided for us by Sally and David Snell. As ever when we play at this venue, we were a large ensemble, joined last night by Elsa (Piano Accordion) Frances (flute, percussion) and John (Fiddle) – thank you for enriching the sound with your lovely playing and helping us all to make this a memorable evening.

Donald was playing the guitar and mandolin that Sean had bequeathed to him and so his memory and music continues. We all miss Sean and we are thinking and praying for Susie at this difficult time. Locals David Reed and Toni Ertl were in excellent form – David on harmonica and singing ‘Jesus on the Mainline’ with Donald and in his inimitable way, telling a story about Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Toni, master of the slide guitar played both acoustic and electric slide – the latter with sound shaping provided by his enormous guitar pedal board (though Toni says that this is his small pedal board!)

We so enjoyed the evening and so it seems did the locals! The organiser wrote to say: I cannot thank you enough – tonight was just fabulous. Please pass on our sincere thank you to all band members. It is so evident how much you all enjoy doing what you all do so well. It was a real privilege to be part of the audience. The feedback from members has been amazing and heartening to hear. The evening ended with some audience participation – including some incredible dance moves that even the Morris dancers among us couldn’t emulate!

Our thanks to Debs, the event organiser and all at the Somerton Village Social Club for making us feel so welcome, for your generous hospitality and for joining in with us!

Our dear friend and Gospel Bell band member Sean Sandland passed away on Friday 27th August 2021. Sean and Susie had courageously battled Sean’s multiple health problems in recent years and we shall miss his friendship, sparkling sense of humour and wonderful singing and guitar playing. Sean was a great performer and even though he was unwell, he loved playing and singing for a live audience. He also wrote his own songs (including Country Gospel) and his two albums of original music are accessible from the ‘Other Music’ page of the website.

Donald McCombie writes: Sean once wrote in a lyric: ‘When you lose a friend, it doesn’t have to be the end, they’re in your heart and always on your mind. Keep looking for the light, it’s always shining bright, there’s a new star in heaven tonight.’ So it is: Sean will remain in our hearts and minds and his light will shine on – every time the Gospel Bell perform. Sean knew that music gave joy and healing to this world. He sang from his heart and gave of his soul. Thank you Sean for all the music, song and love. There is a new star in heaven tonight.

We shall also miss the Revd Sue Burchell who passed away on Wednesday 25th August 2021 after a short illness. Richard Teare writes: Sue was an active participant in Banbury Christians Together among other ecumenical and multi-faith initiatives. Sue had just retired and had in fact, asked Gospel Bell to play at her retirement party. We always enjoyed playing at St Leonard’s Banbury where Sue would engender a family party atmosphere with much audience participation and dancing.

Looking back at the Gospel Bell news reports, our last pre-pandemic engagement was in February 2020 – a long time ago! As restrictions were easing in June 2021, Donald and I were glad to have been asked by Richard Becher, Minister of the United Reform Church, Broadway to lead their Sunday morning service on 13 June 2021. We played songs, led the prayers and shared insights and experiences about the heritage of the music we play.

Fast-forward to Sunday 15 August and Donald, Toni and I had the pleasure of playing at Gospel Bell’s first ever Pet Blessing service. This is an annual Barton Benefice event held at the largest of the five churches in the Benefice and we are grateful to the Revd., Jane Wright and her team for the invitation. As the organisers weren’t sure how the animals might react to a full band sound, we opted for a trio arrangement though we needn’t have worried as all of the animals that came along seemed to like our material! The sun shone and around 50 people arrived for the outdoor service, many bringing their pet dogs and one person arrived on her horse and joined us for the photo below.

Jane and her team have a welcoming and inclusive format for this annual service and this year, instead of a sermon, Donald provided a story about St Francis and his relationship with animals. Donald’s input was fascinating and it seemed to me that the animal guests were enjoying the story too. Jane’s feedback comment was as follows: A huge thank you again for playing today. The service had a really good feel and I’m sure everyone enjoyed the music you gave us before and after as well. As for Donald’s story-telling, we loved it! I very much hope you’ll be able to come again.

We are already looking forward to a return visit!

Richard Teare

Gracewell of Adderbury recently invited us to play an afternoon concert and though conditions outside were still rather wild in the aftermath of storm Ciara, the residents were in the mood for a good sing-song! We played an hour-long set from 2.30pm and as usual, Donald and Sean led our singing and helped everyone to learn our song choruses. This is an important aspect of our music – rather than performing to audiences, we like them to sing with us so that collectively we focus on the message of the songs and create music together.

As we were singing ‘I saw the light’ the sun began to shine outside and we had our usual ‘feel good’ experience as we smiled at the audience and they smiled back and sang with us! We greatly appreciate the opportunity to take our uplifting set of American Gospel blues and country songs to places where they help to bring joy and perhaps some relief from routine and we’d like to thank the staff and residents of Gracewell of Adderbury for their warm welcome, hospitality and for singing with us.

We enjoyed our first outing at St John’s, Hempton, Oxfordshire on Sunday afternoon 26 January – a lovely space with beautiful acoustics. We don’t often play at events geared for small children but hopefully we’ll do more of these in the future as the children seemed to like the music and some jigged along to the beat. When not playing, we helped the children draw around their shoes – we did this too – although some of us had trouble fitting our feet onto the A4 sheet. Then in the spirit of journeying through 2020, we thought about what we’d like to accomplish and added words or a drawing inside our foot outline drawing.

John’s Melodeon was a real hit with the smallest children, several of whom wanted to play it as the same time as John. As he has finely tuned grand-parenting skills he deftly managed this!

Annie the vicar had asked us all to think about the year ahead – a helpful all-age exercise and Paula the curate read a passage from the book of Revelation that proved to be the perfect introduction to our closing song. As we were packing up at the end, David noticed some broken church furniture which he kindly took away to fix. I think that sums us up – we love playing in churches and at any other event where we can spread some Gospel blues and country cheer – not only that, David can fix the furniture! Our thanks to Annie and Paula for inviting us to play and to all the families who gave us a warm welcome.

Gospel Bell played at Kineton Sports & Social Club on Monday 16 December, dedicating the evening to the tireless work of the late Steve Cadd who did so much to sustain local music in Kineton. The evening was a concert-style event and just about every seat in the main bar area was taken. As with all our work, the band played free of charge with donations in support of the Air Ambulance service.

The band played a 90 minute set, opening with Sean’s composition: ‘A new star in heaven’ a song inspired by the friendship that he, Donald and many others shared with Steve Cadd. Some of the audience wanted to hear the song again and so Sean obliged at the end of the evening while those listening made recordings on their phones. Our music was interspersed with some inimitable story-telling from Donald, including a powerful seasonal story based on the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 19 verses 23-26. We should have recorded this too!

Gospel Bell would like to thank the event organisers for inviting us to play and for a memorable evening with a large, appreciative audience of people who sang with us.

As we look back on 2019, there have been numerous other highlights and so a heartfelt thanks to all the organisations, audiences and congregations – for great singing with us and for the generous donations made to charitable causes. Roll-on 2020!

Richard Teare and Donald McCombie

For Gospel Bell

Gospel Bell were delighted to play and sing again on Sunday 8 December at the annual Christmas tree festival and fund-raiser organised by St Mary’s, Adderbury.

Reflecting on the event, their website comment is as follows: What a wonderful weekend of community spirit, sparkling trees shining out their messages of love, hope and joy and live music and dance, the sixth Adderbury Christmas Tree Festival turned out to be.  The trees were spectacular and so much thought and care had gone into the decorating meaning that each one was a winner in its own right.  Amazingly during the weekend over 640 votes in total were cast for the best decorated trees by members of the public.

Our thanks to Hannah for her lovely photos and to Emily Reed, Clare Lester, Liz Simpson and their team for inviting us and as always, making us feel so welcome. We’re already looking forward to next year’s event!

We were delighted to receive an email on 23rd October 2019 from Jennifer Miller in New Zealand representing Beginner Guitar HQ at: www.beginnerguitarhq.com In a recent article, Beginner Guitar HQ has ranked Sister Rosetta Tharpe (one of our favourite song writers and who features prominently in our repertoire) as the second best female guitarist of all time!

In a fascinating article that includes a video clip link to Rosetta in action, the article observes: Mixing gospel with the electric guitar, she created a distinct sound which transcended boundaries. No matter what venue, Rosetta Tharpe would play her religiously inspired music. She played in both nightclubs and large concert halls bringing her sound to a mainstream audience.

We feel privileged to keep Rosetta’s music alive at a wide variety of venues – though without the heavy, distorted electric guitar that characterized her Gospel sound – that wouldn’t go down so well at rural churches where we often play and where the audience is typically 80+ in age!

Our thanks to Jennifer for sharing her magazine’s article with us – it is free to access from: https://beginnerguitarhq.com/best-female-guitarists/ Do please visit Beginner Guitar HQ via the link and read the article.

PS – Jennifer says that Beginner Guitar HQ‘s many thousands of readers might well head to the Gospel Bell website and who knows, we might end up playing well beyond our usual Oxfordshire and Warwickshire base!

Bach, Vivaldi, a string quartet, a choir, close harmony female singers and Gospel Bell – what a night! Thank you to Chris, event organiser, Ronald, Rector and the people of Epwell, Sibford and surrounding villages for turning out last night for a joyful, fund-raising evening of spiritual music in the ancient church of St Anne’s Epwell, Oxfordshire.

During the entire second half, our Gospel Bell blues band (playing American Gospel blues and country Gospel traditions) was backed by a string quartet and female singers – all improvised but you would never have guessed it – and everyone sang along – from around 8 to 80 + years of age. Fantastic!

Chris Hurst, the event organiser wrote to say:

Thank you Gospel Bell, it was a memorable evening – a great atmosphere, wonderful music-making and something for everyone.  Like you, we just enjoy singing and playing together and love it when the rapport with the audience is so good!  We shall certainly discuss future events and invite you back. The evening raised £462 clear profit, which increases this year’s income by a very welcome 5%