Welsh song in the heart of England
Côr Cymraeg Coventry were very privileged to be invited to perform at Coventry Cathedral before the start of the Lord Mayor’s Peace Lecture on Thursday November 11th, and we also enjoyed tea and a light buffet at the Council House beforehand. The Peace Lecture was delivered by Neville and Christine Staple. It was a pleasure to have the opportunity to speak to them – lovely people and of course a fine lecture drawing on the uniting nature of Neville’s and Christine’s work in music and culture.
We enjoyed ourselves at Beneath the Trees 2021 on Saturday and GENERATE Festival of Community Performance on Sunday – lovely community events and it was good to see a great variety of talented and enjoyable local acts. Here we are at the end of the afternoon on Sunday.
We’ve got two outdoor gigs at the end of August which we’re looking forward to a lot.
On SATURDAY AUGUST 28 we are performing at a wonderful FREE festival called Beneath The Trees (part of Coventry’s City of Culture programme) in Naul’s Mill Park (Coundon St, Coventry CV1 4AR) close to the city centre. We don’t know what time yet but the whole festival is 12 until 8 so please come down for as much of the day as you can, it will be amazing, and Naul’s Mill Park is a beautiful little hidden gem.
And on SUNDAY AUGUST 29 we are back in action at another lovely free outdoor festival called Generate, this one is at Blue Coat School, the other side of their car park. We are on at 3.20 but the entertainment lasts from 2.30 until 5 ish, in fact there is entertainment every Saturday and Sunday at the same times until Bank Holiday Monday so come down as many times as you like!
We have just started rehearsing again face to face. Prior to that we used some nice software called Jamulus which enables a group to sing together quite well. we now rehearse outdoors and socially distanced. It’s been really nice to meet up again.
We’ve been taking part in the BBC Radio Cymru quiz on Friday nights (8.30-9.45). There are three rounds – General Knowledge, Picture/Music, and Risk where you lose all your points if you get one answer wrong. Sometimes we perform quite strongly, other times not so well, but we always enjoy it and at least we get our name broadcast on Welsh radio!
We submitted a last-minute entry to the Group section of the Say Something In Welsh online Eisteddfod and seeing as we were the only entrant we almost feel comfortable claiming that we won! (We weren’t awarded a prize though, only a certificate of entry). We only had one day to meet before the November/December lockdown started, so we met at the Canal Basin after work and stood two metres apart as we sang. It was good to see each other again after not having met since March.
On a chilly Tuesday night in February we enjoyed a Cymanfa Codi’r Tô (an evening of Welsh pub-singing, or literally a singalong to raise the roof) at the Nursery Tavern. So we provided song sheets and chord sheets and I’m glad to say that the pub regulars and our musical mates joined in enthusiastically, and we all had a lot of fun and sang some of our favourite Welsh songs, from hymns to sea shanties. Great beer and excellent community atmosphere as always at the Nursery.
Côr Cymraeg Coventry singing some more plygain at St. John the Baptist, Coventry back in January. (Plygain are Welsh Christmas carols but folk in style and traditionally sung until the end of Jan). We chose January 12 to coincide with the Old New Year still celebrated in Cwm Gwaun.
We were very privileged to be able to share this concert with Greengrass, one of Coventry’s best known folk groups with lovely instrumentation and harmonies.
We sang some plygain (Welsh Christmas carols from the folk tradition, sung in harmony and unaccompanied) on Sunday December 15th at the Old Windmill pub in Spon Street. We thoroughly enjoyed the experience helped by a good audience and prize-winning beers and ciders in Coventry’s oldest pub!
As usual we enjoyed singing at the Open Day held at St John the Baptist Church, Fleet Street, Coventry as part of Coventry’s Heritage Open Days. Afterwards we enjoyed some Vietnamese cuisine at Taste Vietnam in nearby Spon Street.