A packed St Mary’s Church in Walberton were treated to a fabulous evening of a cappella singing on Saturday 29 th November. All proceeds from the event – close to £1,000 – went to the homelessness charity Stonepillow, a truly heart-warming result.

As well as Solent City Chorus, the evening featured the Queen Bees, a ladies’ choir from Southampton and the superb Blue-Eyed Boys, a men’s quartet, winners of the bronze medal in last year’s UK seniors barbershop quartet competition.

Songs performed during the evening covered the spectrum: from traditional folk songs, to show tunes, comedy numbers, timeless classics and a sprinkling of pop old and new. The Queen Bees’ hilarious “modern-day madrigal” and Solent City’s Elvis numbers brought the house down. The audience – many of whom had never heard top-level a cappella singing before – were wildly enthusiastic: “divine harmonies”, “we were entranced”, “an amazing sound”, were just some of the
comments.

Hilary Bartle, CEO of Stonepillow, thanking the performers for a great evening, noted that it had been billed as “A Taste of A Cappella”, but it had been more like a “Five-Star Feast”. She also thanked the Martin Sewell Building Company, who had organised the evening and had very generously sponsored it. A great evening, and a great result.