Category: entertainment and leisure news

A new kind of singing experience is coming to Thame. The Greatest Hits Choir is a group vocal class aimed at people who just love to sing, but feel they can?t join a regular choir because they can?t read music or because they were told at school they couldn?t sing.

The class will be run by Carol Canning, former musical director and singer with the Swingle Singers. Working as a free lance singer for many years, Carol has covered a wide range of music from opera at La Scala Milan to singing on the Lord of the Rings soundtrack, backing on a Bjork album and even giving a couple of singing lessons to Frida from ABBA.

Carol says: “Some people don?t want to sing classical music, but prefer the pop tunes they hear on the radio. This is the sort of music the Greatest Hits Choir will be singing ? well known pop/rock/show tunes with simple harmonies.

“The aim is that people leave the class with their mood lifted. All levels are welcome from complete beginners to budding divas!”

The choir will meet on Thursdays at the Guide HQ, Southern Road, Thame 8.00pm ? 9.30pm.

For more details:
Call 0770 4886418 or go to
www.greatesthitschoir.co.uk

MEMBERS of Thame Youth Theatre will be among the talented people of South Oxfordshire taking part in a charity concert organised by the four Mayors of Thame, Didcot, Henley and Wallingford – all of whom are ladies, for the first time ever!

Other groups taking part are the Didcot Gospel Choir, Henley Choral Society, The Wallingford Experience and The Four Mayors themselves!

The Mayors Together Evening of Talent will be on February 6, 2010, at 7.30pm at the Cornerstones Art Centre, in Didcot.

Tickets are

A blood donation session will be held on Tuesday, 23rd February, 2010, at Haddenham Village Hall, Church Way, Haddenham from 1pm – 3pm & 3.45pm – 6.30pm.

For more information or to book an appointment to attend this session (this is recommended), please call 0300 123 23 23 or visit www.blood.co.uk

Do something amazing – Give Blood & save lives.

A NEW acoustic music club was launched yestereday (04/02/10) in Thame, and if the first night is a taster of things to come, the First Thursday Music Club is bound to become a Thame institution.

Musicians of all ages and genres were represented, and from the audience’s appreciative response, the club is set fine to run every month in this fine, new venue for Thame, at the Stables, behind the James Figg pub, in Cornmarket.

Last night’s line up:

This month’ s Host and Opener : Johnnie from 2amBlue

Garts and Ed – Thame favourites from the Unchosen
Tonsil and Eyetuss – instrumental smooth layered guitar duo
Acoustic Edge – featuring Sophie, 14 year old songstress who is quickly becoming the darling of the club
Paul and Martin – Popular fixtures of the local scene, strong on 60’s harmonies and interwoven guitar parts
Dave T (Thornton) PICTURED? the cat in the Hat, emotion laden, dynamic ballads
Steve Phillips – effortless and humour filled covers of 80’s new wave – the brit pop before it was called Brit Pop
Dave and Grant – the People’s choice- “Straight Outta Towersey”, the set list you would choose yourself
Michael Lee – seriously skillful and tasteful acoustic and beat box takes on some classic tunes
Haddenham John – if you could fingerpick a guitar and make this noise yo would do nothing else!
Big Phil’s All Star Show Band – the ever popular bass maestro leads his gang into music territory they have never been before!
2amBlue – Voices, Guitars, songs-that’s what they do!

Club founder and member of local band 2AMBlue, Jon Littler, said: “For some time I have been increasingly aware that Thame has a great pool of musical talent which is too often confined behind closed doors and I was keen to create a simple format that allowed local people to come and have a go in front of a friendly, supportive crowd.

“It doesn’t matter if you are a virtuoso or complete beginner, the audience will be kind to everyone ? this club is about encouraging those who are willing to have a go.

“The location, which holds about 100 people, is not daunting and the evenings will be about producing great sound, not too loud, with a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. Not everyone will want to step up to the mic? but this event will provide a regular date in the month when those who relish live music can wander down, socialize with others and encourage those young and old who are willing to stand up and make music.

“The club is keen to encourage all those amateur acts in the area to bring their instruments and sign up from 7.45pm for a 15 minute or three song slot during the evening.”

To find out more, visit:
www.FirstThursdayMusicClub.com

PLANS are well on the way for this year’s Towersey Cabaret, and local people are being invited to take part, either on stage or back stage.

A planning meeting will be held on Monday,February 22, at 8pm in The Barn, Towersey Manor, Manor Road, Towersey.

Ross Dike, Editor of the Towersey community newsletter, said: “Picking up from where the traditional Towersey Panto left off, we now have the
Towersey Community Arts Project. This committee will sponsor many diverse events, but one of the first will be a Towersey Cabaret Evening at the village hall this summer (late May or early June), featuring the excellent home-grown talents of the good people of
Towersey in an evening of music and humour in cabaret or revue style.

“The event is likely to be one-night-only to a live audience and to feature a variety of performances from
residents each lasting around five to 20 minutes, and that would be suitable for a ?postwatershed?
audience (there will be other events focussed on the children ? the cabaret evening is looking at a teen to adult audience).

“So if you would like to sing, or if you play an instrument, or you can tell some jokes, dance or act a bit, or would like to help ‘backstage’ with props, costumes, lighting, sound or stage work, or help ‘front-of-house’ on the night, please come along to the preliminary meeting at The Manor Barn, Towersey Manor on Monday, February 22, at 8pm and help get this show on the road!”

If you have any questions or queries, email Ian English at ianjenglish@hotmail.com
or Paul Mellor at pvmellor@hotmail.com

FIREFIGHTERS CHARITY. A new clothing and textile bank has recently been installed outside Haddenham fire station to raise funds for the Fire Fighters Charity, which helps and supports injured full-time and retained fire fighters, support staff, retired personnel and their dependents ? with a help-line and 3 centres providing therapy, rehabilitation and recuperation. Adults? and children?s clothing (including underwear), household linen, handbags and shoes in pairs are sent for recycling (to countries in Africa) by the commercial firm running the facility and a 20 per cent donation is made to the charity.

The Haddenham bank is the 7th to be installed in Bucks (there?s another at the Fire Brigade HQ at Stocklake, Aylesbury) and clothing banks across the country, which have now been operating for just over a year, have already proved to be a valuable source of incom, at no cost to the charity itself – providing about

THAME CINEMA 4 ALL – Next showing – CREATION; UK, 2009 108 minutes PG certificate – Directed by Jon Amiel, starring Paul Bettany, Jennifer Connelly, Toby Jones, Jeremy Northam, Jim Carter, Benedict Cumberbatch

JON Amiel’s considered and reasoned film was released last year to mark the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his Origin of Species.

The events of the film take place in the years before this publication, at a time when Darwin found himself in personal conflict over the implications of his emerging convictions. Charles, once a churchgoer whose faith had been destroyed by his increasingly held scientific beliefs, was married to a woman who put Christian faith before everything else in her life.

The stresses created by these circumstances form the basis of the film, a microcosm of the impact of his evolutionary theory on a predominantly God-fearing world, and writer John Collee intelligently uses supporting characters Thomas Huxley (Toby Jones) and the Reverend John Innes (Jeremy Northam) to explore the wider evolutionary debate. The film does justice to Darwin’s theories, but it also celebrates intellectual endeavour, a time when scientific breakthrough was the result of individual, private thinking, the importance of eloquent prose, handwritten in manuscripts of pen and ink. Paul Bettany’s Darwin is not an intellectual firebrand and religious iconoclast, but a softly spoken man of humility – Darwin fans and detractors are reminded that that far from taking an axe to an ordered world, the ‘man who killed God’ expressed his beliefs with polite eloquence, reasoned intelligence and with considerable courage.

This Saturday 6th February 2010
Doors open 7.30pm Film 8pm. Admission

Thame Neighbourhood Policing Surgery – PC Russell Hounslow – for Thame residents on Saturday 6th February, 2010, between 10:00 ? 12:00 at Thame Town Hall.
No appointment necessary.

A NEW outlet for Thame’s talented musicians, and those beginning their journey along the music performance road, is to be launched tomorrow, Thursday (04/02/10).

The First Thursday Music Club will run, obviously, on the first Thursday of every month, at The Stables, behind The James Figg pub, in Cornmarket, Thame.

See the website
for details and how to get involved.

CLIVE Conway presents An Audience with Martin Bell; Thame Players Theatre, Nelson Street, Thame.
Starts 7.45pm – Tickets available until December 13th from 01865 358907, after that from Tickets Anywhere, Greyhound Walk, Thame, 01844 217228