THAME Choral Society is currently rehearsing for its Spring Concert on May 2, which will include Mozart, a Bach Concerto for two violins, and a piece from Haydn’s Nelson Mass.
The concert will be at St Mary’s church, Thame. Full details of ticket availability, times etc can be found here: https://www.thame.net/events/spring-concert
THAME’S First Thursday Music Club will next month (next week!) feature Papa Truck, the British Bluegrass band, with signature songs of the Chiltern Hills, back at the at the Club’s monthly extravaganza at The James Fig pub in Thame, on April 2, with their new album, ‘Further Down The Road’.
The band is called Papa Truck for no other reason than “it sounded good at the time”, but these five will have you grinning from ear to ear and tapping your foot to their songs. Bluegrass may originate in America but these five have made the genre their own, mixing inspiration from the people, places and sounds around them.
The First Thursday Music Club’s influence on the local music scene has increased enormously. The Club is running its own stages at The Towersey Festival, Beaconfest and Thame Carnival with all the acts having been chosen from artists and bands that have performed at the Club.
Another big crowd is expected and will be entertained throughout the evening by over 15 different acts producing sounds from across the music genres. A fantastic evening of live music is guaranteed – and it’s all FREE!
Anyone can play by signing up at the venue before 7.45pm. Check out the club on Facebook “The First Thursday Music Club”.
For more information regarding Papa Truck see: http://www.papatruck.co.uk/ or on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Papa-Truck/17006429580
To hear tracks go to: https://soundcloud.com/thepapatruck
SOURCE: Contributed
A 1950s themed Pop-Up café, launched yesterday (24/03), proved to be a big hit with market day shoppers, with its homemade cakes, tea and coffee, and will run every Tuesday afternoon, from 2pm to 4pm, at Christchurch, Upper High Street, Thame. The café is run by volunteers to assist people with special needs learn skills from hands-on experience.
Although they are currently operating with a very small menu to get them started, Thame SAFARI hopes to apply for LEADER funding to make the ‘Safari pop up café’ available six days a week, and offer a range of breakfasts and lunches.
One of the visitors to the Safari Pop up café was the Mayor of Thame, Jeannette Matelot Green, a staunch support of SAFARI, which has been one of her Mayor’s chosen charities.
After enjoying a cup of tea herself, Jeannette welcomed the new enterprise: “What a wonderful new enterprise for the Safari group; a pop-up café on market day serving home made cakes and good coffee and tea in the delightful surroundings of Christchurch.
“The first day went beyond expectation with a constant stream of customers coming in from the market. Well done Safari !”
All the homemade cakes were made by SAFARI Leader, Michelle Diffey.
MEMORIES of the day when the war in Europe officially ended after World War Two, will be rekindled for many, when the Thame and District Day Centre holds a concert to celebrate the 70th anniversary of VE Day.
The Thame Concert Band and the Day Centre Singers will provide the entertainment, based on songs from the era, at St Mary’s Church, Thame, on Saturday, April 18.
The Thame and District Day Centre Manager, Gill Coleman, said: “We are so grateful to Thame Concert Band and the Day Centre Singers under Judy Thompson, for putting on this evening, from which all the proceeds will go to support our Day Centre.”
The Thame and District Day Centre is an independent local charity, which meets on three days a week at Thame Community Hospital, and is open for 50 weeks of the year. It provides a day out with a hot meal, entertainments and plentiful refreshments for people from Thame and some nearby areas, who are elderly, frail or, perhaps, isolated. All donations received are spent on the services it provides to members.
Gill added: “‘Many of the songs which will be performed, live for ever in our memories. Some of our people were in the forces at the time. Others were children of the war.”
And she stressed: “The Centre’s job is to make life better for our members now, today.”
AN ex Lord Williams’s pupil, originally from Sydenham, near Thame, Claire Fuller, has written a book called ‘Our Endless Numbered Days’ and Claire will be at The Book House in Thame, reading and signing her book, on April 2.
Our Numbered Days has just been published in the UK by Fig Tree, an imprint of Penguin, and is also being published in a further eight countries. You can meet Claire at The Book House in High Street, Thame, between 6.30pm to 8pm.
Before she turned to writing aged 40, Claire studied fine art (sculpture) at Winchester School of Art and has lived in Winchester ever since. Her father, Stephen Fuller, moved back to Thame several years ago and still lives here.
Claire explained: “Our Endless Numbered Days is my first novel, so it’s all been a bit of a whirlwind to get it published by Penguin! It’s the story of Peggy Hillcoat, who in 1976, is taken by her father to a remote European forest where he tells her that the rest of the world has disappeared. She isn’t seen again for another nine years.
“It’s had fantastic reviews, with ‘The Times’ for instance, calling it ‘a triumph’. You can find out more about me and my book on my website: www.clairefuller.co.uk
THAME CARNIVAL 2015 is calling all smart phone video enthusiasts to get filming around the town and enter the Thame One Minute Video competition.
The theme for this year’s carnival is The Movies, so the carnival organisers want all those amateur movie makers of all ages, out there in the Thame area, to make a one-minute video, using just a smart phone, about any aspect of ‘Life In Thame’. Just make your film between now and June 12, 2015, and upload it to YouTube, to be judged by the Carnival Committee with the help of an expert film-making judge. Feel free to add music or sound effects to enhance your movie, though adding sound will not necessarily score you extra points – a silent movie can be just as original and effective as one with sound.
So, get out there and video your family, your pets, your friends, your club or organisation, life on the allotment, the pub, the town-scape – anything that showcases an aspect of ‘Life in Thame’; upload it to YouTube and send the link to: editor@thame.net, for passing on to the Thame Carnival Committee.
Plans for the Carnival, which will take place on Saturday, June 13, 2015, are already well under way, with Jon Littler, from Thame’s First Thursday Music Club, taking on the responsibility for the live music and the stage, though the committee is in need of a compere on the day, someone to manage the parade, and of course a celebrity to perform the grand opening. If you would like to volunteer, Sue Martin-Downhill would like to hear from you via thamecarnival@gmail.com. The committee also wants local clubs, groups, pubs etc. to take on stalls and provide fun activities for the visitors and also to enter the Tug-of-War competition.
The programme for events in the Arena is nearly full with contributions from The Pauline Quirk Academy, Thame Youth Theatre, Catkids and Stage Coach Thame. Stalls already booked include a beer tent by Round Table, Pimms Tent by Racquets Fitness Centre, ‘What’s in the bag’ by Friends of Oscar, music demos by Thame Music School, tombola, a variety of different food selections, sweets, inflatables, ice-cream and loads more!
So, get out those smart phones and ‘Roll ’em!’ as they say in the movies.
FOLLOWING last month’s hugely successful, fifth birthday bash, Thame’s First Thursday Music Club will this month, maintain the momentum by featuring The Nikki Loy Trio in its much coveted 10 o’ clock spot.
Nikki is celebrating the release of her album ‘Naked – Part 1’ as the first of four solo albums that will feature the results of her self-imposed challenge to write a new song every week for a year. She is now 30 weeks into the challenge and writes a new song every Tuesday. She then records the song, videos it and uploads it by the evening!
Each of the tracks on the new album were then rehearsed and polished to make them part of this intimate but exquisite solo acoustic album, showing songs in their naked forms. Nikki will appear at First Thursday Music Club’s regular venue, The Stables at The James Figg in Thame, on March 5, with bass guitarist Pete Sherman and drummer Phil Heard.
Another big crowd is expected and will be entertained throughout the evening by over 15 different acts producing sounds from across the music genres. A fantastic evening of live music is guaranteed – and it’s all FREE!
Anyone can play by signing up at the venue before 7.45pm. Check out the First Thursday Music Club on Facebook HERE
For more information regarding Nikki Loy see:
Website: www.nikkiloy.com
Twitter: @nikkiloymusic
Facebook: nikkiloymusic
Youtube: thenikkiloy
TED Talks have become a global phenomenon, attracting over a billion views on the internet. From science to art, psychology to design, TED Talks inspire, enlighten and entertain.
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organised events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TED Talks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection. These local, self-organised events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx programme, but individual TEDx events are self-organized. (Subject to certain rules and regulations.)
The feisty and hilarious comedian, Shappi Khorsandi, is coming to Aylesbury on May 9, as part of the first ever TEDxAylesbury at the Waterside Theatre, being organised by a team of enthusiastic local volunteers including Shellley Ghazi from Thame. You can see who the others are at www.tedxaylesbury.com/meet-the-team.
The theme of TEDxAylesbury 2015 is ‘Misfits and Pioneers’. Shappi will speak about her own experience of feeling like an outsider and how that sparked her creativity, no doubt with her inimitable blend of razor-sharp wit, softened by warmth and boundless charm.
THE SPEAKERS
TEDxAylesbury will feature other celebrated speakers too, as well as lesser-known speakers who deserve to be heard, each with an ‘Idea Worth Spreading’ to share with the audience. These include:
Karen Blackett OBE, CEO of Mediacom. Karen was recently named ‘the most influential black person in Britain’ in the Powerlist 100 (beating Oscar winning director Steve McQueen, a Google executive and several MPs)
Roy Bailey, well-known folk singer and patron of the Towersey Festival, who will be sharing songs about misfits and pioneers
David Neita, a barrister and poet, performing poems that make us think
…plus several others. Further speaker details can be found at www.tedxaylesbury.com/speakers
Team leader Devi Clark: “Tickets go on sale at the end of February, and we expect to sell out quickly. To be informed by email about when tickets are available, sign up to the mailing list at www.tedxaylesbury.com
“To find out more about the event please check out our preview video on our website at: www.tedxaylesbury.com/about
ABOUT TED
TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 30 years ago, TED has grown to support its mission with multiple initiatives. The two annual TED Conferences invite the world’s leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes or less. Many of these talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Sal Khan and Daniel Kahneman.
The annual TED Conference takes place each spring in Vancouver, British Columbia, along with the TEDActive simulcast event in nearby Whistler. The annual TEDGlobal conference will be held this October in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. TED’s media initiatives include TED.com, where new TED Talks are posted daily; the Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as translations from volunteers worldwide; the educational initiative TED-Ed. TED has established the annual TED Prize, where exceptional individuals with a wish to change the world get help translating their wishes into action; TEDx, which supports individuals or groups in hosting local, self- organized TED-style events around the world, and the TED Fellows program, helping world-changing innovators from around the globe to amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities.
Follow TED on Twitter at http://twitter.com/TEDTalks, or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TED
TOWERSEY festival has a track record for attracting musical legends to this gem of music festival, and this year, 2015, they come up trumps again, with the amazingly talented, singer-songwriter, Joan Armatrading.
Among the many accolades rightly showered on this influencial performer, are that Joan Armatrading became the first female UK artist to debut at Number One in the Billboards Blues chart, and the first ever female UK artist to be nominated for a Grammy in the Blues category. And she has an MBE.
If the name Joan Armatrading is one that you know you’ve heard, but aren’t too sure exactly what the fuss is all about, just listen here and you will be converted! VIDEO LINKS – And More about Towersey Festival here
THAME Carnival 2015 is taking place on Saturday, June 13, and the Co-ordinator, Sue Martin Downhill, is looking for a crack, core team to help organise this iconic Thame event, with the theme ‘The Movies’.
Anyone who can spare some time and/or expertise or brawn even, between now and the day itself, or would be happy to manage a particular activity on the day, is invited to join Sue and the existing small team for the first get-together on Friday, February 27, at Racquets Fitness Centre, from 5.45pm, to help get another great Thame Carnival off the ground.
Some of the organisation has already been done including running a competition for local school children to chose the theme, the selection of this year’s chosen charities – the Skate park Rennovation fund and Rosie’s Rainbow Fund, booking form for stalls, parade and the arena published on www.facebook.com/ThameCarnival2015 – two stalls already booked, booking of the recreation ground for the Carnival fete, the initial liaison with the Thame ATC and Army Cadets, booking of marquees and other equipment with Thame Equipment Bank and the appointment of a bar manager.
Some ideas to get you thinking about how you could contribute before the meeting; Is there a celebrity you know who could open the event ? Is there a ‘big splash’ that you can arrange eg the Fly past of the Lancaster Bomber last year ?
Anyone who would like to go along to the meeting on February 27, or who would like any more information about the carnival organisation, can contact Sue Martin Downhill via: sue@racquets-fitness-centre.com