A Gloucestershire brass band will be joining forces with a community choir on 26th April to perform a concert which they hope could achieve a worldwide audience through live-streaming. With all proceeds to be donated to UK ME charities, they aim to let sufferers – often confined to their homes and isolated by this debilitating illness – know they are not forgotten.
Ken and Helen Stout believe the magic of the internet could result in ‘Help M.E', a concert by the Wotton Silver Band and the Round The Edge Community Choir, having a significant impact.
Flugelhorn player and band chair Ken says, “We didn't want housebound people with severe M.E. like my wife Helen, to miss out altogether on the concert, so we decided to live-stream it to enable watching from home. This has the added benefit that it can potentially be viewed around the world.”
Wotton Silver Band competes every year at the West of England Brass Band Championships. Their varied programme will include much loved music such as the poignant ‘Help' by The Beatles, the beautiful ‘Benedictus' from Karl Jenkins' work ‘The Armed Man', ‘Bare Necessities' from ‘The Jungle Book' and ‘Climb Every Mountain of ‘The Sound of Music' fame.
Helen used to sing in Wotton's Round the Edge Community Choir until 5 years ago, when Covid turned both their lives upside down, leaving her housebound with severe M.E. and Ken as her carer. The choir will sing ‘Moon River', the song that she and Ken first sang with the choir when they joined together 15 years ago, and ‘We Hold You in our Circle'. “Both songs will move me to tears”, she said. “The choir means so much to me.”
Ken commented:
“We were wondering what we could do to raise awareness of M.E. and came up with this idea for a concert, which would also go out online. The band and the choir generously agreed immediately. “
The venue, Renishaw's Innovation Centre, Kingswood, Wotton-under-Edge is the global HQ of Renishaw plc, a blue-chip engineering business, and was opened 10 years ago by HRH The Princess Royal, Princess Anne. Renishaw volunteers are assisting with the live-streaming using mostly their equipment, typically used for webinars and other communications.
The three charities which will benefit from the event will be the ME Association, Smile for ME and ME Research UK.
Tickets are now on sale. They cost £5 each to be in the hall – while people can donate any amount they like to watch the live stream.
Please visit https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/wotton-silver-band or use the QR code on the poster.
