Calendar nights are full of surprises

A GIRL performed one of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons in week three of this year’s Henley Living Advent Calendar.

Violinist Shree Rao, 17, performed Opus eight, number two concerto in G Minor, with the Henley String Collective at the Henley library, a new venue for this year, on Monday.

About 100 people listened to the performance in the newly refurbished library, which raised about £290 through raffles for MyVision Oxfordshire.

The string artists wore smart red and black attire, with some donning Santa hats, bauble earrings and red bow ties.

Their set included You Raise Me Up by Josh Groban, Pachelbel’s Canon in D Major and Walking in the Air by Howard Blake.

Annabel McLean, 17, from Goring, who is working towards grade seven violin, played the solo in Walking in the Air.

On Sunday, the cast of this year’s Henley pantomime, Peter Pan, took to the stage at the Kenton Theatre where they performed excerpts from the show. The previous night, a music and comedy performance took place at Echoes Brewery in Gardiner Place put on by Honk! Jr, a spin-off of Henley’s stand-up comedy night Honk!

The performers included comedians Mabel Reed-Ryan, 13, Etta King, 12, and Amelie Woodhouse, 12, who told Christmas jokes.

Next on the bill was the Tonyx, an all-female barbershop quartet, before belly dancing with Sebnem Bamsey of Seb’s Belly Dance School. The venue was so busy inside that people gathered outside to listen on an external speaker.

The audience was also invited to singalong to a “Henley version” of The Twelve Days of Christmas.

Last Friday, about 150 people gathered at the Anchor pub in Friday Street where there was a performance in the garden by about 50 members of Henley Rock Choir. The group wore black Rock Choir jackets, Santa hats and reindeer antlers, led by conductor Lucy Hewes. Ms Hewes has been directing the choir for just over 15 years, with this performance being their 14th time at Living Advent.

Refreshments were provided by pub and a raffle was held, with proceeds going to the Nomad youth and community Project, one of Mayor Tom Buckley’s chosen charities for the year.

Cllr Buckley said: “The amount of people that are here and the choir, it’s just brilliant. It’s so good to see the number of people in Henley willing to come out and support Nomad. I don’t know of any other town that does it like this.”

On Thursday last week, the Bottleneck Brothers band was hosted at Chiltern House in support of Riverside Counselling Service.

The four-man band consisted of Tudor Taylor on guitar, Martin Giles on cajón, Simon Windisch on bass and Gareth Evans on guitar and vocals.

They performed Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town, Take It Easy by the Eagles, Merry Xmas Everybody by Slade and I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) by the Proclaimers. More than £1,000 was raised for Riverside.

On Wednesday last week, jazz band Blue Magoo performed at the Relais Henley hotel in Hart Street.

On Tuesday last week, the Bike Shop Band from Watlington performed in front of more than 60 people at the Old Bell courtyard in aid of the Royal Berks Charity.

The four-man band comprised Paul Thomalla, Paul McKnight, Neville Smith and Paul Redston, who performed a mixture of blues, soul and rock music.

They performed She Will Be Loved by Maroon 5, Fisherman’s Blues by the Waterboys, Moondance by Van Morrison, I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight by Bob Dylan and Come Together by the Beatles.

The remaining nights are as follows: tomorrow (Saturday) Flyte Bar, Market Place; Henley Rugby Club, Marlow Road; the Market Place; Hof’s, Market Place and St Mary’s Church, Hart Street.