By Royal Command (sort of!) ...

They must really like us at Cheap Street Church in Sherborne, because they keep inviting us back, and, as it's also one of our favourite venues (and indeed the location of our most recent recording), we are hardly going to turn down any opportunity to play here! Raymond Wood and his hard-working team always manage to drum up an enthusiastic full house, and once again they raised an impressive sum for their chosen charity - nearly £1000. By way of a bonus, the band members are always offered a very tasteful and elegant selection of sandwiches and cakes, as well as copious supplies of tea and coffee - all in all, a marriage made in Heaven ...

Being such an illustrious and distinguished promoter brings its own rewards, of course, and Raymond duly submitted his list of requests to Mike Denham well in advance of the concert - and we even managed to include most of them. There was, however, one item that he wasn't expecting, and it probably deserves some kind of award for the longest ever delay between initial request and eventual performance! Way back at the beginning of June, at our concert in Stourton Caundle, Raymond happened to ask the band's staff arranger if the Stompers had Stars Fell On Alabama in their repertoire .... the short answer was very much in the negative, but through some mysterious subliminal process, this request popped into our arranger's mind a few days before we were due to play in Sherborne, and he was brave enough to dare to interrupt a doubtless fascinating Denham anecdote and ask for permission to try out his brand new and untried arrangement on the band (not to mention on the audience and Raymond!). Having received their parts, probably still wet from the printer, the band confidently launched into Stars Fell ... and hopefully delighted Raymond with a reasonably convincing performance! However, we do hope we haven't set a precedent here!

Thanks so much for yet another invitation to play for you all, and also for your kind hospitality, as always! We look forward to our next visit!