We are very pleased to be invited to entertain the staff and volunteers behind the Camberley Care charity at their 50th anniversary celebrations.

Camberley Care offers essential and safe transport for older people and those in the community who need support in Camberley and Frimley. Camberley Care's team of volunteer drivers regularly transport clients to and from Doctors and Dentists, Hospitals and Clinics, Opticians and Podiatrists, Day Centres and Nursing Homes, Family Friends and Social Occasions. They have been operating for 50 years in 2024 and their aim is to assist independent living, helping clients and their loved ones to enjoy life at home for as long as possible. They also offer a reliable and low cost handyman service for small jobs around the home.

We will be supporting Camberley Care as our local charity for our upcoming Summer Concert.

May 14, 2024 – Hampshire and Surrey Hills Men’s Choir is pleased to announce that their summer concert will be performed at High Cross Church in Camberley on 28th June to support the Camberley Care charity. The concert will feature guest performers, Cactus Brass, a brass group that will bring even more fun into a great evening of music and support for a very worthwhile local cause.

Camberley Care are a local charity which offers essential and safe transport for older people and those in the community who need support when travelling to and from appointments of all sorts. They have a team of volunteer drivers plus a low-cost handyman service and are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year.

Cactus Brass consists of 8 core brass players, and, like Hampshire and Surrey Hills Men’s Choir, they have an ethos of having fun as well as making good music. A perfect match!

The choir is also welcoming a whole new set of men into the fun of singing in a choir. The recent first “A Pie, A Pint and A Song” taster evening was hugely successful and as a result around 15 new singers are expected to take part in some numbers at the concert with the full choir. They are being coached in singing in a choir with a series of Introductory workshops run by the choirs Musical Director, Philip Viveash-Brainch, and are already sounding great.

Announcing the concert, choir Chairman, Peter Viveash, said “We are very excited about our concert in June. It is a great combination of new and established choir members, new songs, and a fun guest group all in support of a wonderful local charity.”

The Summer Concert is on Friday 28th June at 7:30 p.m. in High Cross Church, Knoll Road, Camberley. Tickets are available at High Cross reception or via trybooking.co.uk/DLUG.

Camberley Care

Camberley Care offers essential and safe transport for older people and those in the community who need support in Camberley and Frimley.
Camberley Care's team of volunteer drivers regularly transport clients to and from Doctors and Dentists, Hospitals and Clinics, Opticians and Podiatrists, Day Centres and Nursing Homes, Family Friends, and Social Occasions.
We have been operating for 50 years in 2024 and our aim is to assist independent living, helping you and your loved ones to enjoy life at home for as long as possible. We also offer a reliable and low-cost handyman service for small jobs around the home.

Cactus Brass

Cactus Brass began life as a quartet in 2002 in the Rushmoor area, rapidly becoming a traditional brass quintet performing both locally and abroad.  We now consist of 8 core players meaning that we can adapt to suit almost any occasion and location, from bandstands and fetes to weddings and formal ceremonies, and love nothing more than playing on a concert platform and raising money for charity. 
We are a fun group who enjoy what we do, and hope others enjoy us too. The story behind the name Cactus Brass is that, rehearsing in our own homes, we needed somewhere to empty our water. A readily available (almost dead) cactus became the obvious place. The cactus is now thriving but the debate as to whether it is because of the water, or our playing is ongoing!
 

On Monday 29th April we held our first "A Pie, a Pint and a Song" Taster evening at Camberley Heath Golf Club.  17 men interested in trying out singing in a Men's Choir, many for the first time, joined 24 of the Hampshire and Surrey Hills Men's Choir singers for a combined social evening and singing workshop. Two sessions led by our Music Director Philip Viveash-Brainch introduced the newcomers to vocal techniques and how to sing in multiple parts in a choir with some fun items and in the break between them the guests were able to quiz existing choir members about what it is really like! All this with a free drink plus delicious shepherds pie snack. Following an explanation of next steps, the evening was rounded off with a performance of "Londonderry Air" (aka "Danny Boy") by the existing choir members to demonstrate what you can achieve.

The newcomers are now invited to take part in six weeks of rehearsals, including further singing introduction lessons from Philip,  culminating in partciiapation in the Choir's Summer Concert on 28th June at High Cross in Camberley.

We were delighted to be asked to feature in the first Variety Show hosted by The Hope Hub at Camberley Theatre on Sunday 14th April.  We performed a 20 minute set including a variety of styles - "Puttin' On The Ritz", "Silent Worship", "Yesterday", "What Would I Do Without My Music", "Londonderry Air" and "When The Saints Go Marching In". Many of us were accosted in the interval to be told how much the audience loved our singing! 
Other acts on the programme were Rickie B, singing Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin songs, The Secret Stage School showing dance and stage skills, 4 in a Bar - a saxaophone quartet who guested at our summer concert last year, singer Bruno Santino with painist Joanna Monrtague-Smith, acoustic guitarist Abi Powell and singer Lizzie Brignall.
The Hope Hub is a registered charity dedicated to preventing and ending homelessness in Surrey Heath Borough and surrounding areas who we have been proud to support in the last year. The evening was a great success and raised around £2,600 for the charity.

On Saturday 13th April we followed up our successfull 'Sing Out' in Camberley with one in Farnborough Princes Mead shopping centre.. Once again we ran through a short list of items twice over the hour or so we were there, much to the enjoyment of local shoppers. A particular hit was "Puttin' On The Ritz", but we noticed a number of bystanders mouthing along to the words of a number of the songs such as "Don't Fence Me In", and "Molly Malone" . Roger Hacker and MIke Charlesworth did sterling work handing out flyers for our "A Pie, A Pint and A Song" taster evening at the end of April - so we are looking forward to a good turnout!

On Sunday 17th March members of the choir gathered at The Square in Camberley at noon and gave two 15 mins recitals to the shoppers passing by. As a nod to "Paddy's Day" we included "Molly Malone" in the set! It was very well received – lots of enthusiastic applause. Roger H and his “gang” gave out flyers advertising the Pie & Pint taster event. Some people actually came up to Roger H and ASKED for a leaflet. The ad-hoc choir truly enjoyed ourselves, and we are looking forward to introducing the shoppers in Farnborough to the choir on 13th April.