Variety show

Produced by Sister Anastasia from St Joseph’s Convent, the performances were ‘book-ended’ by the voluptuous Silk Road Belly Dancers and included a professional harpist, Margaret Watson, who played a medley of classical and popular tunes – at one point accompanying herself in a rendition of the wartime favourite, Bluebirds.

Jenny Felstead, a soprano from Slindon (and a past pupil at St Philip Howard) sang a caella (and brilliantly) the Fauré song Apres un Reve / After a Dream.

But the accent was definitely on variety, and included a recitation of a couple of amusing poems of Pam Ayres, a sing-along – on one night led by Liz McNally and the Amica Christi group from St Philip Howard High School, and on another by Mike McCurragh of Chatsmore High School – and compêre Johnny Ryan, who did a nice line in excruciating ‘shaggy dog stories’.

Other acts included rhythm and blues singing (by Harold Gibson-Bell), praise songs (by Rachel Fenuga) and the Flooti Tooti group of young ladies from Chichester – one of them wielding (in Over the Rainbow) the most enormous (bass) flute that most of us had ever seen.

And one night 12-year-old Calum McKay and his younger brother Sammie regaled us on the trumpet.

The proceeds from the three evenings amounted to £750 and will be shared between a variety of charities – from St Catherine’s parish and St Joseph’s Convent to an Indonesia Project, the British Earthquake and Tsunami Support, Music in Hospitals, and the local Diocesan Lourdes Pilgrimage Fund.

Mike Webber

Member of St Catherine’s Church

Littlehampton

• Want to share your views? Send your letters by email: [email protected] or post to Cannon House, Chatsworth Road, Worthing, BN11 1NA.