On a sunny Saturday morning on June 29th 2024, Shine Steel Band took to the stage for the very first time to perform on behalf of the Arts Fundraising Day for the Children's Hospice South West (CHSW). CHSW is an incredible organisation which is there to support parents and poorly children during some of the darkest and challenging times that they will ever experience in life. The Band is very proud to support them and we will do so again if we are invited back. Our venue was the Bandstand in the Royal Avenue Gardens, Dartmouth and wow, what a fantastic day it was!
After an early set up and with the help of a few fit and raring to go Cadets from Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, we lifted and shifted all our drums and equipment down to the Bandstand to prepare for what turned out to be the best time for us all. Thank you the Royal Navy.
After the Captain of BRNC opened the day with his heartfelt and well prepared speech, we opened our performance at 10:30am with that famous UB40 number, Cherry Oh Baby, the first one of many from our bespoke arrangements of Reggae and Ska. Our performance progressed with Bobby McFerrin's, Don't Worry Be Happy, Gangsters by the Specials and of course, Jamming from none other than our reggae hero, Bob Marley, plus many more.
The Band were sporting thier new sunny T-shirts adorned by some very highly coloured Hawaiin style floral garlands, courtesy of Debbie Lee, one of our two able Tenor drum players. Thanks Deb.
Our first performance has been in the making for about a year with each of our amazing performers giving their full commitment to weekly attendance, workshop weekends and individual home practice to reach this skill level. Big congratulations to them all for their hard work and staying power, you are all local heroes!
Everyone who was there had such a fantastic time and so much fun. It was so nice for us to see mums, dads, aunties, uncles, grandparents and children dancing and having a great time to our music in front of the Bandstand. When we had finished our final number, we were asked by Sue Tweed the Dartmouth CHSW organiser (well done Sue for a very succesful day) to play on for longer than we were schedlued for, which is great. We even took a 10 minute break to then go back up on stage to play through a few more. Yes, we were that popular!
Well done to all involved and big, big congratulations to the performance band of Shine Steel Band, Dartmouth for a stellar performance and a fantastic day. Onwards and upwards!
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