On what do we credit a concert as having been a great success?

Is it having a 'full house?' Is it because the delight and pleasure of the audience has been self-evident? Is it simply the sense of having participated in an evening which we can all treasure for years in our memory?

Well then, the Loveny Choir's Carol Concert at St Neot Parish Church on

December 16 must be acknowledges by 'One-and-All' as having been a rip-roaring success! For the lovely church was packed long before the concert was due to begin by folk who happily sat through the extra time, and still didn't want to go at the end.

Musical Director Mike Kempster had fashioned a programme which incorporated favourite Christmas items together with the unusual and innovative music from the Loveny repertoire which makes their every concert a new and exciting experience. Contemplative music, thrilling music, sacred music, and music which was simply FUN, it was all in the programme, and for those unfortunates who had been unable to secure tickets for this Concert, we can only say - get in early next year!

If this Concert is fast becoming a favourite fixture each year, it is in no small measure due to the two Loveny soloists, who now regularly grace their Christmas Concerts, Maggie Holden (Downderry) and Rosemary Turner (Tavistock), for each on their own, and in duet, they really take hold of their audience, who sit in stunned silence at the sheer musicality of their voices.

Stunned silence too, when the church fell into darkness, and Loveny presented their interpretation of the classic carol "Still the Night".

For all who shared in this emotional experience, it proved to be the very spirit of Christmas; and for those who did not, then don't miss it next year, for it is sure to be repeated.

JACK ROBERTS