16th December - Ethan Ellis and Connor at Martin & Pole

It was standing room only at Martin and Pole’s office in Wokingham last night. The 16^th night of the Living Advent Calendar saw fantastic music from some very talented young men Ethan, Ellis and Connor, known as “Two guitars, a Cajon and a voice”.

In their words:
“Brothers Ethan and Ellis and their friend Connor who they have known forever, would like to play for you an acoustic set from various genres. Ethan is 17, Connor 16 and Ellis 14.  The boys will be playing a couple of guitars and a Cajon with Ethan on vocals. We hope you and enjoy it .”

For those of you who don’t know a Cajon is a six sided box shaped percussion instrument originating in Peru. They played a mix of songs including the Wham! Christmas classic “Last Christmas”.

Martin & Pole gave us a warm welcome with various snacks and treats, out doing themselves again. 

Again Wokingham Paper have produced an article on the event at:
http://www.wokinghampaper.com/wokingham-living-advent-calendar-day-16-martin-pole

Tonight join us at the Electric Tattoo Company (now Wokingham Laser Clinic) off Broad Street for another fab performance. This time it is Platform YP a local musical theatre school with children aged 4 – 18 singing.

10th December 2014 - Alex and Tom

Wednesday night saw us at Martin & Pole and listening to some very talented young men. Alex and Tom are two great friends who met at Reading School. They are aged 14 and they both sing and play the guitar. 

Alex and Tom performed a number of acoustic covers of popular songs including “Feeling Good” which depending on your age you might know as a recording by Nina Simone or a cover by Muse although it has been covered by many artists over the years.

Other songs included recent hits by Noah and the Whale and the Plain White Tees and to finish the set off “Merry Christmas Everybody” by Slade. The lads were a little nervous to start but soon warmed up, and the audience must have had a great time with calls of Encore leading to an unrehearsed but still excellent version of “Winter Wonderland”.

Martin & Pole kept us all well refreshed with mulled wine, other drinks, warm mince pies and other snacks and sweets. If there were awards for most effort made on refreshments for the WLAC they would certainly be high in the running.

Tonight join us at Antique Rose in Bush Walk for another fantastic performance. Tonight there will be some Drama and while the group’s name might imply a scare it’s likely to be more inspiring than frightening.

23rd December 2013 - St Paul's Church Choir at Martin and Pole

Merry Christmas Eve to you all,

Last nights performance at Martin and Pole was really magical. St Paul's Church Choir treated us to a selection of carols both well known and maybe not so well known.

An audience of around 50 braved the storm outside to listen to the carols including "Ding Dong Merrily on High", "Up! Good Christen Folk", "Past Three O'Clock" and "The truth sent from above". But a real highlight was the children of the choir singing "Away in a Manger".

Here is a little background for St Paul's Church Choir:
St. Paul's Choir are the resident parish choir for St Paul's Church on Reading Road. They are a robed Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass choir who sing for Parish Mass, Choral Evensong on the first and third Sundays of each month and also for all special services.  In recent years they have also sung evensong at Southwark and Canterbury Cathedrals and this year they sang at Bath Abbey and also joined forces with All Saints choir to form the highly successful Pentecost Two Choirs Festival in Wokingham.  The choir enjoy the reputation of being a very friendly and welcoming choir and are always pleased to chat to possible newcomers, adults and children alike.  They sing repertoire which covers a huge range of sacred music from plainsong chant through to some of the best 21st century composers and rehearse once a week on a Wednesday evening.

The below video shows a selection of clips from the songs including full length versions of "Away in a Manger" and "Once in Royal David's City"



 
Martin and Pole offered us a very warm welcome with refreshments including mince pies, sausage rolls and sweets for the children and most importantly shelter during yesterdays storm. Many thanks to them.
http://www.martinpole.co.uk/

Tonight we hope you will all join us at Wokingham Baptist Church on Milton Road for the final Living Advent Calendar performance of 2013. It looks like it should be dry, but if not we will be inside.

December 17th 2012 - "No Strings Attached" at Martin and Pole

For anyone who was in the town during the day yesterday and on Sunday you might have heard these chaps play already. But that didn’t stop them from providing excellent entertainment in their first performance for the Living Advent Calendar last night inside the offices of Martin & Pole.

Over 50 people watched and sung along to a series of carols performed by “No Strings Attached” a brass quartet of alumni Berkshire Maestros.

They may be familiar faces around the Town for they have been busking around the Town Hall every year for the last 5 at Christmas, bringing festive spirit to our Town Centre.

Playing for in excess of 10 years together from the beginner bands, they are now active Alumni members of the Berkshire Maestros, one of the UK’s leading Youth Music Organisations. At their peak in 2009 they were on average playing over 12 hours a week with brass, jazz and wind bands and in full orchestra, Major highlights included playing at the Royal Albert Hall for the Music for Youth Proms and tours to Strasbourg and Poland.

Chris (Trumpet) is studying Trumpet at Trinity College of Music London and has been fortunate enough to become the Principal Trumpet of the World Youth Orchestra.

Dom (Tenor Horn / Euphonium) is in his final year reading Classical Archaeology and Ancient History at Oxford University.

Matt (Flugelhorn / Cornet) is in his final year studying IT Management for Business at the University of Greenwich.

Nick (Trombone) is studying Engineering at the University of Cambridge .

Tonight’s performance will showcase a classic brass rendition of Christmas carols for a good old sing along and of course shout out any of your favourites!

And there were certainly some requests last night, including “Once in Royal David’s City”, “We Wish you a Merry Christmas” and “It Came upon a Midnight Clear” played expertly by the lads of No Strings Attached along with a few other festive favourites.

Martin & Pole, our gracious hosts transformed their office into a most warm and welcoming venue for the evening providing mince pies, mulled wine, sausage rolls and nibbles for the audience. There was a distinct feeling of Christmas cheer.

David Auger of Martin and Pole said -

“Congratulations to The Cultural Partnership and all the performers for bringing something different to Wokingham. Those who have ventured out to witness the many talents of local people will have been royally impressed.

The group No Strings Attached who performed in our offices and will be seen busking around the town over Christmas are four very talented young men.

 If you haven’t got out to see a performance so far I strongly recommend you do – I promise you won’t be disappointed.”

Martin & Pole are your local estate agents and Chartered Surveyors. Martin & Pole have been offering a full range of property related advice and services for over 160 years. They are Chartered Surveyors and believe that their first duty is to their Client.

 
________________________

We very much enjoyed the performance and are really looking forward to the next few evenings.

Here to remind you is a run down of where we will be each night until Christmas!

Tonight: Join us at The Dukes Head on Denmark Street for a magical evening.

Wednesday: We will be at Herrington and Carmichael on Broad Street staving off the cold.

Thursday: Another does of late night shopping and fine entertainment at Barbara Easton in Bush Walk.

Friday: Something classically Christmas will be happening at Waitrose.

Saturday: We are back to Waitrose for a modern and amusing performance.
Sunday: It's the Live Nativity on Elms Field (4:15pm and dress warm)
and finally Christmas Eve: Come to All Saints Church for the finale!

December 16th 2012 - St Pauls Choir outside The Roebuck

The angelic St Pauls Church Choir performed outside the Roebuck in the Market Place on Sunday evening.

The 24 strong choir performed carols including “Up Good Christian Folk”, “It came upon the midnight clear” and “Past 3 o'clock” to an audience of around 40 people.

St. Paul's Choir are the resident parish choir for St Paul's Church on Reading Road. They are normally a robed Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass choir who sing for Parish Mass, Choral Evensong on the first and third Sundays of each month and also for all special services.  In recent years they have also sung evensong at Southwark and Canterbury Cathedrals and last summer they hosted a very popular "Come and Sing" Faure's Requiem.  The choir enjoy the reputation of being a very friendly and welcoming choir and are always pleased to chat to possible newcomers, adults and children alike.  They sing repertoire which covers a huge range of sacred music from plainsong chant through to some of the best 21st century composers and rehearse once a week on a Wednesday evening.

Thanks to The Roebuck for hosting last nights event.

http://roebuckwokingham.co.uk/

Tonight you will find us outside Martin and Pole in Broad Street, although if the weather is particularly unpleasant we might be inside. Come join us, tonight you decide the music!