W.I.Centenary Celebrations

Tarvin W.I. celebrated the W.I. Centenary with a Glam and Glitz party on the evening of Wednesday 24 June 2015 at Tarvin Community Centre.

Everyone was in a party mood when they arrived and soon the hall was filled with glamourous guests sitting at decorated tables and conversation was soon buzzing. The bar was open, raffle tickets were quickly selling and when it was time to start the evening, The President, Irene Willkinson warmly welcomed everyone. All members, guest members from Christleton, Kelsall, Duddon and Clotton and friends sang Jerusalem. As it was a celebration evening, business was kept to the minimum and a cold buffet was served soon after.

After the tables were cleared, the speaker for the evening was Eric Newton who entertained us with a variety of stories about his 31 years as 'Life as a Busker.'

Eric grew up in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent. He was one of six children and he lived in a small house with his parents and his grandfather. He became keen on jazz music when he was 15 years old and it was his grandfather who bought him his first clarinet for £16. Although he was unable to read music, he learned to play 'by ear' from records by Chris Barber with Monty Sunshine on clarinet. Eric keenly practiced on his clarinet while his friends played outside. He played professionally in Jazz bands for 61 years, and sometimes played alongside Acker Bilk. Eventually, Jazz music was replaced with more modern music in 1962.

Eric had a variety of jobs including Trainee Mining Surveyor, office worker in a pottery factory, window cleaner, builder's labourer, wrestler's second, Professional clarinet instructor. He has busked in a great number of UK towns and cities, also in Australia. He was a superb entertainer, interspersing his stories with blasts of jazz music asking his audience to 'name that tune.' His talk was greatly enjoyed by all. A vote of thanks was given by Valerie Courturier.

After Eric had completed his talk he played background jazz music to everyone's enjoyment. There was great delight when the table centre-piece played "Happy Birthday" when the candles were lit.

The birthday cake,(made by Becky Williams) was cut by Jenny Moult (newest member) and Doreen Manning (oldest member) and served with a glass of bubbly. Everyone joined in to sing Happy Birthday. After the Raffle, the President thanked everyone for coming and the evening ended on a high note. Everyone agreed it had been a really enjoyable evening.

Should you be interested in coming to our next meeting, it will be held on Wednesday 29 July 2015 at 7.30 PM at Tarvin Community Centre, our speaker will be Tales of a Tour Guide with Lyn Hand.
You will be made very welcome and we look forward to seeing some of you.

Ed:"This sounds like a great evening of celebration, look forward to the 150th. Also in case you are too young to know Acker Bilk was the first musician to have a hit in the sixties!"
Here are more photos of this great celebration: