Scotland Tour: Sunday 13th June

On the Sunday morning we met in the church car park before it started filling up for the Davidson's Mains service, and then we travelled for 3 hours to get to Charlestown of Aberlour in Speyside - Distillery country.

Like the previous day, this was to be another busy time with both the rehearsal and the performance on the same day.

The rehearsal was quite frantic as there was lots to set up - as well as a choir there was also a big orchestra - an amazing feat in such a small town. The orchestra was made up of a flute, cello, trombone, cornet, 2 violins and a lad who played both violin and saxophone (not at the same time). The cornet player was Shuna Dicks, who was also the minister of the church. At the start of the performance we sang three hymns too, and even more instrumentalists supplemented the orchestra.

The choir were wonderful - 25 strong - trained by Maureen Anderson, who was our main organiser for the event. The choir were supplemented by a few singers from Lossiemouth, which gave them a good preview of what to expect over the following days.

After the rehearsal we had an amazing buffet dinner in the cafe at Aberlour station, which is right next to the church. The railway is now disused, but the station still stands and has been converted into a cafe and museum. Last time we came to Aberlour we played on the putting green just outside.

In the evening we had a good size audience and it was a lovely performance. Devon was wearing a lapel mic, which stopped working half way through with a big bang. A lot of improvising was required with the remaining hand-held mics afterwards, but we managed.

Once again, huge thanks to Maureen and all involved with Rock in Aberlour - it was wonderful to be with you again.