THE band made a shaky start to this concert in aid of the Kidderminster Mayor's charity fund, making an error at the end of the National Anthem, and they didn't appear to know how to end Olympic Fanfare and Theme by John Williams.

However, they settled down and entertained with such numbers as Handel's Largo, This is my Story featuring Craig Stevens on solo trumpet, and Tuba Smarties featuring Stuart McMillan.

They also played Northern Landscapes by Peter Graham, which was new to me and most enjoyable, but Mr Graham's arrangement of Shine the Light was too fussy an arrangement and it was difficult to identify the tune. This was also the case with Tara's Theme from Gone With The Wind - I was straining my ears to hear the theme, which was hidden in that arrangement.

However, the band gave a superb performance of the theme from The Mission, by Ericonne, easily their best offering of the evening.

Popular local singer John Hutton entertained with Some Enchanted Evening, and an old song which it was good to hear after many years, Come to the Fair.

The star of the evening was Margaret Peters, who delighted with the classics, Don't Be Cross, and Cherubino's aria from Marriage of Figaro, sang duets with Mr Hutton, and provided the comic turn as well! She dressed in costume to perform No-one Loves a Fairy When She's Forty, and led Rule Britannia dressed in Union Jacks and wielding a dustbin lid and garden fork!

Ms Peters even managed to persuade several leading gentlemen of our community to don helmets and sing A Policeman's Lot is not a Happy One. The line-up included Kidderminster and Stourport mayors, Councillors Ken Stokes and Don Giles, the chairman of the council, Councillor Gordon Hinton, Charles Talbot and Supt Eddie Barry.

The evening ended with Land of Hope and Glory when the audience joined in enthusiastically. What a pity there was not a bigger audience to join in the fun.

VJS